CHÂTEAU DE VIGNY, Park
HORIZONS ROMANTIQUESString quintets by Farrenc and Le Beau
SATURDAY, JUNE 28TH 2025 - 18:00
Quatuor Hanson
Anton Hanson, violin
Jules Dussap, violin
Gabrielle Lafait, violin
Simon Dechambre, cello
Héloïse Luzzati, cello
In the park of the magical Château de Vigny, Quatuor Hanson and cellist Héloïse Luzzati reveal two previously unpublished string quintets by two of the most famous female composers of the 19th century: French Louise Farrenc and German Luise Adolpha Le Beau. Two great Romantic chamber works with lavish writing ; Farrenc’s solemn, Le Beau’s melancholy.
Almost fifty years apart, the careers of Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) and Luise Adolpha Le Beau (1850-1927) illustrate the path of a successful 19th-century professional composer: Recognized by their peers (Farrenc was awarded the Prix Chartier, Le Beau was made an honorary member of the Salzburg Mozarteum), both composed a substantial symphonic output (Farrenc three symphonies, Le Beau a piano concerto and a symphony), as well as a fascinating chamber music corpus, including their string quintets. Le Beau’s quintet, composed in 1900, is a mature work, and was notably performed in concert at Baden-Baden. Farrenc’s is an adaptation of the Nonette for strings and wind instruments, and one of the composer’s few works that are still unpublished today. The words of the Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris, written in 1875 on Farrenc’s death, could just as well have been applied to Le Beau: “if the general public is unaware of her name, it is up to the artists, who know what this eminent woman was worth, to pay tribute to her in the most useful way for her memory, that is, by making the creations of this distinguished mind heard from time to time”.
PROGRAMME
HORIZONS ROMANTIQUES
LOUISE FARRENC (1804-1875)
String quintet op. 38 in E-flat major
LUISE ADOLPHA LE BEAU (1850-1927)
String quintet op. 54
ARTISTS
QUATUOR HANSON
HÉLOÏSE LUZZATI
Héloïse Luzzati is founder and director of the Cité des Compositrices. After her studies at the CNSMDP, she played in orchestras such as Les Dissonances, the Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris and the Orchestre National de France. In 2020, she founded the video channel La Boîte à Pépites, for which she writes and directs documentaries on female composers. A few months later, she launched the Festival Un Temps pour Elles, followed by its digital counterpart, the La Boîte à Pépites Advent Calendar. La Boîte à Pépites became a record label in 2022, with a highly successful first release devoted to Charlotte Sohy. A sheet music publishing house, La Boîte à Pépites Pubslihing, was created in its wake in 2023. Now internationally recognized for her expertise on women composers, Héloïse Luzzati collaborates with the most prestigious cultural institutions as part of the Cité des Compositrices initiatives: Bibliothèque nationale de France, Musée d’Orsay, Philharmonie de Paris, Abbaye de Royaumont… A passionate chamber musician, Héloïse also pursues her career as a cellist alongside such performers as Xavier Phillips, Célia Oneto Bensaid, David Kadouch, Raphaëlle Moreau, Manon Galy, Léa Hennino, Elsa Dreisig… Recognized for her work in favor of greater equality in musical programming, Héloïse Luzzati was named one of the “100 Women of Culture” in 2022, and was named “Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres” by the French Ministry of Culture.
HAVE YOU HEARD OF LOUISE FARRENC ?
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