DOMAINE DE VILLARCEAUX

MALINCONIA

SUNDAY JUNE 23TH 2024 - 5:00PM

Raphaëlle Moreau, violin
Alexandre Pascal, violin
Violaine Despeyroux, viola
Héloïse Luzzati, cello
Célia Oneto Bensaid, piano

TICKETS

PREVIOUS CONCERT

A journey to Italy, accompanied by Marguerite Canal, Jeanne Leleu and Elsa Barraine, all three winners of the prestigious Prix de Rome, to discover the works they concocted in the secrecy of the Villa Medici…

After Lili Boulanger, who paved the way for them in 1913, ten women would go on to win the Prix de Rome, France’s most prestigious classical music award, throughout the 20th century. Among them were Marguerite Canal in 1920, Jeanne Leleu in 1923 and Elsa Barraine in 1929. In their studio at the Villa Medici, all three could now “compose not in [their] spare time, but only, without worries”, in the words of Jeanne Leleu. It was in this cocoon that Leleu wrote the poetic cycle En Italie, from which the excerpt presented here, Les compagnons de Saint François, seems to beam with the serenity of Assisi. It was there, too, that Elsa Barraine composed her hitherto unpublished Pièce en quintette for piano and strings, at the age of just twenty-two. Finally, it was in Rome that Marguerite Canal wrote her sublime Sonata, a marvel of the violin repertoire that this great melodist allows to sing like a human voice. Dated 1922, this sonata is thus the exact contemporary of Jeanne Leleu’s Piano Quartet, a brilliant and previously unknown piece that earned her first prize for composition at the Paris Conservatoire, just before her departure for Rome. Plunged into total and incomprehensible oblivion, Jeanne Leleu’s career – like, to a lesser extent, those of Canal and Barraine – had yet ticked all the boxes of success: Prix de Rome, state commissions, ballet given at the Paris Opera House… The genius of the Piano Quartet makes this disappearance all the more unbearable today.

PROGRAMME

MALINCONIA

MARGUERITE CANAL (1890-1978)
Sonate
for violin and piano

ELSA BARRAINE (1910-1999)
Pièce en quintette
for two violin, viola, cello and piano

JEANNE LELEU (1898-1979)
Les compagnons de Saint François
(extract from En Italie)
from piano
Piano Quartet

Come have a drink after the concert and celebrate the end of the Festival with the artists!

DISTRIBUTION

RAPHAËLLE MOREAU, violin
ALEXANDRE PASCAL, violin
LÉA HENNINO, viola
HÉLOÏSE LUZZATI, cello
CÉLIA ONETO BENSAID, piano

RAPHAËLLE MOREAU

Nominated in the Revelations category at the Victoires de la Musique Classique awards in 2020, she won First Grand Prize at the XVIth Postacchini Competition and is a laureate of the Nicati-de-Luze, Or du Rhin and Banque Populaire foundations, as well as the Marcel Bleuestein-Blanchet Foundation for Vocation. After studying with Rodica Bogdanas and Suzanne Gessner, she was admitted unanimously to the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. In 2018, she obtained a Master’s degree as a soloist in Renaud Capuçon’s class in Switzerland. Appointed concertmaster of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester at the age of twenty-one, she has worked with Herbert Blomstedt, Jonathan Nott, Vladimir Jurowski and Lorenzo Viotti, and has performed at the Musikverein in Vienna, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Semperoper in Dresden, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the Felsenreitschule in Salzburg. As a soloist, she has appeared with many orchestras, including the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio-France, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, the Orchestre de Chambre Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the Orchestre National de Bordeaux, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Orchestre National de Metz, the Orchestre de Pau-Pays de Béarn and the Georgia Chamber Orchestra, under the baton of Myung-Whun Chung, Renaud Capuçon, Marzena Diakun, Bastien Stil and Simone Young, among others. Raphaëlle performs a wide repertoire, ranging from the great classics to forgotten female composers and contemporary works. She has premiered works by Camille Pépin, Clara Olivares, Thierry Hersant and Grégoire Rolland. She plays a Carlo Tononi violin from Bologna, generously loaned by Michael Guttman.

ALEXANDRE PASCAL

Born in Paris into a family of musicians, the young violinist Alexandre Pascal studied violin with Suzanne Gessner at the CRR de Paris and then with Olivier Charlier at the CNSMDP, where he brilliantly obtained his master’s degree with the unanimous approval of the jury. Alexandre Pascal is an active soloist and chamber musician. He has performed at prestigious international festivals such as the Berlioz Festival in La Côte Saint-André, Musique à l’Emperi, Schiermonnikoog in the Netherlands, Saint-Yrieix, the Flâneries de Reims, the Festival de La Prée, L’Epau, the Festival de Cordes-sur-ciel, the Festival Tons Voisins in Albi, the Tanglewood Music Festival in the United States, and also in prestigious venues such as the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées accompanied by the Orchestre de chambre de Paris, the Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Grand Théâtre in Aix-en-Provence, the Seine Musicale in Paris, the Nouveaux Siècles in Lille, NCPA in Mumbai and the Philharmonie de Paris. He shares the stage with prestigious soloists such as Daishin Kashimoto, Eric Le Sage, Emmanuel Pahud, Paul Meyer, Zvi Plesser, Romain Descharmes, Hortense Cartier-Bresson, Pierre Fouchenneret, Marie Chilemme, Lise Berthaud, Lorenzo Gatto, Victor Julien-Laferrière, and of course Aurélien Pascal, Denis Pascal and Marie-Paule Milone. Alexandre has a degree in musicology and studied conducting at the CNSMDP. He has also participated in the Seiji Ozawa Academy for several years. Nominated Adami Classical Revelation 2018, Alexandre plays on a Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume violin from 1852.

LÉA HENNINO

Born in 1991, Léa Hennino obtained her DEM with honours in Carole Dauphin’s class in 2008. A prizewinner in 2013 at the CNSMD in Paris, where she studied with Sabine Toutain and Christophe Gaugué, Léa also spent a year working with Japanese violist Nobuko Imai in Geneva. She spent two years perfecting her skills with the English violist Lawrence Power in Zurich. Recognised as one of the most promising violists of her generation, Léa Hennino has performed on major international stages alongside such renowned artists as Renaud Capucon, Alina Ibragimova, Hanna Weinmeister, Gérard Caussé and Clemens Hagen. Léa is a regular guest with ensembles such as Les Dissonnances, I Giardini and the Aurora Orchestra in England. As a soloist, she has performed Martinü’s Concerto with the Hradec Kralové Philharmonic Orchestra in the Czech Republic and Mozart’s Symphonie concertante with the Toulouse Chamber Orchestra. Selected to take part in international academies in Poland, Germany, the USA, Switzerland, England, Sweden and Spain, she performs in various ensembles in concerts and master classes with great masters. Léa has won numerous prizes in national and international competitions and is a laureate of several foundations.

HÉLOÏSE LUZZATI

A committed figure, Héloïse Luzzati has been involved for several years in the discovery and recognition of musical heritage. In 2020 she founded Elles Women Composers. The project is based on research into manuscripts and scores, which are the subject of daily readings. She is also the founder of the Festival Un Temps pour Elles and La Boîte à Pépites, for which she works closely with designer Lorène Gaydon, director Alexis Lardilleux and sound engineer Mireille Faure. She is also the author of most of the documentaries produced for Boîte à Pépites. With Elles Women Composers, Héloïse Luzzati works with a number of cultural organisations, including the Orchestre National Avignon Provence, the Orchestre National d’Île-de-France, the Abbaye de Royaumont, the Abbaye de Maubuisson and the Palazzetto Bru Zane, and hopes to disseminate the collective’s research and readings as widely as possible. A keen chamber music player, Héloïse Luzzati graduated from the CNSMDP in the class of Roland Pidoux and Xavier Phillips. During her studies, she also benefited from the advice of Philippe Muller, Marc Coppey, Hatto Beyerle, Alain Planès and members of the Quatuor Ysaÿe. She has performed alongside such artists as Xavier Phillips, Célia Oneto Bensaid, Dana Ciocarlie, Marie-Josèphe Jude, Léa Hennino and Alexandre Pascal…

CÉLIA ONETO BENSAID

A singular and committed personality, Célia chooses the repertoire she performs with care: American music (including her own transcriptions), French music, contemporary music and works by female composers all feature prominently in her programmes. A YAMAHA artist, she is the winner of numerous international competitions: Piano Campus, Fondation Banque Populaire, Cziffra, etc. She has been a guest at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Piano aux Jacobins, La Roque d’Anthéron, La Folle Journée de Nantes, the Grand Théâtre de Harbin (China), Salamanca Hall (Japan), Wigmore Hall (London)… A much sought-after chamber musician, she has performed with Renaud Capuçon, Violaine Despeyroux, Elsa Dreisig, Marie-Laure Garnier, Olivia Gay, the Hanson Quartet, Léa Hennino, Héloïse Luzzati, Fiona McGown, Alexandre Pascal and others. Her first solo disc, American Touches (2018), is devoted to Gershwin and Bernstein, and Métamorphosis (2021) to Glass, Pépin and Ravel (5 Classica stars, contemporary disc of the week on France Musique, etc.). She also took part in a monograph on the unpublished works of Charlotte Sohy from La Boîte à Pépites, widely acclaimed by the international press. In January 2023, she released the CD ‘Chants Nostalgiques’ with Marie-Laure Garnier and the Quatuor Hanson, featuring French mélodie, which won TTTT from Télérama.