This Week in Classical Music: August 4, 2025. France Musique. Three French composers were born this week: Cécile Chaminade, on August 8th of 1857, André Jolivet on the same day in 1905, and Reynaldo Hahn, on August 9th of 1874. Chaminade’s music was rarely performed till 2020, when her importance as a woman brought her work to the forefront of the classical repertoire, both in live performances and on the radio. We think that in her case, there’s some redeeming quality to that burst of enthusiasm, even if it’s fading again: Chaminade was a serious composer, if not very original, and encountered difficulties particular to her gender: we should not underestimate the misogyny of the critics of her time. Her music was well-accepted in her time, and she was even awarded the Légion d’Honneur. She composed over 400 pieces, most of which were published. Later in her life, Chaminade reverted to writing mostly smaller salon pieces, which became popular in England and the US, where many “Chaminade clubs” had been established. She made a trip to the US in 1912, visiting 12 cities. Here’s Chaminade’s popular Scarfe Dance. Lincoln Mayorga is the pianist.
We find André Jolivet’s music more interesting – but of course, he and Chaminade shouldn’t be compared, as Jolivet lived in a different time, half a century after Chaminade. Jolivet went through phases: he started as a follower of Debussy and Ravel; later, after hearing Schonberg’s music in 1927 (a rare occasion in France) he turned to the atonal idiom, encouraged by Edgard Varèse, an influential French-American avant-garde composer, and later by Olivier Messiaen. During WWII, he reverted to tonal music and was quite eclectic later in his life. You can read more about Jolivet here.
These days, Reynaldo Hahn is better known as Marcel Proust’s lover than as a composer. Hahn was born in Venezuela, but his family moved to Paris when he was three. He started composing when he was eight. At the age of ten, he entered the Paris Conservatory, where he studied with Massenet, Gounod, and Saint-Saëns. He was accepted into the popular salons of Paris when he was still in his late teens. It was in one of these salons that in 1894 he met Marcel Proust, then just an aspiring writer. Even though their affair was brief, they remained very good friends till Proust’s death in 1922. Hahn was half-Jewish and became a vociferous supporter of Dreyfus during the affair that split France in half (the half-Jewish Proust was also a Dreyfusard). Hahn became a naturalized Frenchman in 1907 and volunteered for the army at the outbreak of WWI. After the war, he composed several of his most popular pieces: the light opera Ciboulette and the Piano Concerto, which was premiered by Magda Tagliaferro. Here’s the Concerto; the soloist is Angelyne Pondepeyre, the Orchestre National de Lorraine is conducted by Fernand Quatrocchi.
Three French composer, 2025
This Week in Classical Music: August 4, 2025. France Musique. Three French composers were born this week: Cécile Chaminade, on August 8th of 1857, André Jolivet on the same day
in 1905, and Reynaldo Hahn, on August 9th of 1874. Chaminade’s music was rarely performed till 2020, when her importance as a woman brought her work to the forefront of the classical repertoire, both in live performances and on the radio. We think that in her case, there’s some redeeming quality to that burst of enthusiasm, even if it’s fading again: Chaminade was a serious composer, if not very original, and encountered difficulties particular to her gender: we should not underestimate the misogyny of the critics of her time. Her music was well-accepted in her time, and she was even awarded the Légion d’Honneur. She composed over 400 pieces, most of which were published. Later in her life, Chaminade reverted to writing mostly smaller salon pieces, which became popular in England and the US, where many “Chaminade clubs” had been established. She made a trip to the US in 1912, visiting 12 cities. Here’s Chaminade’s popular Scarfe Dance. Lincoln Mayorga is the pianist.
We find André Jolivet’s music more interesting – but of course, he and Chaminade shouldn’t be compared, as Jolivet lived in a different time, half a century after Chaminade. Jolivet went through phases: he started as a follower of Debussy and Ravel; later, after hearing Schonberg’s music in 1927 (a rare occasion in France) he turned to the atonal idiom, encouraged by Edgard Varèse, an influential French-American avant-garde composer, and later by Olivier Messiaen. During WWII, he reverted to tonal music and was quite eclectic later in his life.
You can read more about Jolivet here.
These days, Reynaldo Hahn is better known as Marcel Proust’s lover than as a composer. Hahn was born in Venezuela, but his family moved to Paris when he was three. He started composing when he was eight. At the age of ten, he entered the Paris Conservatory, where he studied with Massenet, Gounod, and Saint-Saëns. He was accepted into the popular salons of Paris when he was still in his late teens. It was in one of these salons that in 1894 he met Marcel Proust, then just an aspiring writer. Even though their affair was brief, they remained very good friends till Proust’s death in 1922. Hahn was half-Jewish and became a vociferous supporter of Dreyfus during the affair that split France in half (the half-Jewish Proust was also a Dreyfusard). Hahn became a naturalized Frenchman in 1907 and volunteered for the army at the outbreak of WWI. After the war, he composed several of his most popular pieces: the light opera Ciboulette and the Piano Concerto, which was premiered by Magda Tagliaferro. Here’s the Concerto; the soloist is Angelyne Pondepeyre, the Orchestre National de Lorraine is conducted by Fernand Quatrocchi.