Exquisite, alluring music. Beautiful melodies and heartfelt emotionalism.
We are looking forward to holding our Belle Époque Festival, from 24-27 November, at St John’s Smith Square. Come and listen to leading performers, including soprano, Véronique Gens, and pianist, Mishka Rushdie Momen, perform intimate and beautiful works from the Belle Époque era.
Musicologist and Historian, Dr Lucy Walker, talks to us about what the Belle Époque era was, and what to expect in this Festival.
Why should people come to the Belle Époque Festival?
The music from that period is absolutely astonishing - it’s exquisite, refined, and there’s lots of it. It’s just going to be the most glorious Festival.
What were the date parameters of the Belle Époque era?
Some people think it began in the 1900s, some the late 1880s. But the broad era is really from the end of the Franco-Prussian Wars in the early 1870s through to the start of World War One in 1914, when it definitively did end.
What do you think the key musical and cultural attributes of the Belle Époque era were?
I think some of the key attributes musically is this sense of refinement. They’re not huge extrovert works – there’s quite a lot of chamber music and it’s quite intimate – but they are works with heart-on-sleeve emotionalism. It’s a combination of extreme beauty, refinement, but something that’s held in as well, just being kept under the surface.
Is there a composer in the Festival programme that you’re especially excited about?
It’s wonderful to hear so much Reynaldo Hahn. There are loads of his songs being performed in this Festival and all of them are just beautiful. There’s also an extraordinary piano piece (Le rossignol éperdu) that’s rarely performed of his as well that is well worth hearing.
Reynaldo Hahn
Why do you think Reynaldo Hahn isn’t so well known?
He’s one of those composers that slightly fell out of favour after his death. His music was seen as quite conservative, and musical developments after his death moved on without him. But by the 1990s, people began to rediscover the sheer beauty of his works and make recordings of them. I think there is also this great nostalgia for this period of the Belle Epoque, and his songs are at the centre of that.
Are there any composers we are likely to have heard of from the Belle Époque?
Yes, some of the more famous composers from that era are Gabriel Faure, Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy. There’s also Pauline Viardot – who people may not have heard of – who was an opera singer and also composer as well, and he hosted these terrific salons, where lots of his music was performed.
Tell us about artists and writers from that time, and how they link to the music?
Some very well-known artists include: Gaugin; Renoir; Toulouse-Lautrec. However, writers were especially well associated with this period, particularly Marcel Proust, who, at one time, had been in a relationship with Reynaldo Hahn, and was fascinated by music.
What are you most looking forward to in the Belle Époque Festival?
I’m really looking forward to hearing Reynaldo Hahn’s songs, and his piano works. Veronique Gens is also one of the best exponents of 19th Century/ 20th Century French song, and she is just going to be glorious. To hear this music in this wonderful acoustic at St John’s Smith Square will make it even more special.
For information about the Festival and its performers: https://www.sjss.org.uk/whats-on
