René de Boisdeffre Trios pour piano Kuklinski Samerek Mikolon - AP0446

Le label polonais Acte préalable poursuit ici sa redécouverte du compositeur français René de Boisdeffre. Cette fois-ci, c'est sa musique pour violon, violoncelle et piano qui est à l'honneur. René de Boisdeffre est un aristocrate qui fut parfois considéré, à tort, comme un simple compositeur amateur. Même s'il n'a pas fait le conservatoire, il a reçu des cours particuliers de professeurs distingués et a vu la plupart de ses œuvres publiées. D'autre part, en 1883, il reçoit un prix de l'Académie des Beaux-Arts pour l'ensemble de son œuvre de musique de chambre, ce qui confirme sa notoriété à l'époque. Assez conservateur dans son style, Boisdeffre a été surtout influencé par Charles Gounod, mais aussi par des compositeurs plus anciens tels que Beethoven ou Mendelssohn ; le très germanique Trio n°1 (1869-1872) en est d'ailleurs un très bon exemple. En revanche, le Trio n°2 (1884) est plutôt redevable à Bach. La Suite op. 83 est de facture très traditionnelle et reprend le principe de forme cyclique. Comme à son habitude, si la forme reste classique, ses œuvres montrent certaines aspirations romantiques. (Charles Romano)

René de Boisdeffre is a neglected composer from the second half of the 19th century, even if during his lifetime he enjoyed considerable success. The composer studied music regularly but not at a school. After learning the fundamentals of music in a family setting, René became the student of Charles Wagner. Succeeded by Wagner was Auguste Barbereau, who was restrained by his conservative stance but an excellent musical theorist. After a meeting with Saint-Saëns in 1862, Boisdeffre abandoned his second teacher and began an independent career. Even if his music owes much to a familiarity and understanding of the classics, it would be inaccurate and hasty to call his music conservative, with all the negative connotations the term inevitably brings with it. Such facile and hasty judgements are disputable; unjustified because in reality Boisdeffre, is a mature, coherent product of his milieu. Boisdeffre chose a path that passes not from experimentalism, but from expressive clarity. His melodic vein, never banal, is characterized by a great transparency, and declares an undeniable inclination to communicative clarity. It is a music made of cleanliness and order, but not for this ‘easy’: the expressive substance is always urgent and present but distilled in formal paths, clear, reassured. The economy of the adopted means therefore seems to be an elective choice, not the indication of a lack of resources, and allows the composer to turn to his listener with grace, in a gathering, interlocutory, lovable dimension.