René de Boisdeffre Œuvres pour violon et piano vol 2 Kacprzak Mikolon - AP0513

Pas à pas, le label polonais Acte Préalable reconstitue méthodiquement le legs musical de René de Boisdeffre, compositeur français du XIXème siècle, contemporain de Charles Gounod et de Jules Massenet, deux maîtres qu’il chérissait particulièrement. L’œuvre instrumentale et chambriste de Boisdeffre est riche d’une soixantaine d’œuvres, de facture classique, où abondent nombre de miniatures ; Son répertoire, dominé par un langage harmonique clair et harmonieux, ne trouve guère de défenseurs de nos jours en France. Pourtant, les formations chambristes hexagonales auraient intérêt à intégrer dans leur programme les œuvres d’un compositeur qui fait honneur à notre patrimoine national. D’autant que ses pièces, d’un format assez court peuvent facilement trouver leur place au concert. Ses délicieuses berceuses, ses élégiaques romances et ses juvéniles sérénades conservent un pouvoir de séduction immédiat. Pièce maîtresse de ce disque, la troisième sonate pour violon et piano puise directement son inspiration aux sources du romantisme ; ses accents lyriques témoignent d’une belle créativité mélodique. Grâce soit rendue au duo polonais Andrej Kacprzack (violon) et Anna Mikolon (piano) d’avoir réhabilité avec talent la mémoire de ce compositeur si attachant ! (Jacques Potard)

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.