Overshadowed Voices

Born in Guadeloupe to an African slave, Joseph Bologne became a champion fencer and virtuoso violinist at the court of King Louis XVI. Hélène de Montgeroult saved her aristocratic head from the revolutionary block by improvising on the Marseillaise, and went on to become the first female piano professor of the Paris Converservatoire. Grażyna Bacewicz put down her violin and dedicated her life to composition in postwar Poland. Their music is as rich and individual as their life-stories.

Joseph de Boulogne: String Quartet op. 1 no. 5 in G minor

Hélène de Montgeroult: Piano Etudes nos. 55, 62, 97, 101, 107

Haydn: String Quartet op.55 no.1

Interval

Grazyna Bacewicz: Piano Quintet no. 1