Today, with the flowering of recordings aimed at rediscovering the buried treasures of past centuries, it is difficult to ignore the work of Rebecca Clarke. If you have not yet had the pleasure of coming across it, one thing is sure: you will not easily forget it!
The viola player Vinciane Béranger, along with Dana Ciocarlie, Hélène Collerette and David Louwerse, have devoted a disc to the works for viola of Clarke, who was both a composer and a performer – one of the foremost professional women in England. Her music, at the crossroads of various currents, navigates at different moments through French music, modality, British folklore, harmonic boldness and exoticism. There is, however, no pastiche: Clarke creates her own honey from these trends in order to construct a quite atypical language that is resolutely modern. From her masterly Viola Sonata to the poetic Morpheus, and not forgetting the trio Dumka or the duet Chinese Puzzle, the performers are keen to paint the musical portrait of this iconoclastic composer. The recording is enhanced with the world premiere of Irish Melody, a long lost score that was recently rediscovered.