Donald Macleod and Anastasia Belina consider how Augusta Holmès and Henri Duparc’s contrasting musical trajectories led them to study with César Franck, including the story behind Duparc’s rescued cello sonata.

Imagine creating a grand spectacle that demands 1,200 performers, along with the most lavish sets and costumes. You might think that the figure behind such an extraordinary achievement would have staked a claim on immortality, yet despite achieving considerable fame in her own lifetime, this is not the fate that befell Augusta Holmès. Over the passage of time her name has disappeared into obscurity, whilst that of her direct contemporary, Henri Duparc has grown and prospered. These days he’s regarded as one of the leading figures of French song, yet it’s still the case that relatively little is known about his life.
In Duparc’s case his is a reputation built on the slenderest of musical means, some seventeen mélodies. By contrast, Holmès’ l’Ode Triomphale, which was written to mark the centenary of France’s 1789 revolution, is the largest of a generous collection of large-scale orchestral works, to which you can add four operas, the last of which was mounted at the Paris Opera in 1895, as well as considerable catalogue of songs.

To shed light on Holmès' music, several of her works, including one of her symphonies, have been specially recorded by the BBC Performing Groups, as part of the Forgotten Women Composers project, which was developed by the BBC in association with the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Helping Donald Macleod uncover more about the little-known Augusta Holmès and Henri Duparc, is Anastasia Belina, a researcher with a particular interest in nineteenth century music and women composers.

Duparc was a perfectionist, who was often driven to destroy his compositions. Today, a chance to hear his only surviving chamber work, a cello sonata.

Holmès: Molto lento
Luigi Magistrelli, clarinet
Claudia Bracco, piano

Duparc: Sérénade
Le manoir de Rosemonde
Soupir
Wolfgang Holzmair, baritone
Gérard Wyss, piano

Holmès: À Trianon
Katherine Eberle, mezzo soprano
Robin Guy, piano
Holmès: La chanson du chamelier
Eva Csapó, soprano
Alicja Masan, piano
Holmès: Reverie Tsigane (piano solo)
Anthony Goldstone, piano

Duparc: Sonata in A minor for cello and piano
Alain Meunier, cello
Anne le Bozec, piano

Holmès: Ouverture pour une comèdie
Rheinland-Pfalz Philharmonic
Samuel Friedman, conductor
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