Orchestral works (cd)

Elizabeth Watts (soprano), BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Rumon Gamba

Bonis: 3 Femmes de légende
Bonis: Suite en forme de valses
Bonis: Suite orientale, Op. 48 / 2
Bonis: Le chat sur le toit, Op. 93 / 2
Bonis: 3 Danses
Bonis: Noël de la Vierge Marie, Op. 54 / 2
Bonis: Danse sacrée, Op. 37 / 3
Bonis: Les Gitanos, Op. 15 / 3 (Arr. for Orchestra by Adolphe Gauwin)

Mel (Mélanie Hélène) Bonis was born in Paris in 1858 and showed a prodigious talent for music from an early age, attending the Paris Conservatoire from the age of sixteen, studying alongside Debussy and Pierné under César Franck. Her passionate relationship with the singer Amédée-Louis Hettich was frowned upon by her parents, who pressured her to marry Édouard Domange, a twice-widowed industrialist with five children. Bonis threw herself into her role as wife and stepmother until a reunion with Hettich in the 1890s reignited her serious interest in composition. She composed more than 300 works, including pieces for solo piano, chamber music, and over forty mélodies for voice and piano. As Bonis was too modest for self-promotion, and a victim of gender bias, her music fell into obscurity after the First World War, and she became bedridden from arthritis. She continued to compose until her death in 1937. Her orchestral output dates from two decades, between 1891 and 1912, and is well represented on this album.