POLIGNAC, ARMANDE DE (1876–1962)

Bruno Belthoise is a laureate of the Fondation R. Laurent-Vibert, and received a Fondation de France prize in 1988. He completed the Diplôme supérieur d’exécution at the École normale de musique de Paris in 1989, and was the 1997 Adami ‘Révélation Classique’. He continued his studies with Françoise Buffet-Arsenijevic, Bruno Rigutto, François-René Duchâble, Madeleine Giraudeau-Basset and Helena Sá e Costa. A soloist and founding member of Trio Pangea, he has had several works dedicated to him by contemporary composers such as Emmanuel Hieaux, Alexander Delgado, Sébastien Béranger, Bernard de Vienne, Fernando Lapa and Sérgio Azevedo. He is regularly invited to participate at festivals in France and abroad, and his repertoire spans Bach to contemporary composers.

Director of the Maison du Portugal André de Gouveia at the Cité internationale universitaire de Paris, João Costa Ferreira is a Portuguese pianist and researcher who holds the prestigious Diplôme supérieur d’exécution from the École normale de musique de Paris, and a doctorate in music and musicology from Sorbonne Université. He began his piano studies at the age of eleven at the Orfeão de Leiria – Conservatório de Artes with Luís Batalha. At 19, he left for Paris where he studied with Marian Rybicki and Guigla Katsarava, and became a pupil and assistant of the pianist Jean Martin. He went on to do his doctorate under the direction of philosopher and musicologist Danielle Cohen-Levinas, supported by a scholarship from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia.

Armande de Polignac was one of an unprecedented number of female composers emerging at the beginning of the 20th century. With training from the likes of Gabriel Fauré and Vincent d’Indy she was able to devote her life to music at the highest level of professionality. From the introspective early Préludes via the luxuriant Russian-infused Échappées to the remarkable sonic realism of Cloches, these recordings reveal Armande de Polignac as one of the greatest French female composers of her time.