Gustave DORET: Quintette pour cordes et piano: I. Allegro risoluto e con calore – II. Intermezzo. Andante commodo – III. Lento e espressivo – IV. Finale. Allegro con fuoco – Frank MARTIN: Pavane couleur du temps – Fritz BACH: Poème: I. Jeunesse – II. Amour – III. Bonheur, Joyeux – IV. Douleurs, Tristesses – V. Luttes.

Adalberto Maria Riva, Klavier – Melos Ensemble Wien.

http://www.adalbertomariariva.net

Musical life in French-speaking Switzerland developed considerably in the 1880s with the gradual emergence of young local composers and performers.

One of these was Gustave Doret (1866–1943) who, after working in Berlin, studied under Jules Massenet in Paris. He settled there until the Second World
War, working as a conductor – in which capacity he gave the premiere of Claude Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune in 1894.

Doret is known today as one of the ‘bards of Romandie’, like Jaques-Dalcroze, Bovet and Boller. Although some extracts from his Fêtes des Vignerons, his incidental music scores for the Théâtre du Jorat and his opera Les Armaillis have remained in the musical memory of people in the region, other aspects of his production – in particular his few instrumental scores – have been overshadowed by the ‘popular’ aspect of his work.

In 1924 Doret composed a String Quartet for the Flonzaley Quartet, an ensemble established on the initiative of the Swiss-American banker Edouard De Coppet. At the request of a close friend, pianist Ignacy Jan Pederewsky, Doret started work on a Quintet for piano and strings, which he completed in 1925. The work is characteristic of his style; a dark eloquence goes alongside more serene moments, seeming to draw on folk songs as a source.

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