Au salon de Joséphine

The musical culture that Joséphine de Beauharnais (1763-1814), Empress of the French and wife of Napoleon Bonaparte, developed with her family and at court kept pace with fashion and even determined French musical taste of that time. Joséphine organized weekly concerts at the Château de Malmaison, her favorite residence, where many of the most famous musicians of Paris and Europe performed. There were also almost daily informal musical evenings. This recording contains fragments from operas of that era, transcribed for chamber music performances, depicting the most passionate emotions alongside nostalgic romances and interspersed with instrumental works to recreate the spontaneity of a musical evening in Joséphine's salon. This original project offers music lovers an immersion in a musical universe that is largely unknown to today's audience.