Ronsard et la musique - Cueillez, cueillez votre jeunesse! - CD

2024 marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of Ronsard, known as the Prince des Poetes, whose poems have been set to music more than four hundred times over the centuries. This programme has been curated by Denis Raisin Dadre and compares several settings of the same sonnet by 16th-century musicians (Gardane, Lassus, Castro, Bertrand, Costeley) and by such later composers as Charles Gounod, Camille Saint-Saens, Paul Dukas, Maurice Ravel, Theodore Gouvy, Pauline Viardot and Arthur Honegger, all of whom were clearly seduced by the same Bonjour mon cœur and the famous Mignonne, allon voir si la rose some three centuries later. A truly fascinating playlist of songs inspired by a genius whose beau style bas, populaire et plaisant has stood the test of time. The musicians of Doulce Memoire re-create the Renaissance settings here, whilst singer Marc Mauillon and pianist Anne Le Bozec perform the songs of the 19th and 20th centuries.