Au salon de Josephine

The musical culture that Josephine de Beauharnais (1763-1814), Empress of the French and Napoleon Bonaparte's wife, developed with her family and at court kept pace with fashion and even shaped the French musical taste of the period. Josephine organised weekly concerts at the Chateau de Malmaison, her preferred residence, that featured many of the most famous musicians in Paris and Europe. Informal musical soirees were also held on an almost daily basis. This recording presents excerpts from operas of the period transcribed for chamber performance, in which the most passionate emotions are expressed alongside nostalgic romances and alternate with instrumental works to recreate the spontaneity of a musical evening in Josephine's salon. This original project offers music lovers an immersion in a musical universe that is largely unknown to audiences today.