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Donald Macleod explores Mel Bonis's years of training at the Paris Conservatoire, where she rubbed shoulders with the likes of Debussy, and attended César Franck's organ classes.

Mel Bonis's name may not be a familiar one these days, but she produced somewhere in the region of three hundred compositions. There's no doubt that she was sensitive to gender discrimination. It's why she chose to publish her music under the name of Mel rather than her birth name Mélanie.

She was born in 1858 to parents of modest means. Her father worked for the watch company Breguet, still in business today, and her mother worked in the haberdashery trade. Neither of them held any particular interest in music, so it was down to young Mélanie to teach herself the play the family's piano. Her talent was recognised by a visiting friend who facilitated a meeting with one of the leading lights of the day, César Franck, an esteemed professor of organ at Paris's prestigious Conservatoire. Mélanie enrolled and showed great promise as a student, winning several end of year prizes. Her studies came to an abrupt end when her parents refused to give their consent to her marriage to a fellow student there, a poet, critic and singer, Amédée Hettich. Her life took a sharp turn two years later when, at the instigation of her parents, she married a twice widowed man of comfortable means. Thereafter her life as a composer had to take a back seat to the demands of raising five step-children and three of her own children with her husband, Albert Domange. Even so, she managed to continue to compose, producing music for her own instrument, the piano, and in almost every other genre as well.

Mel Bonis was just nineteen when she entered Paris's famous musical establishment. Her years of study there gave her access to a superior level of training in piano, harmony and accompaniment.

Près de ruisseau, Op 9
Myriam Barbaux-Cohen, piano

Pensées d’automne
Myriam Barbaux-Cohen, piano

Piano Quartet No 1, Op 69 – I. Moderato and IV. Final. Allegro ma non troppo
Mozart Piano Quartet

Villanelle, Op 4
Dès l’aube, Op 18
Valérie Gabail, soprano
Eric Cerantola, piano

Marionnettes, Op 42
Maria Stembolskaya, piano

Sonata for Flute and Piano
Maria Cecilia Muñez, flute
Tiffany Butt, piano

Suite Orientale, Op 48 No 2
³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Symphony Orchestra
Rumon Gamba, conductor

Produced by Johannah Smith for ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Audio Cardiff