As part of the Folies Parisiennes series, the Palazzetto Bru Zane will host the chamber music concert Beneath the Mask on October 9, 2025. Pianist Jean-Baptiste Doulcet will present a program of works by Chaminade, Chopin, Bonis, Fauré, and Déodat de Séverac, exploring the evocative world of salon dances as reimagined by French Romantic composers.
In the 19th century, the waltz, mazurka, and barcarolle moved from the dance floor into the salon, no longer written to be danced, but rather to conjure the spirit of social gatherings through the keyboard. Chopin’s mazurkas and waltzes, suffused with both melancholy and brilliance, inspired French composers to treat these forms as vehicles for poetic expression. Fauré and Séverac transformed familiar rhythms into works of elegance and introspection, balancing intimacy with refinement.
Women composers, too, played a significant role in this tradition. Cécile Chaminade infused her piano pieces with carnival atmospheres and sparkling waltzes, blending charm with subtle irony. Mel Bonis, from her Parisian vantage point, dreamed of faraway worlds: a Venetian barcarolle, a Polish dance, the exotic filtered through imagination and nostalgia.
In Beneath the Mask, these works reveal a hidden emotional depth behind their graceful surfaces. The elegance of rhythm often conceals a yearning for vanished times, an attempt to hold on to fleeting moments of beauty and sociability. With sensitivity and virtuosity, Jean-Baptiste Doulcet invites listeners to rediscover a repertoire where lightness, memory, and longing intertwine.
Website: www.bru-zane.com
Location: Palazzetto Bru Zane, Venice
Schedule: October 9, 2025
