Ensemble arabesques

»That a musician of the rank of Mr Gouvy should still be so little known in Paris, while swarms of mosquitoes harass the public with their persistent buzzing, must astound and outrage naive minds,« wrote Hector Berlioz in 1851. The reason why Gouvy’s work was almost completely forgotten for a century is probably his position between cultures: an Alsatian at a time when there was great tension between France and Germany. At the same time, Emil Hartmann, who was considered eccentric and temperamental, was working in Denmark as a composer of operas, ballets, symphonic music and chamber music, into which he interwove elements of popular Scandinavian melodies.