Clémence de Grandval - Mazeppa (Mihhail Gerts)

Information

Composer: Clémence de Grandval

• Mazeppa

Tassis Christoyannis

Nicole Car

Julien Dran

Ante Jerkunica

Paweł Trojak

Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks

Münchner Rundfunkorchester

Mihhail Gerts, conductor

Date: 2026

Label: Bru Zane

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Mazeppa, a five-act opera by Clémence de Grandval, was praised at its premiere as a remarkable work likely to make a significant impact on the musical world. One of the most frequently performed women composers in late nineteenth-century France, Grandval enjoyed sustained success across multiple genres, including chamber music, oratorio, and opera. Despite its importance and being considered her testamentary work, Mazeppa premiered not at the Paris Opéra but in Bordeaux. The opera presents, in a concise and dramatic form, the rise and fall of the Cossack general Ivan Mazeppa amid the turmoil of war in Ukraine. Although initially expected to have a lasting stage life, changing musical trends and the composer’s death led to its disappearance for more than a century.

Clémence de Grandval (1828–1907) was a French composer and singer born into an aristocratic family in the Sarthe region. Raised in an artistic environment at her family’s château, she encountered prominent musicians such as Friedrich von Flotow, who taught her piano, and Frédéric Chopin, whose music strongly influenced her. After marrying Charles-Grégoire de Grandval in 1851, she studied composition with Camille Saint-Saëns and soon gained recognition for works including her Deuxième Grand Trio, a Messe, and a Stabat Mater. She later composed operas—often under pseudonyms—alongside instrumental and chamber music, becoming active in the Société Nationale de Musique. Honored with the Prix Rossini and Prix Chartier, her final major work was the opera Mazeppa, premiered in Bordeaux in 1892.

Estonian conductor Mihhail Gerts has earned critical acclaim for his precision, expressive conducting style, and musical warmth, establishing an international reputation through notable debuts with leading orchestras such as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Over his career he has conducted more than sixty orchestras worldwide, including major ensembles in Europe, Asia, and Australia. In 2021 he founded and became artistic director of the TubIN Festival, dedicated to the music of Estonian symphonic composer Eduard Tubin. Alongside his symphonic work, Gerts has extensive operatic experience, serving as First Kapellmeister at Theater Hagen and resident conductor of the Estonian National Opera.