Rita Strohl (real name: Marguerite La Rousse la Villette, 1865-1941) was a French pianist and composer. She was considered highly talented at a young age and was admitted to the Paris Conservatory at the age of thirteen.
Rita Strohl composed various lyrical, symphonic and chamber music
pieces. She was celebrated by Camille Saint-Saëns, Vincent d'Indy and
Gabriel Fauré. Jane Bathori sang her twelve songs Bilitis to the
libretto of Pierre Louÿs, and Pablo Casals played her music. Her
withdrawal from Parisian society meant that most of her works were never
published or recorded.
She married in 1888 a naval officer, Emile Strohl, with whom she had four children, but she lost her husband in 1900. Around 1903 she met René Billa, known as Richard Burgsthal (1884-1944), a musician and artist whom she married in 1908. Together they conceived the construction of a "little Bayreuth", in Bièvres in the Essonne, intended to accommodate her monumental lyrical frescoes, between opera and oratorio, composed between 1904 and 1923 on her own librettos: a Christian cycle, a Celtic cycle and a Hindu cycle. The project was interrupted by the war and then abandoned for lack of funds.
After her death, she was almost forgotten. Her music has become more popular in recent years, but is still virtually unknown, despite the high quality of the rediscovered works (including the sonata for cello and piano Titus and Berenice).
The score of the cello sonata is headed by the following synopsis: “Titus, who passionately loved Berenice and who was widely thought to have promised to marry her, sent her from Rome, in spite of himself and in spite of herself, in the early days of his empire.” The special feature of this work published in 1892 is that it combines
the traditional genre of the sonata with a narrative process. The
“dramatic” score tells the story of Titus and Berenice, based on
quotations from Racine’s tragedy Bérénice (1670). Each of its movements
depicts a stage in the narrative rather than a continuous
action. The work is distinguished by contrasts and a great expressive
range, obtained through ample textures and varied styles.
The Grande Sonate Dramatique "Titus et Bérénice" has 4 movements and is here played by Hermine HORIOT, violoncelle and Hélène FOUQUART, piano.
Bonus: Rita STROHL, Solitude - played by Hermine Horiot, cello & Hélène Fouquart, piano