Escape according to Bonis and Vierne

Trained at the Paris Conservatoire, then forced to put her career on hold after marrying a wealthy industrialist, Mel Bonis nevertheless continued to compose, as evidenced by her Suite orientale of 1900. Evocative of a faraway place whose exoticism nevertheless remains discreet, this score contains an elegant but not voluptuous "Danse d'almées". Unusually, it ends in a slow tempo, with a "Ronde de nuit" in which, as Mel Bonis points out, "midnight sounds in the distance". In a far more tragic climate, the night of death casts its shadow over the Quintette avec piano that Louis Vierne wrote in 1917-1918 in memory of his son, killed at the age of seventeen in the Great War. In this poignant work, the devastated father seeks to escape his pain: escape here means taking refuge in the memory of a happy past. By sharing his feelings, Vierne hopes to be "able to relieve and console the suffering of others".