MAINLY MOZART FESTIVAL - French Connections: Josephine Presented by Miami Chamber Music Society

Join us for a special event featuring a lecture, three short films, and a live classical music performance that collectively respond to Pierre-Joseph Redouté’s monumental three-volume set, Les Roses (1817–1824), which is housed in Special Collections at the University of Miami Libraries. Les Roses was illustrated by Redouté with commentary from botanist Antoine-Claude Thory, who categorized the variety of all roses illustrated in the work. The set was commissioned by Empress Joséphine as a record of her rose gardens at Château de Malmaison, while Redouté served as court painter to her and Napoléon Bonaparte.

This unique program includes backstories related to Les Roses, accompanied by beautiful imagery of Château de Malmaison, the historical French rose garden that inspired Redouté’s illustrations and eternalized one of the most illustrious love stories of all time, Empress Joséphine and Napoléon Bonaparte.

Concert Program

Camille Saint-Saëns
Le rossignol et la rose (The Nightingale and the Rose)

Henry Purcell
Sweeter Than Roses

Carl Maria von Weber
Ich sah ein Röschen am Wege stehn, Op. 15, No. 5 (I Saw a Rose Standing by the Path)

Robert Schumann
Meine Rose Op. 90, No. 2 (My Rose)

Mordechai Zeira, arranged by Baron Gottfried
Shnei Shoshanim (Two Roses)