BBC New Generation Baroque Ensemble, Ensemble Molière (harpsichordist Satoko Doi-Luck, viola da gamba player Kate Conway, bassoonist Catriona McDermid, violinist Alice Earll and flautist Flavia Hirte), marked International Women’s Day 2023 with a broadcast of music by women, including Élisabeth Jacquet de la Guerre’s cantata L’Isle de Delos and a commission from Sarah.
Sarah’s piece Rossignolet responds to the Chant du Rossignol (Nightingale’s Song) movement from L’Isle de Delos. A chirping falling fifth motif from the cantata is used alongside a French folk song ‘Rossignolet du bois’ in which someone desperately asks the nightingale to ‘teach me your language, teach me to talk, and tell me how to love.’