Cataloguing the collection of Caroline Boissier-Butini (1786-1836) at the Bibliothèque de Genève

Monday, May 1, 2023

The Geneva composer Caroline Boissier-Butini (1786-1836) is an exceptional figure in the Swiss musical landscape. Thanks to the opportunities afforded by her upper-class origins, she had the freedom to pursue her talents and composed some thirty works, most of them with, or for, piano, among them six piano concertos. She passed on her enthusiasm for music to her daughter, Valérie Boissier-de Gasparin, a pupil of Liszt during his Paris years. The composer’s entire compositional output—some of her works are unfortunately incomplete—is kept in the family archives at the Bibliothèque de Genève and has been made known to the public through publications and performances, primarily through the work of Irène Minder-Jeanneret and the Association Caroline Boissier-Butini . The library has commendably digitized the collection in its entirety. RISM now includes the autograph manuscripts in its catalogue of sources.

Picture: Portrait of Caroline Boissier-Butini (1807, private collection) by Firmin Massot (1766-1849). Photo: Monique Bernaz, Bibliothèque de Genève.