Compos(h)er

Marie Jaëll (1846-1925, France)

Les Voix du Printemps (1885) for Piano Four-Hands

2. Dans le Sentier

3. L'Orage

Teresa Carreño (1853-1917, Venezuela)

Le Printemps (Springtime), Op. 25

                 Happy Spring Equinox,  ❀                    ❀  Northern Hemisphere!

Elfrida Andrée (1841-1929, Sweden)

Visa en vårmogon (Song on a spring morning)

Yes, we’ve already reached the end of this fifth week on Female Composers at Musica in Extenso! For my final selection, I’d like to share a work of Croatian late-romantic composer Dora Pejačević (1885-1933). After a great hesitation, I couldn’t help but indulge myself in an orchestral work, her Symphony in F sharp minor, Op.41! 

Dora Pejačević dedicated her symphony to her mother, the Hungarian Countess Lilla Vay de Vaya, who gave her first piano lessons. Composed in 1916-1917, it was premiered in Vienna in 1918 and revised in 1920. This work full of passion and drama in the unusual and “difficult” key of F sharp minor is considered as the first modern symphony in Croatian music. 

(00:00) - I. Andante maestoso - Allegro con moto 

(16:04) - II. Andante sostenuto 

(29:02) - III. Scherzo: Molto allegro 

(37:15) - IV. Allegro appassionato 

Ari Rasilainen (conductor), Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz 

We hope you’ve been enjoying our latest tribute to female composers here at @musicainextenso!  For my final selection of the week, I’ll turn to French composer Louise Farrenc (1804-1875), whose catalogue ranged from solo piano works to full symphonies.  Unlike many of the women we’ve honored here throughout our female composer series, Farrenc’s composition and career as a performer seems to have been encouraged by both her family and her husband, who, with her assistance, founded the music publisher Éditions Farrenc.

Though she was routinely paid less than her male counterparts, it was the triumphant premiere of this Nonet in E♭, op. 38 (1849), performed here by Cappella Coloniensis, that finally gave her the leverage to demand equal compensation.

We’ve reached the middle of our week honoring female composers and it continues with another favorite of mine! 

Today’s composer is Maria Szymanowska (1789-1831), a forgotten Polish virtuoso pianist and composer─yet very famous throughout Europe in her lifetime. 

Maria Szymanowska made her début in Warsaw and Paris in 1810, and by 1815 she was in great demand for public concerts. Fryderyk Chopin, 21 years her junior was then student in Warsaw. In 1820 Szymanowska ended her marriage with the wealthy landowner Josef Szymanowski because of his reluctance to allow her to pursue music professionaly. She took her three children with her and supported herself and her family by concertizing, composing, and giving lectures on piano techniques. She toured throughout eastern and western Europe and met an enormous success. 

She wrote more than a hundred pieces, mostly piano works, including nocturnes, preludes, walzes, minuets, marches, études, mazurkas, and polonaises. Many of them were short virtuoso works based on folk melodies and dances. With her études she explored new technical possibilities later developed by Chopin. Today’s piece is her very expressive Nocturne in B flat Major published posthumously in 1852 and performed here by Anna Briscoe. 

I’m so happy to be embarking on another week of female composers here at @musicainextenso, and especially to be sharing it with the inimitable @compos-h-er!

For my first selection this week, I’ll linger around the period my heart has settled in most recently, as I prepare my students for a major Monteverdi project this summer, by highlighting the work of Francesca Caccini (1587-unknown), daughter of composer Giulio Caccini, and a formidable composer in her own right, though little of her work remains.  In addition to her opera La liberazione di Ruggiero, generally accepted as the first opera written by a woman, Francesca Caccini also left behind a collection of 36 songs and duets, Il primo libro delle musiche (1618), from which this song, “Nube Gentil,” (”Gentle cloud”) sung here by soprano Henriette Feith,  is taken.

Though very little of her work has survived the ages, it is believed that she wrote some or all of the music for at least 16 operas, besides being a highly regarded singer, lutenist, poet, and teacher, serving the Medici court.

Hello readers! 

I’m very pleased to announce that the 5th Edition of Female Composers is beginning at Musica in Extenso! And I’m really grateful to the staff for inviting me as a Guest Editor this week. 

I’d like to begin the week with a work of Luise Adolpha Le Beau (1850-1927). She was one of my first encounters with classical music written by female composers, after the better-known Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann. I ran into her chamber music by chance and fell in love at first sigh! 

Le Beau was a German pianist, music critic and composer. She studied with Clara Schumann, Franz Lachner and Josef Rheinberger. She wrote in many genres, including opera, choral music, lieder, orchestral and chamber pieces, and piano solo works. 

She won first place in an international competition in Hamburg in 1882, with her Four Pieces for Cello and Piano (opus 24). The judges were quite surprised when the name of a woman came out of the envelope. The “Herr” printed everywhere on the certificates had to be crossed out and replaced with “Fräulein”! 

The pieces were published afterwards and her Cello Sonata in D major (opus 17) was also recommended for publication by the jury. Today’s piece will be its second movement─Andante Tranquillo─played by Denis Severin (Cello) and Tatiana Korsunskaya (Piano). 

Nina Makarova (1908-1976) : Symphony (1938)