Women Composers – Pianodao

The Women Composers Piano Anthology

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Arriving just in time for International Women’s Day, the latest addition to Faber Music’s popular line of bumper piano anthologies focuses on music by women composers.

This is Faber Music’s second ‘women composer’ anthology, following in the footsteps of Karen Marshall’s Herstory, which I reviewed here. But while Herstory focused on forgotten classical composers, accompanied by its author’s teaching content, this new collection offers a more cosmopolitan range of music that encompasses contemporary styles.

The format of Faber Music’s Piano Anthologies will by now be familiar to readers, and I have reviewed the whole series here, so let’s jump straight in and consider the music on offer here.

Florence Price • Rediscovered Gems

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Florence Price (1887-1953) is rightly, if rather belatedly, recognised today as one of America’s most important composers of the twentieth century.

Price had some success during her lifetime, including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra debuting her Symphony No. 1 in E minor, marking the first major orchestral performance of music by a black woman. Several of her works were published while she was alive, but it seems her estate did not effectively preserve her legacy, and sadly most of her music was forgotten in the years following her death.

Then, in 2009 an unsuspecting couple renovating the property that had once been Price’s summer home discovered hundreds of abandoned manuscripts packed in boxes there. Bringing this wealth of music to a wider market has been a complex process, but with her music no longer in copyright, it can finally be evaluated and made more widely available to musicians.

Florence Price: Rediscovered Gems for solo piano is a landmark publication, brought to us by Hal Leonard, and delivering a selection of twenty previously unpublished works suitable for intermediate players, around Grades 4-6, arranged by editor Michael Clark in approximate order of difficulty.

Discovering Backer Grøndahl

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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As I write, I am enjoying the magical afterglow of an event I recently attended at the Norwegian Ambassador’s residence in Kensington. Organised with publisher Edition Peters, the evening celebrated the release of the first ever urtext editions of piano works by Agathe Backer Grøndahl (1847-1907).

The Edition Peters scores for both works have been published in association with Kode, the association of art museums and composers’ homes in and around Bergen, who previously also partnered for the publication of Grieg – A Piano Treasury, reviewed here.

Christian Grøvlen, who is Director of Music and the Composer’s Homes for Kode, and the editor of the Edition Peters scores, performed the two recently published works: the Fantasy Pieces Op.39 and In the Blue Mountain Op.44, introducing each with the rapt fascination and deep insight of a true expert.

While the latter piece was a virtuosic concert work in the manner of Liszt, it was the Fantasy Pieces that impressed me the more. While designating these miniatures “salon pieces,” Grøvlen highlighted Backer Grøndahl’s genius with the form, and her innovative compositional style.

I am surprised that a renewed interest in Backer Grøndahl’s music hasn’t come sooner. Enjoying the generous hospitality and chatting with other guests after the performance, it was clear that none there doubted that this music is of special importance and quality.

Chaminade • Album des enfants

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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I have previously heaped praise on the Schott Student Edition, a set of tastefully produced and superbly edited publications presenting core and lesser-known pedagogic repertoire in an attractive, affordable and contemporary format for today’s learners.

Designed for use in instrumental teaching, with titles projected to range from easy beginner music to more advanced repertoire, this is a superb series, and you can browse my previous reviews here.

Schott Music have recently added several interesting new titles to the series, and I will be looking at each in turn over the coming weeks.

One of the undoubted highlights, and the subject of this review, the much-respected editor Monika Twelsiek has selected twelve delicious highlights from Cécile Chaminade’s Album des enfants to delight today’s learners…

Fanny Hensel • Easter Sonata

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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With a reawakened interest in the music of forgotten women composers, evidenced by the numerous collections and books published over recent years, it’s no wonder that the music of Fanny Mendelssohn Bartholdy, later Hensel, (1805-1847) is enjoying a long-overdue renaissance.

Fanny Hensel’s “Ostersonate” (Easter Sonata) was composed in 1828, but remarkably, the recent edition from Bärenreiter is actually the first ever urtext version of this beguiling music, based on an autograph which was long inaccessible due to being in private hands.

Combining excellence with innovation, the typically superb Bärenreiter critical edition itself is accompanied by an included second volume, which offers a complete facsimile reproduction in colour of Fanny’s autograph manuscript.

Nearly two centuries after its composition, it’s surely now time to rediscover and celebrate this tremendous work, which is suitable for performance by players at associate diploma level and beyond…

Women and the Piano

The Pianodao Bookshelf

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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When I reviewed Susan Tomes’ book The Piano: A History in 100 Pieces, I concluded that it,

“… is quite simply an essential purchase for any piano enthusiast, offering as it does a veritable feast of salient information and insight into the instrument and music which we love so much.”

Those who enjoyed that book will undoubtedly be eager to read it’s sequel, and are in for a treat. Tomes’ latest book, Women and the Piano: A History in 50 Lives, is another compelling read…

Narcisa Freixas • Elementary Piano Pieces

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Previous titles in Schott Music’s Student Edition series have impressed, so with the arrival of the latest title, Elementary Pieces by the Spanish painter, sculptor and composer Narcisa Freixas (1859-1926), hopes for another worthwhile addition to the repertoire ride high.

In common with the recent Schott Student Edition of Amy Beach’s Children’s Music (reviewed here), and following on from her three graded anthologies of music by Women Composers (reviewed here), this new edition has been put together by British pedagogue Melanie Spanswick, who would seem to have made it her crusade to revive forgotten works by women.

So who was Narcisa Freixas, and what are her pieces like? Let’s find out…

Amy Beach • Children’s Music

Pianodao Music Library

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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Back in 2019 I reviewed an excellent edition of Türk’s Pieces for Beginners, which launched the new Schott Student Edition. It has been a while, but now Schott have launched a couple more titles in the series, the first of which features two collections by the popular American composer Amy Beach (1867-1944), her Children’s Album Op.36 and Children’s Carnival Op.25, together in one elegant volume.

Individual pieces from these collections may be known to readers from their appearance in graded collections and anthologies of music by women composers. How wonderful, though, to have complete versions brought together in this publication, which also includes in-depth background and teaching notes on each piece by editor (and well-known teacher) Melanie Spanswick.