Women Composers – Pianodao

The Women Composers Piano Anthology

Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

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
Find out more: About Pianodao Reviews

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solo piano is a landmark publication, brought to us by Hal Leonard, and delivering a selection of twenty previously unpublished works suitable for intermediate players, around Grades 4-6, arranged by editor Michael Clark in approximate order of difficulty.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

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…