WOMEN COMPOSERS

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

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I get the BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE every month. It always comes with a CD that’s part of the subscription that I have had for a few years. The CD’s have augmented the collection on my shelves to the point that I have had to make presents of boxes of CD’s to many musician friends. I hope they are as happy with my gifts as I have been listening to them.

This month I got volume 27, number 9 of the BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE COLLECTION. It features the Atos Trio in two trios: Clara Schumann’s Piano Trio in G minor, opus 17 and Fanny Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio in D minor, op.11 interspersed by Robert Schumann’s Fantasie in C, Op. 17.

The playing is lovely, elegant, sensitive to a fault, and technically flawless. But what made me sit up and listen were the contents of this disc: two works by women composers! Is this a complete rarity? Not really, but nevertheless in this case a welcome and respectful nod to two women composers that I would not hesitate to call sadly neglected.

I cannot recall in recent years of concert-going when the last time was that a work by either Clara Schumann or Fanny Mendelssohn was heard here in our musically-rich Cincinnati.

How about Pauline Viardot…Nadia Boulanger…Germaine Taillefere…Teresa Carreño…Agathe Backer Grøndahl…Ruth Crawford Seeger…Florence Price…Amy Beach…? Those are names to begin with. Contemporary women composers is yet another dry oasis left abandoned and unexplored these days by many a concert series, quite a few symphony orchestras, and even college recital programs – both those of faculty and students.

This is not a blanket indictment from my soapbox but a call to action to our fellow musicians. Go outside the all-male box and dig out the music of some of these wonderful composers!

Rafael de Acha     http://www.RafaelMusicNotes.com

 

 

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”

2 thoughts on “WOMEN COMPOSERS”

  1. Rafael,

    It is the ATOS Trio (not ALTOS) to which you prefer, and they have now played several times as part of the Chamber Music Cincinnati lineup of chamber music groups. I’m confident that they will return, at which time you will have the opportunity to hear them live.

    Thank you very much for your continued valuable contributions to music in Cincinnati.

    Best,

    Marty McConnell

    >

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    1. Marty, The correction was made minutes after I first posted this. You must be the first to get my posts, for which, my thanks!

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