Women unsungs

[FBerwald]

The Concertstück for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 40 by Cécile Chaminade is wonderful. Any chance Hyperion might do it?

[giwro]

Mostly an organ/choral composer, but I'd add Germaine Labole...  she wrote some nice pieces, among them this organ Symphonie:

Prélude

Fugue

Adagio

Final

I've heard one mvt of her Tryptique which is nice also, and understand there is some nice choral stuff as well.

[eschiss1]

Re Labole, I believe the symphonie has been recorded commercially (by Julian Bewig on Classicophon) and is available in score here (may only be downloadable in Canada etc., maybe some other places, not US or EU, for copyright reasons, at this time) by the way - knew the name sounded familiar, unfortunately information about her seems somewhat scarce?

[Gareth Vaughan]

The Concertstück for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 40 by Cécile Chaminade is wonderful. Any chance Hyperion might do it?

It's on Mike Spring's radar, and will almost certainly get recorded in due course.

[chill319]

If I could pick the pianist to record Chaminade's Concertstück, it would be the redoubtable Bengt Forsberg, who seems to have a direct line to the composer's joie de vivre.

[giwro]

Re Labole, I believe the symphonie has been recorded commercially (by Julian Bewig on Classicophon) and is available in score here (may only be downloadable in Canada etc., maybe some other places, not US or EU, for copyright reasons, at this time) by the way - knew the name sounded familiar, unfortunately information about her seems somewhat scarce?

Germaine Marie Labole (b.1896, Bordeaux; d. 1942, Bordeaux)  Pupil of Marcel Dupré, organist of Saint-Martial in Bordeaux.

I have seen the Bewig disc on jpc.de, I have another of his, so I'm sure he does a fine job.  I u/l the score to IMSLP, so I have it in my posession 
Probably one  of the most unsung categories of unsung composers is that of women composers for organ...  not surprising, as there is a staggering list of unsung organ composers and music! 

[eschiss1]

Giwro, were you the author of the dissertation on Labole whose abstract I think I happened on (including a recording of the organ symphony, preceding Bewig's- still haven't heard either.) - when I was doing some brief research on her so as to improve her sketchy composer category page on IMSLP?...
Eric

[giwro]

No, not I....    My current project is a book about the solo Organ Symphonie, hence my interest in Labole.
I have found it difficult to get much information about her - not much beyond what I posted above.

If you do want to hear a recording, you can try the links in my earlier post...

[cjvinthechair]

Hello - don't suppose it counts really, but, if you've nothing better to do, look up on You Tube the channel of an Italian composer, Giuliana Spalletti. To my untrained ear she has some lovely melodies, not least perhaps the Allelulia.

[Peter1953]

Two  female composers who are better known for their piano music wrote symphonies .They were Cecile Chaminade, (1857-1944) Dramatic Symphony -" Les Amazones ", and Louise Adolpha Le Beau, (1850-1927) Symphony in F minor.
These works have never been recorded to my knowledge.

Re The Le Beau: You aren't missing anything. The symphony has not been recorded, and I do not believe that it has received a modern performance. After hearing her poor piano concerto I discussed the symphony with my professor who has seen the score. She has an amazing ear and can "hear" scores in her head, and she told me that it was not worthy of performance, just one giant boring sequence with no real development of themes otherwise. Le Beau was in fact jealous of Clara Schumann's success and her narcissistic complex seemed to, in my opinion, make her feel entitled to the same success without even objectively assessing her music and fixing some basic problems. I gather that Le Beau's cello sonata is the "best" of her works, which probably isn't saying all that much, but I am not familiar with it.

The pianist Ana-Marija Markovina, who recorded Urspruch's piano music, also recorded the piano music of Luise Adolpha le Beau. For audio samples see here

There has been some critic on the musical output of Le Beau (e.g. her PC and symphony). For those who can read German see this review

[jerfilm]

Here's another huge listing of women composers:  http://www.kapralova.org/DATABASE.htm
Jerry

[alberto]

If I am not wrong nobody has indicated the name of Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983; born Marcelle Taillefesse).
And, even if she was one member of "Les Six" , hardly we can consider her "sung".
Apparently she composed up to the age of ninety (so, she never stopped).
Just some months ago I could attend, for once, an actual  performance of one piece by GT: the fine (and tuneful) Piano Trio.
You can hear them on a double Brilliant Classics (with other chamber or solo piano works).
The Concertino for Harp and orch. exists on DG Galleria (and existed on a Koch).
Magical to me the Ballade for Piano and Orchestra of 1920 (I own a VOX LP, I fear never transferred to CD).

[TerraEpon]

The Concertino is also on an ASV disc along with the (John) Williams Tuba concerto, and Mayuzumi Xylophone Concertino...and something else I forget, I believe. Very lovely piece. She also wrote a reletively popular solo harp sonata (as far as the popularity of solo harp sonatas go, anyway)

[kaja]

I can't believe that excellent page has not even a mention of Dame Ethel Smyth

I my opinion, she is the greatest female composer.

Tons of major women composers, difficult to say who's the dean among them. The most important, perhaps: Hildegard von Bingen, Jacquet de la Guerre, Fanny Mendelssohn, Amy Beach, Rebecca Clarke, Ethel Smyth, Germaine Tailleferre, Vita Kapralova, Dora Pejacevic, Lili Boulanger. And Ruth Crawford-Seeger, for the near contemporary ones. And many more.
Anyone interested in reading well-researched articles on the issue of "woman composer" - you can download them free online: http://www.kapralova.org/JOURNAL.htm
There are also two important articles in this journal on Fanny Mendelssohn and Ethel Smyth, both by Dr. Eugene Gates, of Toronto's Royal Conservatory.

[kaja]

If I am not wrong nobody has indicated the name of Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983; born Marcelle Taillefesse).
And, even if she was one member of "Les Six" , hardly we can consider her "sung".
Apparently she composed up to the age of ninety (so, she never stopped).
Just some months ago I could attend, for once, an actual  performance of one piece by GT: the fine (and tuneful) Piano Trio.
You can hear them on a double Brilliant Classics (with other chamber or solo piano works).
The Concertino for Harp and orch. exists on DG Galleria (and existed on a Koch).
Magical to me the Ballade for Piano and Orchestra of 1920 (I own a VOX LP, I fear never transferred to CD).

Tailleferre is a major woman composer and quite a few discs are available. One of the most important ones - the Koch CD mentioned in the quote - has been re-released and is available, worth spending the bucks not only for Tailleferre's Harp Concertino, a magical work, really, but also for Fanny Mendelssohn's Overture. Other major releases: Piano Concerto, Flute Concerto, and Partita on Helicon Records; Harp Sonata and String Quartet on Helicon Records; works for piano and violin on Dynamic; two pianos and piano four hands on Elan; and Concerto Grosso for two pianos, singers, saxophone and orchestra on Elan. Most of them still available, I believe.