Emilie Mayer Symphony No.4 & Piano Concerto, etc.

[eschiss1]

the "fan" in question was someone talking on Radio 3 in an official capacity, I think. I don't believe it was you ?!?...

[hyperdanny]

oh ok, thanks Eschiss1, I was afraid I sounded too overexcited.

[Double-A]

I do not base my assessments on gender.

Gender matters though.  A male composer of Mayer's format would almost certainly have received job offers as a "Kapellmeister" or "Musikdirektor".  Mayer never did as far as I have found out.  Farrenc neither as far as I know (she was at least professor for piano though--even paid equally--eventually).  Amanda Maier stopped composing after getting married to Röntgen, possibly not entirely voluntarily.  We will never know how these composers would have developed if they had had equal chances with men.

Nowadays things are not quite that bad but the disadvantage is still there.

Also:  Gender is a crucial part of everybody's identity and will influence the output of an artist, even if this is harder to analyze in the case of a musician than of a writer.

[semloh]

Yes, I think we would probably all agree that gender can't be ignored if we want to understand why some of our Unsung Composers have been unsung. At the same time, as hyperdanny says, we should not care about gender when it comes to our response to music and its performance.
Back to Emilie Mayer! 

[Alan Howe]

Of course, while being thankful for the rediscovery of really fine women composers such as Mayer, Farrenc, etc., we mustn't fall into the trap of over-estimating or over-promoting others just because they're women. As with some of their male counterparts, there will be those who have been justly forgotten...

[Ilja]

Certainly. Although one could make the point that because of the prejudicial hurdles with which women were faced, selection was more strict; in other words, women that were able to establish themselves as composers tended to be of a higher average calibre than their male counterparts. A problematic consequence, in my view, is that because of those prejudices women were often more or less forced to restrict themselves to "smaller" forms of composition: songs, chamber music, etc.

[Alan Howe]

You can still be a great composer of songs and chamber music, of course.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I agree heartily. And - as has been said many times on this forum - with some composers the chamber music forms the cream of their output.

[Alan Howe]

Oh, what a relief to turn to some attractive music after the greyness of Rubinstein's Moses! Listening again to the broadcast of Mayer's 4th has me looking forward to the CD release - and appreciating the memorability of her themes and their working-out in the first movement. Wikipedia says this of her style:

Emilie Mayer was initially influenced by the Vienna classic style, whilst her later works were more Romantic.

Mayer's harmonies are characterised by sudden shifts in tonality and the frequent use of seventh chords, with the diminished seventh allowing Mayer to reach a variety of resolutions. One defining characteristic of Mayer's music is a tendency to set up a tonal centre with a dominant seventh, but not resolving to the tonic immediately; sometimes, resolution is skipped altogether.

Her rhythms are often very complex, with several layers interacting at once.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilie_Mayer

[Ilja]

You can still be a great composer of songs and chamber music, of course.

Certainly! If only Smetana (to name one example) would have stuck to composing chamber pieces...

[Alan Howe]

What? No Bartered Bride? No Vltava? Heresy!

[semloh]

... and back to Emilie Mayer...... 

[hyperdanny]

what a fantastic release: since I got it a few days ago I listened to it a few times.
In particular I find the symphony totally addictive, to me this work has more than a few moments of genuine greatness..so sad that so much of Mayer's output seems to be lost.
Also, conductor's Malzew reconstruction work strikes me as totally idiomatic: this is indeed the same soundworld of the other wonderful symphony released on disc.
The concerto is a little gem , too. 
All this said, I finnd disappointing that the darkly gorgeous Faust overture found on YT with same ensemple and coductor isn't included..let's just hope they're keeping it in the can to pair it with something else in a future release.

[Alan Howe]

I agree about the stature of Mayer's 4th Symphony (as reconstructed by Stefan Malzew). It's a magnificent piece - quite the equal, I'd've thought, of any symphony by, say, Mendelssohn or Schumann. It's memorable, beautifully worked out, inventive and exciting.

So: why shouldn't such a work be admitted to the standard repertoire? Well, we all know the answer(s) - the ones the movers and shakers give, that is. Oh, yes: here comes yet another set of Schumann symphonies played by the Toytown Chamber Philharmonic. Just what we've always wanted - one more pointless, anaemic-sounding cycle of an over-recorded corner of the symphonic repertoire. And yet here's Mayer 4: every bit as good. Maybe better. Especially for the jaded palate...

[eschiss1]

Even so, if Mayer 4 (B minor) and 7 (F minor) are recorded over and over at the expense of her other surviving symphonies, ...

(and even Schumann's original symphony no.4, and his Zwickau, and Mendelssohn's Italian symphony in its 1834 revision - especially the latter - haven't been totally over-recorded, though I sympathize very much, yes. Many recording executives complaining about the death of classical music aren't however likely to find selling another version of Schumann - may not sell well - selling unsung music - sells to niche/boutique/... submarket of niche submarket - more than a Hobson's choice (and Ian Hobson doesn't seem interested). So- I don't know (and I'm part of that sub-sub-niche-market- when I can afford to buy stuff at all.))