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Messages - kaja

#1
Composers & Music / Re: Women unsungs
Monday 25 April 2011, 16:56
Quote from: Albion on Sunday 04 July 2010, 09:05
The chamber works are certainly worthwhile but mostly quite early, when Smyth was very much still a disciple of her beloved Brahms, and do not really showcase her individuality. Even the Mass in D, although an outstanding achievement, is largely rooted in Dvorak (another composer Smyth admired greatly). As she gained experience of the operatic stage through Der Wald and Fantasio she seemed to find her feet musically, leading to her first truly representative work The Wreckers.

Her Wreckers is a great opera. Too bad it was not staged at the Met instead of Die Wald. Nevertheless, Smyth holds the record of being the only woman to have ever been staged at the Metropolitan.
#2
Composers & Music / Re: Women unsungs
Monday 25 April 2011, 16:52
Quote from: Alan Howe on Tuesday 15 December 2009, 18:10
cpo plans to release two CDs of Dora Pejacevic's chamber music in 2010.

To my knowledge, the above has not been released. One disc is available  - mainly piano works - from the Croatian Music Information Centre.

Pejacevic is a major composer (both among men and women), best in her orchestral works: her piano concerto, her symphony, and most importantly, her Fantasy Concertante - an astonishing piece, really. There is no commercial release of this (or any other orchestral) work; the only recording I know of has been recorded by and for the Croatian national radio.
#3
Composers & Music / Re: Women unsungs
Monday 25 April 2011, 16:26
Quote from: jerfilm on Friday 22 April 2011, 00:23
Here's another huge listing of women composers:  http://www.kapralova.org/DATABASE.htm
Jerry

And also check out their online journal, downloadable free from http://www.kapralova.org/JOURNAL.htm
Some articles are on Kapralova, who was a major 20th-century European composer, but there are also some general articles on women in music, American women composers of choral music, and special features on Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Agathe Backer Grøndahl, Ethel Smyth, Amy Beach, and Jennifer Higdon.
#4
Composers & Music / Re: Women unsungs
Monday 25 April 2011, 16:20
Quote from: alberto on Friday 22 April 2011, 09:35
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.
#5
Composers & Music / Re: Women unsungs
Monday 25 April 2011, 16:02
Quote from: Hovite on Friday 30 October 2009, 22:27
Quote from: jimmosk on Thursday 29 October 2009, 21:46
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.