ELLA ADAÏEWSKY - RUSSIA
BORN 22 FEBRUARY
Ella Georgiyevna Adayevskaya was a Russian composer, pianist, and ethnomusicologist. Adayevskaya wrote vocal music (including choral works), chamber music, and two operas. She also edited a collection of Italian songs and published writings on folk music and the music of ancient Greece.
Born in St. Petersburg on 22 February 1846 as Elizaveta/Elisabeth von Schultz, as the daughter of the prominent Estophile of Baltic German heritage Georg Julius von Schultz. Adayevskaya began learning the piano in childhood. Amongst her teachers were Adolf von Henselt, Anton Rubinstein and Alexander Dreyschock. She studied composition with Alexander Famintsyn and Nikolai Zaremba. Adayevskaya was a pseudonym derived from the notes A, D, and A, played by the kettledrum in Mikhail Glinka's opera Ruslan and Ludmila.
Her earliest works include choruses written for the Russian Imperial Chapel Choir. In the 1870s she wrote two operas. The first, titled Neprigozhaya (The Ugly Girl) (in the composer's German manuscript Salomonida, die Tochter des Bojaren, Salomonida, The Boyar's Daughter), was a one-act piece written in 1873. The more ambitious Zarya (Dawn, German title Die Morgenröte der Freiheit (The Dawn of Freedom) ) followed in 1877; this four-act work was dedicated by the composer to Tsar Alexander II, but was rejected by the censor. Later, she embarked on several solo concert tours of Europe and settled in Venice in 1882. In 1881, she composed her Greek Sonata for clarinet and piano, which used quarter tones. In Italy she collected national songs, among others songs of the people of the Raetia region in quintuple metre.
In 1911 she moved to Neuwied where was associated with the circle of the poet Carmen Sylva and published many articles on folk music.
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Berceuse Estoienne by Ella Adaïewsky
SUSAN SPAIN-DUNK - UK
BORN 22 FEBRUARY
Susan Spain-Dunk was an English violinist/violist and composer.
Her orchestral works include the Suite for String Orchestra (1920), the Idyll for Strings (1925), the overtures Water Lily Pool (1925) and Kentish Downs (1926) and two symphonic poems: Elaine (1927) and Stonehenge (1929). The Suite was premiered at the Proms on Thursday 21 August 1924. The Idyll and Water Lily Pool (for flute, harp and strings) were both premiered at a British Women's Symphony Orchestra concert at Queen's Hall on 25 May 1925, and repeated at the Proms on 13 October 1925. Kentish Downs, first performed at the Proms on 30 August 1926 was revived on BBC Radio 3 in 1997 with the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Barry Wordsworth with a further BBC Radio 3 broadcast in 2001. Elaine was conducted by the composer at the Proms on 25 August 1927, and Stonehenge was produced at the Eastbourne Festival in 1929, and played again in Bournemouth in 1931.It was revived by the BBC Concert Orchestra in a broadcast from Watford Colosseum under conductor Anne-Marie Helsing on 19 January 2019. The Idyll, Kentish Downs and Elaine are mentioned in the book containing the letters of Gerald Finzi and Howard Ferguson (p. 12).
One of her most popular chamber works is the Phantasy for String Quartet in G minor (1915). An analysis can be found at the Edition Silvertrust. A recording was made by the Archaeus String Quartet on the Lorelt Label and released on 27 June 2003. A review of this recording was given by Steve Arloff. Another review was posted by Manor House Music on 21 April 2009. The autograph manuscript of the Quartet in B flat minor was written and dated March 1914 with an address of 49 Castletown Road, West Kensington, London. A review was posted in The Chamber Music Journal (Spring 2003, Vol. XIV No. 1; p. 2). More information about Susan Spain-Dunk's chamber music can be found in the book: Seddon, Laura (2013): British Women Composers and Instrumental Chamber Music in the Early Twentieth Century pp. 134–141.
Andred's Weald - for military orchestra (1925) – was conducted by Spain-Dunk on 28 February 1929 with the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra.
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