Album of the week #30: En Pleine Lumière, by Sandra Mogensen

Our new ALBUM OF THE WEEK is...

En Pleine Lumière, by Sandra Mogensen

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Happy listening!

About the album:

This first album in the “en pleine lumière” project features 10 composers born in the mid-19th century, including Mel Bonis, Cecile Chaminade, Germaine Taillferre and Amy Beach.

Women such as Clara Schumann, Amy Beach and Cécile Chaminade are now recognised as a significant pianist-composers, who also enjoyed international performing careers, but in the course of her research, pianist Sandra Mogensen discovered many other women composer-pianists who were well-regarded, but whose names and music are hardly known today. These include Mélanie Bonis, Helen Hopekirk, Agathe Backer-Grøndahl, Luise Aldopha Le Beau, and Laura Netzel. The piano music of these composers was widely known and played during their lifetimes, but for much of the 20th century, their works were rarely played. Now, in the changing climate of classical music, with a greater emphasis on diversity, these once-forgotten composers are being given the recognition they deserve.

AUGUST 19

CLARA ANGELA MACIRONE - UK
Born 19 August

More about her

Find scores by Clara Angela Macirone:

SUSANA ANTÓN - ARGENTINA
Born 19 August

More about her

Find scores by Susana Antón:

 Check here last year's composers of the day

05 SEPTEMBER 2019

AMY BEACH - USA

BORN 05 SEPTEMBER

Amy Marcy Cheney Beach (September 5, 1867 – December 27, 1944) was an American composer and pianist. She was the first successful American female composer of large-scale art music. Her "Gaelic" Symphony, premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896, was the first symphony composed and published by an American woman. She was one of the first American composers to succeed without the benefit of European training, and one of the most respected and acclaimed American composers of her era. As a pianist, she was acclaimed for concerts she gave featuring her own music in the United States and in Germany.

A member of the "Second New England School" or "Boston Group," she is the lone female considered alongside composers John Knowles Paine, Arthur Foote, George Chadwick, Edward MacDowell, George Whiting, and Horatio Parker. Her writing is mainly in a Romantic idiom, often compared to that of Brahms or Rachmaninoff. In her later works she experimented, moving away from tonality, employing whole tone scales and more exotic harmonies and techniques.

Beach was a musical intellectual who wrote for journals, newspapers, and other publications. She gave advice to young musicians and composers – especially female composers. From career to piano technique advice, Beach readily provided her opinions in articles such as, "To the Girl who Wants to Compose", and "Emotion Versus Intellect in Music." In 1915, she had written Music’s Ten Commandments as Given for Young Composers, which expressed many of her self-teaching principles.

Beach's compositions include a one-act opera, Cabildo, and a variety of other works.

Source: Wikipedia and Amy Beach Official Website

♫ LISTEN

Four Songs Op 29 by Amy Beach

➺ Find out more about Amy Beach

MINUETTA KESSLER -  USA
BORN 05 SEPTEMBER

Minuetta Shumiatcher Borek Kessler (September 5, 1914 – November 30, 2002) was a Russian-born Canadian and later American concert pianist, classical music composer, and educator. A child prodigy, she performed her first composition at a recital at the age of 5 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and went on to study at the Juilliard School in New York City. She composed hundreds of pieces, including music for piano, violin, voice, flute, clarinet and cello, as well as for chamber ensembles. She performed all over Canada and in Boston and New York, including performances at Carnegie Hall and The Town Hall, and with the Boston Civic Symphony and the Boston Pops. The New York Times called her "a rare phenomenon among the younger pianists of today – more musician than pianist". She also taught musical composition to young children, creating and patenting a game called "Staftonia" for this purpose.

Kessler made her U.S. debut at The Town Hall in New York City in 1945. She went on to perform more than 50 solo concert programs on WNYC. She also played at Carnegie Hall, with the Boston Civic Symphony, and with the Boston Pops. In March 1962 she performed in a program featuring all of her own compositions at the Boston Conservatory of Music. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation featured her performances in its Distinguished Artists and Masters of the Keyboard series. She was recorded playing her own compositions on "Music for Solo Instruments" (1978, AFKA SK-288) and "Childhood Cameos" (1981, AFKA SK-4663). She continued to perform into her seventies.

Kessler composed hundreds of pieces, including music for piano, violin, voice, flute, clarinet and cello, as well as for chamber ensembles. One of her most acclaimed compositions was the Alberta Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, which she premiered on CBC Radio in 1947 and went on to perform with orchestras across Canada and in Boston. In 1975 she performed the piece with the Century Calgary Symphony Orchestra in honor of Calgary's centennial celebrations.

Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia and Wikipedia

♫ LISTEN

Lake O'Hara Fantasy by Minuetta Kessler

➺ Find out more about Minuetta Kessler