Proposal for a CD dedicated to a forgotten female composer

[Aramiarz]

Dear friends, please , can you help us giving options?/
And, Why his choice?

[jdperdrix]

I'd suggest Marie Jaëll's piano concertos. They deserve a recording on CD.

[giles.enders]

Have you a record company/pianist/ orchestra in mind ?  Before anyone starts dreaming they, need to know where the parts are and the likely sources for funding.  I believe Jaell's piano concertos have been recorded in the distant past.

[Gareth Vaughan]

I would suggest devoting a CD to Dora Bright. Her two extant concertante works for piano & orchestra are available in MS at the RAM - Piano Concerto No. 1 in A minor (MS Full Score - I have a feeling Lewis Foreman may have prepared a clean copy and set of parts a long time ago when Lyrita were contemplating a recording, though I may be mistaken here) and Variations for piano & orchestra (MS Full Score & parts). Unfortunately, her other orchestral works (including 2nd PC in D minor, Fantasia in G minor for piano & orchestra, and Suite for piano & orchestra) all seem to be lost. The disk could be completed by the Variations on an Original Theme of Sir G.A. McFarren's for two pianos which was a popular work in its day and exists in a printed version by Edwin Ashdown (n.d.) held at RAM, and has also been reissued in a modern edition by Hildegard Publishing. The Bodleian Library also has the 2 pieces for cello & piano (1934) - 1. Das Fischermädchen (A melody by Meyerbeer). 2. Polka à la Strauss - whereas BL has only the second of these.

[JimL]

Both of Marie Jaëll's piano concertos (No. 1 in D minor and No. 2 in C minor) were recently performed and broadcast.  We have them in our archives, and I have them in my iTunes.  A CD would be nice, though.  Perhaps Hyperion, on the RPCS?

[Aramiarz]

The project will be with the OSSLP. Thank you for set the Correct name in this new topic. Jäell was recorded. Other option? Dora Bright will be "easy" get the scores and maybe parts?

[Gareth Vaughan]

It is worth noting that the British pianist, Samantha Ward, has performed both of Dora Bright's extant concertante works for piano & orchestra (the PC and Variations) in concert at Morley College recently (though the audience cannot have been large and the concert was poorly advertised). She would be worth approaching, and would certainly know about the parts for the PC.
http://www.samanthaward.org/

[minacciosa]

Suggestions: Radie Britain, Johanna Senftner, Maria Bach, Grace Williams.

[Alan Howe]

Apart from Senfter (not Senftner), I can't imagine that the other composers would be of interest to Sterling and their predominant focus upon romantic music.

I would strong suggest Emilie Mayer - absolutely the right sort of composer for Sterling:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emilie_Mayer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Emilie_Mayer
http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.6_%28Mayer,_Emilie%29
http://www.unsungcomposers.com/forum/index.php/topic,1740.0.html

[Alan Howe]

Aramiarz: try these three lovely works by Emilie Mayer, all available on YouTube:
Faust Overture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWGu3tntNoo
Piano Concerto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjF5LS4FmRE
Symphony No.4 (reconstructed by conductor Stefan Malzew from the piano duet version):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnVJJvcFQqc

They would make a great CD!

[Gareth Vaughan]

They would, I agree. But Dora Bright was British, and our own Romantics get little enough recognition, so I shall bang the drum for Britain. Three cheers for Dora!

[eschiss1]

How about Dorothy G. Howell? We've had a piece or two of hers uploaded here. Died in 1982 but some of her most famous works (Lamia, particularly) were composed around WW I...

[Alan Howe]

I'm only banging the drum for Mayer because I know the music. I've no idea how good Bright's work is...

[Gareth Vaughan]

Dutton brought out a disk some years ago of Dorothy Howell's chamber & piano music. Cameo released a recording they made of her Piano Concerto at a concert in London which I organised. Her splendid tone poem "Lamia" was played at the proms five (I think) years back but has not been recorded. There is another tone poem, "The Rock" (about Gibraltar) and a ballet; but that's it as far as orchestral music goes. A projected symphony remains only as fragments, alas - according to her niece, who has all Dorothy's extant scores.

[vicharris]

Has anyone ever found a score for the piano concerto by Ingeborg Starck von Bronsart? It seems there was some mention of a search for it previously. Also, though the only mention I have ever seen of a piano concerto by Louise Farrenc was in the International Cyclopedia of Woman composers by Aaron Cohen, I wonder if anyone had looked any further for it. Unfortunately, I don't have the funds or the know how to search these, but these composers have always intrigued me, especially since we have been allowed to hear Farrenc's symphonies and chamber works. Buena Suerte, Aramiarz!!!