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

[Martin Eastick]

This double CD looks most promising.............https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/sinfonie-4-klavierkonzert/hnum/8717074

[Alan Howe]

Oooh, yes. An absolute must-buy!

[Mark Thomas]

Ker-ching!

[Gareth Vaughan]

I should say so!

[eschiss1]

neat! different piano concerto (B-flat rather than C-sharp minor- wasn't aware for some reason that she wrote two) but the symphony could be from the 2012 radio recording we're familiar with (would need to compare the timings).

[JimL]

I wasn't aware she composed another piano concerto other than the B-flat of 1850, a work I already know, and actually find a little disappointing. Imagine a piano concerto composed after the Schumann, Henselt, Liszt (at least prior to the final versions) and Mendelssohn works in the genre that sounds like it could have been written 60 years earlier, and you have the Mayer.

[Gareth Vaughan]

As far as I know she wrote only one piano concerto, in B flat major. Where does the C sharp minor come from. Happy to be enlightened.

[eschiss1]

my notes need fixing? and so...

otoh the concert notes claim Vladimir Stoupel, not Ewa Kupiec, was the pianist for that piano concerto concert. Perhaps it's another performance (or again my notes are wrong )

[Rob H]

https://www.jpc.de/jpcng/classic/detail/-/art/sinfonie-4-klavierkonzert/hnum/8717074

Just noticed this on jpc website.

[Alan Howe]

Thanks, Rob. I have merged your post with this thread started earlier today. We all share your interest in this release!

[Alan Howe]

the symphony could be from the 2012 radio recording we're familiar with

You're probably correct, Eric. The performers are certainly the same.

I think we've really got to get away from comparing Mayer with Beethoven. The Symphony featured here is music of the next generation, clearly inhabiting the same universe as her contemporaries, i.e. Mendelssohn, Schumann, Farrenc, Rufinatscha, etc.

[hyperdanny]

ohhh ..finally! that's so fantastic..I discovered the symphony on youtube..then I had this site's wonderful download burned on cd..and now a proper commercial release, with a piano concerto to boot!
The more I listen to Mayer's music , the more I am convinced she is really way above the average among the Unsungs..without the need of any gender qualification.
I am very happy....wonders never cease!

[Double-A]

Gender qualification?

Women faced a lot of prejudice when trying to be a composer (they still do, though probably less than in the middle of the 19th century).  So it is not surprising when those women who were (at least somewhat) successful turn out to be rather better than their male unsung colleagues.

[eschiss1]

Or that fans are more careful about those whose music they promote. (Alice Mary Smith notwithstanding, imhonesto, whose fans seem to be carelessly insensible to other 19th-century comparisons, but that's a conversation for another time I suppose.)

[hyperdanny]

just to make myself clear; I said "without gender qualification", because I find somewhat irritating that, while discussing Mayer's (or Farrenc's , or Smith's, you name them) you almost often read "female composer".IMHO such qualification belongs to another age, to me they are just "composers" , just like , for example, Marin Alsop (case in point since I am going to a concert tonight) is just a "conductor".
I do not base my assessments on gender.
I didn't understend if the "fan" was referred to me for some reason, if so , it was just genuine enthusiasm for some music I find really worthy, not blind fandom, something alien to me.