Messages

Unless I simply have not found it in the wealth of information in UC, nobody has yet started a list/discussion of unsung composers who wrote just one symphony. I recently listened to a CD again that I had almost forgotten I had - and I thought the only symphony by André Messager (written when he was 22) was actually quite a charming work that merits repeated listening. It is on a Skarbo CD (SK3921), a live recording from 1992 played by the Orchestre Symphonique du Mans conducted by José-André Gendille and probably long since deleted. The couplings are the Allegro Symphonique by Fauré and the Variations Symphoniques by Franck. Does anyone else know this work? I'll also be curious to see what other single-symphony composers UC members come up with.

This week's RTE Guide announces a new feature (this coming Friday, 7 to 7.30 pm) which confusingly enough is referred to as a repeat in the Radio Times. "In the first of a new feature, Axel Klein and Jo-Ann Falletta explore the obstacles female composers faced in the 19th and early 20th centuries. They begin with an examination of the music of Augusta Holmes, who was forced to employ a male pseudonym during the early part of her career." According to the printed edition of the Guide, "the programme includes a performance of Holmes Noël d'Irlande by Elizabeth Pink." Does anyone know more about this? There is at least one more part, scheduled for Friday, 14 September.