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Composer of the Week

Music: Classical

Composer of the Week - Brand

An informative guide to composers' lives and their music.

An informative and accessible guide to composers' lives and their music.

Composer of the Week: Louise Farrenc (1804-1875)

Composer of the Week: Louise Farrenc (1804-1875): Episode 1: Making a Name

Episode 1

Episode 1: Making a Name

Louise Farrenc (1804-1875)

Making a Name

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Louise Farrenc (1804-1875), Making a Name

Donald Macleod focuses on Farrenc's nonet and the first recording of a Romantic ballad.

Donald Macleod charts Farrenc's progress into maturity as a composer, explaining how she achieved critical success with her nonet, which showed admiration for Beethoven and Haydn.

Louise Farrenc may not be a household name in the twenty-first century, but in her own lifetime she enjoyed a career of international standing. Her music was played across Europe; she was twice recognised by the French Institute for her outstanding contribution to chamber music; she was an accomplished pianist who received favourable reviews for her public performances, for thirty years she was a valued teacher at the Paris Conservatoire and in the latter part of her life, she devoted the majority of her time to the preparation of a groundbreaking anthology of keyboard music dating from the 16th to the 19th century.

She was born in 1804, a year before Fanny Hensel, Felix Mendelssohn's older sister. While the majority of her contemporaries had a tendency to focus on smaller forms, songs, choral works and salon pieces for the piano, Farrenc's creative interests involved writing music for much larger combinations of instruments, including quintets, a sextet, a nonet , orchestral overtures and three symphonies.

That's not to say she never contributed to vocal music. Research into Farrenc's extant legacy has established a small collection of her largely unpublished vocal works does exist. For the first time, especially for Composer of the Week, soprano Ruby Hughes, a former Radio 3 New Generation Artist and pianist Anna Tilbrook have recorded four of Farrenc's songs. The BBC Singers, under conductor David Hill have recorded the only two choral settings known to exist. There's an opportunity to hear these vocal rarities spread across the week.

Today Donald Macleod charts Louise Farrenc's progress into maturity as a composer. She gave chamber music soirées in which she presented both vocal such as the ballad, recorded here for the first time and instrumental music. It was on one such occasion in 1850 that Louise Farrenc's masterly nonet was heard, demonstrating not only the influence of Beethoven and Mendelssohn but also the originality of her own voice.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of 19th-century French composer Louise Farrenc

Donald Macleod explores the life and work of 19th-century French composer Louise Farrenc. While her reputation was built on writing instrumental and chamber music, she also produced vocal music

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Composer of the Week

Louise Farrenc (1804-1875)

Episode 1: Making a Name

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