Composer of the Week: Emilie Mayer

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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: Emilie Mayer (1812-1883): Stepping Out

Stepping Out

Emilie Mayer (1812-1883)

BBC Radio 3 - Composer of the Week, Emilie Mayer (1812-1883), Stepping Out

Donald Macleod uncovers the story of a forgotten luminary of 19th-century classical music. Today, Mayer meets her mentor, Carl Loewe.

Mayer seeks out a mentor who can help steer her into Germany's musical establishment.

Composer of the Week explores the remarkable life and music of Emilie Mayer, who was known in her lifetime as the Female Beethoven. Born in Germany in 1812, Mayer is considered by some to be the most prolific female composer of the Romantic period.  She was held in high regard by the musical establishment of her time and appointed co-director of the Opera Academy in Berlin. Royalty frequently attended Mayer’s concerts and awarded her gold medals for her music and other artistic endeavours.  In 1883 when Mayer died, she was buried in a place of honour, near to Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn. Donald Macleod is joined by Katy Hamilton throughout the week, to explore Mayer's life and the environment in which she flourished. 

Emilie Mayer had decide to use her new financial independence to seek out professional tuition in music. She moved from Friedland to the city of Stettin where she would meet and study with the influential composer and singer, Carl Loewe. Mayer suggested she share her music lessons with other pupils to spread the cost but Loewe recognised her talent and wouldn’t hear of it. Within a few years, Mayer was composing her first symphonies and Loewe was presenting concerts of her works. 

Symphony No 2 in E minor (Un poco adagio – Allegro assai)
NDR Radiophilharmonie
Leo McFall, conductor

String Quartet in G minor, Op 14 (Scherzo)
Erato Quartet

Piano Concerto in B flat (excerpt)
Ewa Kupiec, piano
Neubrandenburg Philharmonie
Sebastian Tewinkel, conductor

Symphony No 2 in E minor (excerpt)
NDR Radiophilharmonie 
Leo McFall, conductor

Produced by Luke Whitlock, for BBC Wales

Composer of the Week: Emilie Mayer (1812-1883)

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 remarkable life and music of German composer Emilie Mayer.

Donald Macleod is joined by Katy Hamilton to explore the remarkable life and music of Emilie Mayer, held in high regard in her lifetime and known as the 'Female Beethoven'.

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Emilie Mayer (1812-1883)

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