#ClassicsaDay #WomensHistoryMonth Week 3, 2025

 March is Women's History Month. And it's a great opportunity for Classics a Day to focus on the contributions of women to classical music. 

Women composers are often unjustly overlooked by history. The problem is seldom the quality of their work -- just the worker's gender. The challenge in March is to post examples of music by women composers. There's a millennium of music to choose from. For me, the challenge was what to leave out. Here are my posts for the third week of #WomensHistoryMonth.

03/17/25 Wilhelmine of Prussia, Margravine of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1709-1758): Argenore Overture

Wilhelminie was the older sister of Frederick the Great. Like her brother, she was a talented amateur musician and composer. This is the overture to her 1740 opera.

 

03/18/25 Anna Bon (c.1739-c.1767): Flute sonata in D major, Op. 1 No. 4

Anna was the daughter of professional musicians. The family came to work at the Esterhazy estate under Franz Joseph Haydn. Bon was a harpsichordist as well as a composer.

 

03/19/25 Marianne von Martinez (1744-1812): La Tempesta

Martinez was a talented harpsichordist, singer, and composer. "La Tempesta" was most likely premiered by Martinez herself.

 

03/20/25 Josepha Barbara von Auernhammer (1758-1820): Soanta for Harpsichord and Violin in C major

Auerhammer was well-known in Vienna as a performer and composer. Mozart admired her technique and dedicated two of his violin sonatas to her.

 

03/21/25 Emilie Mayer (1812–1883): Symphony No. 1 in C minor

The only thing holding Mayer back was her gender. She published over 50 works, wrote 8 symphonies, and was co-chair of the Berlin Opera Academy.

 

#ClassicsaDay #WomensHistoryMonth Week 2, 2025

 March is Women's History Month. And it's a great opportunity for Classics a Day to focus on the contributions of women to classical music. 

Women composers are often unjustly overlooked by history. The problem is seldom the quality of their work -- just the worker's gender. The challenge in March is to post examples of music by women composers. There's a millennium of music to choose from. For me, the challenge was what to leave out. Here are my posts for the second week of #WomensHistoryMonth.

3/10/25 Francesca Caccini (1587–1640?): O Che Nuovo Stupor

Her father was one of the first opera composers, and Francesca herself wrote incidental music for plays by Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, grand-nephew of Michelangelo.

3/11/25 Leonora Duarte (1610–1678): Sinfonia No. 4

Duarte was an accomplished instrumentalist. She played the lute, virginal, and viol. She composed a set of seven sinfonias for the viol, probably in the late 1620s.

 

03/12/25 Barbara Strozzi (1619–1677): Cantate, Ariette e Duetti No. 16, Op. 2

Strozzi was a talented instrumentalist, singer, and composer. In the 1670s she had the most secular music in print of any composer, male or female.

 

03/13/25 Isabella Leonarda (1620–1704): Sonata duodecima

Leonarda entered a convent at age 16. But her talent for composition extended far beyond its walls. She published 20 collections of her music and was known as the Muse of Novara.

 

Mlle Bocquet (early 17th C.-after 1660): Gigue

We don't know her first name or much about her life. But she was once considered one of the best lutenists in Paris and her music was widely distributed throughout Western Europe.

 

Ronaldo Miranda’s Piano Works Shine in New Release

The latest entry in Naxos' Music of Brazil series is a real corker. And a real discovery (at least for me). It features works for piano and orchestra by Ronaldo Miranda. 

Though probably not well-known in America, Miranda has international stature. He's considered one of Brazil's most important living composers. And his music regularly appears in concerts and music festivals throughout Europe. 

This album features three world recording premiers. Miranda's 1983 Piano Concerto is one of them. It's an intense, modernist work with echoes of Bartok. Miranda is a natural melodist. No matter how jagged the contours, melody always wins out. 

This is an energetic work that pits piano against orchestra. And that dynamic back-and-forth is thrilling. Wonder why it took so long to get it recorded. This is a composition that should appeal to many orchestras -- and soloists.

The 1986 Concertino for Piano and Strings has a more modest scope. It's a more tonal composition. The motivic thrusts reminded me a little of Bernard Hermann. Like the concerto, this piece demands your attention -- and rewards it with a wealth of detail. 

Also included are two pieces for orchestra. The Variacoes Temporais (Beethoven Revisitato) (2014) features a variety of Beethoven motifs, quickly deconstructed by Miranda. Hoizontes is a tone poem inspired by Columbus' voyage of discovery (the good parts). 

Pianist Eduardo Monteiro brings a lot of attitude to his playing. And it's what Miranda's music requires. These aren't academic exercises. This is music to be enjoyed. And that's just what Monterio delivers. 

Ronaldo Miranda: Piano Concerto
Concertino; Horizontes; Variacoes Temporais
Eduardo Monteiro, piano
Minas Gerais Philharmonic Orchestra; Fabio Mechetti
Naxos 8.574591

Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra Dazzle with Contemporary Music

I know people who absolutely, positively will not listen to contemporary music. If the local orchestra schedules it, they'll show up late to miss it (or not show up at all). Why? Because they assume that all modern music is dissonant and ugly. Sorry, that only describes their prejudices. 

Wonderful, exquisitely beautiful classical music is being written every day. All it needs in an audience. JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic have done their part. 

They've put together a program of engaging, well-crafted works. These pieces are unabashedly tonal, and yet they could have only been composed now, in the 21st Century. 

All four composers have a strong relationship with Falletta and the BPO. The musicians know these composers. They know what they're trying to say, and they deliver. 

The BPO has recorded several Kenneth Fuchs albums. Their latest collaboration won them a Grammy. "Point of Tranquility" is a drifting cloud of swirling orchestral colors. As the piece progresses, these colors come together before dissipating into the air. 

Russell Platt's Symphony in Three Movements is an homage. It's inspired by Expressionist artist Clyfford Still. This is a restless, energetic work. Spikey melodies compete with each other for attention. Yet in terms of modernism, Platt's language isn't that far removed from Shostakovich's.

BPO's first chair oboist Henry Ward gets the spotlight in a collaborative concerto. Randall Svane is a friend of Falletta. She thought his Sonata for Oboe and Piano would make a good concerto. "Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra" is the result of that commission. 

Svane reworked the sonata taking advantage of the orchestra's expanded color palette. Modal harmonies add to the attractiveness of the work. 

The Covid-19 lockdown inspired "The Winter that United Us.". Wang Jie's work is introspective. In places I heard hints of Sibelius, Shostakovich, Barber, and Saint-Saens. But the material, and how it's developed, is all Jie. 

I hope the house was packed when the BPO performed these works. This is the direction classical music is going. It just needs audience support. Recommended.

Contemporary Landscapes
Kenneth Fuchs, Russell Platt, Randall Svane, Wang Jie
Henry Ward, oboe
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra; JoAnn Falletta, conductor
BPO

#ClassicsaDay #WomensHistoryMonth Week 1 2025

 March is Women's History Month. And it's a great opportunity for Classics a Day to focus on the contributions of women to classical music. 

Women composers are often unjustly overlooked by history. The problem is seldom the quality of their work -- just the worker's gender. The challenge in March is to post examples of music by women composers. There's a millennium of music to choose from. For me, the challenge was what to leave out. Here are my posts for the first week of #WomensHistoryMonth.

03/03/25 Kassia (c. 810- before 865): Hymn of Kassia

Kassia is the earliest known woman composer. She was a noblewoman in Constantinople who became an Eastern Orthodox Abbess and founded an order of nuns. She composed over 40 hymns, many of which are still used in church services to this day.

 

03/04/25 Hildegard von Bingen: (1098-1179) De spirito Sancto

Though not the earliest known Medieval female composer, Hildegard is certainly the best-known. Her music was originally written to be sung during services in her convent. In the 1920s, her music was revived and is now performed throughout the world.

 

03/05/25 Maddalena Casula (c. 1544-c.1590): Morir non può il mio cuore

Casuala was a lutenist patronized by Isabelle de Medici. Casuala published four volumes of her madrigals between 1566 and 1586. She's the earliest known published female composer.

 

03/06/25 Raffaella Aleotti (c. 1575-after 1620): Sacrae cantonies: Sancta et immaculata virginitas

Aleotti became a nun at age 14. Yet she composed both sacred and secular works. A collection of sacred music (Sacrae cantonies) was published in 1593.

 

03/07/25 Alba Iressina (c.1590-d after 1638): Vulnerasti cor meum

Iressina was abbess of a convent in Vicenza. She studied with Leone Leoni, a priest and composer. He included four of her works (with credit) in a collection published in 1622.