Since the release in 2020 of Joanne Polk’s first recording of the little-known piano music of Louise Farrenc on the Steinway and Sons Label, the name of this 19th-century French composer has become more common on recital and concert programs. The present recording continues the exploration of Farrenc’s music in the hope of further raising awareness of her work.
As the first female professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory in 1842, Farrenc broke the long-standing barrier of gender discrimination at the Conservatory, and as a published composer of music for solo piano, chamber ensembles, and orchestra she was able to establish the legitimacy of music by women in the face of accepted theories of their inferiority as creative artists. Like the handful of her female colleagues who became published composers (Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann in particular), Farrenc studied composition privately with some of the same teachers who instructed her famous male counterparts at the Paris Conservatory. And her success as a published composer had to do in part with the fact that her husband, Jacques Farrenc, was a leading Parisian music publisher who was not afraid to promote his wife’s music through publication. Regrettably, it often took familial connections of this sort to allow women in the 19th century to succeed as composers and to destroy the common prejudices against female composers of that era.
This new recording includes twelve more of the 30 Etudes that formed a large part of Joanne Polk’s Volume 1 of the piano music of Louise Farrenc (STNS 30133). These are, like the etudes of Liszt and Chopin, large-scale concert works that also serve to develop different specific pianistic techniques. Further expanding the recording of Farrenc’s etudes is the inclusion here of her 12 Études brillantes, written in the same virtuoso style as her 30 Etudes.
Also recorded on this album are two more examples of Farrenc’s operatic fantasies: one based on an aria from Bellini’s opera La straniera, and the other from Carafa’s opera Berenice. Both of these piano works are part of the familiar 19th-century tradition of composing transcriptions of tunes from popular operas that were currently in production at the Paris Opéra. These transcriptions were part of a collection that Farrenc published under the title Les italiennes.
Opening the present recording is a short, lyrical piece titled simply Mélodie, an example of the popular 19th-century genre known as “songs without words.” This poetic gem speaks volumes to the depth and profundity of Farrenc’s ability to touch our souls, and to hear the silence between the notes.
- Dr. Jeffrey Langford
Extra material for download
