Classic Ross Amico

Tag: Women Composers

Late Summer Sounds: Women Composers & More

As we continue to savor this precious late-summer’s day, here’s what I’ve got planned musically – as if, in my hubris, there is anything I can do to enhance an already-perfect afternoon.

I’ll continue to highlight the contributions of women composers, during this month in which we celebrate the bicentennial of Clara Schumann. To this end, we’ll hear a suite from “La liberazione di Ruggiero” by Francesca Caccini, on her birthday. This was the first opera composed by a woman and probably the first by an Italian to be performed abroad.

It’s also the anniversary of the births of the great English eccentric and polymath Lord Berners and the Australian composer Arthur Benjamin. Benjamin wrote his most popular piece, “Jamaican Rumba,” for the duo-piano team of Joan and Valerie Trimble. It makes sense, then, to also program Joan’s irresistible “Suite for Strings.”

As if all that weren’t enough, I’ll risk gilding the lily with the inclusion of a charming faux-Baroque dance suite, the conveniently titled “The Nobility of Women,” by Philadelphia composer Kile Smith.

At 6:00, it’s another “Music from Marlboro.” This week, we’ll enjoy three quirky quartets by Mozart, Weber, and Bernard Garfield, as always in performances from the archive of the legendary Marlboro Music Festival.

Tap your toes and take your quartets in the threes. There’s nothing unusual in that, is there? Help yourself to some more tea, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

PHOTO: A classic Berners tea party (note the horse)

September 18, 2019
Celebrating Clara Schumann’s Bicentennial

I invite you to join me today in celebrating the bicentennial of the birth of Clara Schumann. Clara Schumann was born Clara Wieck on this date in 1819; she died in 1896.

While she composed comparatively little herself, if we were to stack her manuscripts alongside those of her associates, Robert Schumann and Johannes Brahms, based on what survives, she really sold herself short.

Still, there’s no underestimating her influence as a pianist. Not only was she praised for her imaginative and sensitive interpretations at the keyboard, as a successful performer, she was also able to keep enough food on the table to sustain her large family and to hold it all together when her mercurial husband slipped off the rails.

For the last two decades of her life, she taught at the Hoch Conservatory in Frankfurt. This shot out tendrils in all directions, including to the Juilliard School, where one of her pupils taught Malcolm Frager and Bruce Hungerford.

Fortunately, enough of her music survives to put together a decent salute. We just heard her Piano Trio in G minor on “Music from Marlboro” on Wednesday. Today, we’ll enjoy her “Three Romances” for violin and piano, as well as her Konzertsatz in F minor, the first movement of an intended second piano concerto. We’ll also hear Robert Schumann’s “Variations on a Theme by Clara Wieck” (her maiden name) and “Widmung,” or “Dedication,” a song Robert composed for his new bride.

I am celebrating women all month long. To this end, we’ll also hear Elisabetta Brusa’s opulent Schumann tribute, “Florestan.” Then at 6:00, we’ll hear film scores of Doreen Carwithen, alongside those of her decades-long partner and future husband, William Alwyn.

I hope you’ll join me for Clara Schumann and more, from 3 to 6:00 EDT – with “Picture Perfect” following at 6 – on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

September 13, 2019
Doreen Carwithen Rediscovered Composer

In honor of the Clara Schumann bicentennial (she was born 200 years ago today), I am doing my best to honor the contributions of women composers all month long by finding ways to incorporate their music into my regular broadcasts. This week on “Picture Perfect,” I’ll shine a light on Doreen Carwithen.

Carwithen was a pupil of William Alwyn, with whom she studied harmony and composition at the Royal College of Music in London. Alwyn, a contemporary of William Walton, enjoyed comparative success in the concert hall. Carwithen was the first to be selected by J. Arthur Rank to enter the college’s new film music program. For Carwithen and Alwyn, it was love at first sight. Their 30-year romance culminated in the couple’s marriage in 1975.

The reason for the delay, unfortunately, was that Alwyn happened already to be married. This double life caused tremendous stress, taking a toll on both of their health and driving Alwyn, in particular, to alcoholism and ultimately a nervous breakdown. Finally, his doctor recommended that he get on with it already and live honestly.

Combined, during their heyday in the 1940s and ‘50s, Alwyn and Carwithen wrote the music for over 100 films. Alwyn, in particular, scored such high-profile projects as “The Crimson Pirate,” “A Night to Remember,” and “The Swiss Family Robinson.” Although groomed for a career in film, Carwithen was not given the same opportunities. She scored only six dramatic features. The rest were documentaries and shorts.

Her concert works, while well-received, were not met with enthusiasm or eagerness by either programmers or publishers. In 1961, she became Alwyn’s secretary and amanuensis, and following his death in 1985, devoted herself to the preservation of his legacy.

At the time of her own death, in 2003, discovered among her papers were sketches for an unfinished string quartet (her third), a symphony, and a cello concerto. One can only imagine that, as an artist, her potential remained unfulfilled.

I’ll do my best to level the playing field by dividing the hour between Alwyn and Carwithen, 50/50, on “Picture Perfect” – music for the movies – this Friday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

September 13, 2019
Clara Schumann Bicentennial & Women Composers

Friday marks the bicentennial of the birth of Clara Schumann. Though her achievements as a pianist and a teacher outstripped her success as a composer, she, it must be remembered, was the product of a time when women did not receive the same advantages, in terms of education, opportunity, and acceptance, as their male counterparts.

Be that as it may, Schumann proved to be a dynamo, caring for a family of eight children and a mentally ill husband, while earning the respect of her peers as a musician of impeccable taste and one of the outstanding keyboard interpreters of her day.

To honor the contribution of women in music, I’ll be sharing recordings of works by female composers all month long, as part of my regularly scheduled air shifts. Tune in today to hear music by Vítězslava Kaprálová, Louise Talma, and Phyllis Tate.

We’ll gain a little clarity for Clara, from 4 to 7 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: Vítězslava Kaprálová, Phyllis Tate and Louise Talma

September 9, 2019
Women Composers Leonarda Tower & More

With the Clara Schumann bicentennial only a week away, we’ll continue to celebrate the legacy of female composers. (This month, by the way, also sports the birthdays of Amy Beach and Nadia Boulanger!)

Today, we salute Baroque composer Isabella Leonarda and Joan Tower, who turns 81, on the anniversary of their births. We’ll also hear a concerto by Australian composer Peggy Glanville-Hicks. Their music will be among my featured selections, from 4 to 6 p.m. EDT.

Then descend into the man cave for scores from barbarian films inspired by the writings of pulp master Robert E. Howard on “Picture Perfect” at 6.

Enjoyment of worthwhile music always transcends perceived gender differences, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Joan Tower, Isabella Leonarda, and Peggy Glanville-Hicks (moonlighting as a music critic at the New York Herald-Tribune)

September 6, 2019

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