3. Vocal music, prodigious talent, and new pianism
Les Parisiennes - French Women Composers of the Long Nineteenth Century - Diana Ambache
Diana Ambache [+]
Musician and scholar
She was the first woman in Britain to found and direct her own classical orchestra, the Ambache Chamber Orchestra; they performed and recorded Mozart Piano Concertos and gave modern premières of works by female composers; http://www.ambache.co.uk/records.htm.
As a pianist she has given concerts, taught and lectured in over 30 countries on five continents. Teaching English as a foreign language has taken her to India, Laos, Myanmar and Peru.
Published in 2021, her first book: The Soul of the Journey is her account of the music and art inspired by the excursions of Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn to Scotland and Italy. Cambridge University Press issued her Grażyna Bacewicz, the First Lady of Polish Music in 2022.
Description
Teacher and composer Marie Bigot de Morogues (1786-1820) published her Suite d’études in 1818. The heyday of the working class singing clubs, the Goguettes, began in 1818. The Concert Society of the Paris Conservatoire was founded in 1828. The popularity of opera and growing interest in instrumental virtuosity led to showy compositions; in 1825 Moscheles honoured the star singer Maria Malibran (1808-1830) with his composition Bijoux a la Malibran, op 72. Variations were the favoured form for such flamboyance, and Louise Farrenc’s (1804-1875) piano music included several sets of Variations. Her first set were on a them by her husband Aristide in 1825. In the manner of the time, she also used popular airs from the current operas, such as her op 5, Variations sur un theme de la Cenerentola, c 1828.