6. Chamber music and Piano Études in the Second Empire 1852-1870
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
Farrenc’s unique contribution to the chamber music repertoire was recognised by being awarded the Prix Chartier in 1861 and 1869. The era of Napoléon III included concerts at the imperial court. Verdi and Wagner contributed importantly to the Parisian opera world. The Universal Expositions of 1855 to 1867 had important musical components. Marie Clémence de Grandval (1830-1907) wrote Six Nouvelles Mélodies in 1857. Her first operetta, Le Sou de Lise, appeared in 1859; and in 1867, she collaborated with Ivan Turgenev over her operetta Le Dernier Sourcier; it was first performed in 1867. In 1861 Pauline Thys (1836-1909) composed Six Fables de La Fontaine; and she founded the Association des femmes artistes et professeurs in 1877. Virtuoso pianist Marie Jaëll (1846-1925) composed a String Quartet in G minor in 1875. In 1895 she published her Le toucher, enseignement du piano … basé sur la physiologie. Augusta Holmès composed several Cantatas between 1871 and 1902.