Essential Farrenc
She took piano lessons with Ignaz Moscheles and Johann Nepomuk Hummel, studied composition with Anton Reicha, a friend of Beethoven’s, and renowned violinist Joseph Joachim performed in the premiere of her nonet for wind and strings. During her lifetime, Louise Farrenc (1804–1875) enjoyed a considerable reputation as a composer, teacher and a brilliant performer, admired by Schumann and Berlioz.
Read more…Farrenc was a central figure in Parisian musical life and the only woman to hold a full chair at the Paris Conservatoire. Her chamber music is on a par with that of most of her male contemporaries, and one hears the clear influence of Beethoven in the ambition and drama of her symphonies. But her work never really achieved the acclaim it deserved and fell into oblivion shortly after her death. Interest in her was revived in the 1980s with the publication of a biography, and since then her music has once again found its way into the spotlight and on to concert programmes. Her early works were almost exclusively written for piano – etudes, fantasies and variations – before she branched into chamber music and orchestral works. Her music is masterfully crafted, rich in textures, inventive, melodically varied and colourful, witty and charming. In her chamber music she employs delightfully original combinations of instruments and brilliant part-writing, and much of her music is imbued with a romantic Mozartian lyricism.