May 31 we celebrate the birthday of one of the 19th century’s greatest composers, Louise Farrenc (1804-1875). It is so exciting to see Louise Farrenc’s music receiving so many performances, as she has been increasingly recognized in recent years. While The Women’s Philharmonic performed her Symphony n. 3 in the 1980s, and recordings of all three of her symphonies were made in late 1990s/early 2000s, now through the perseverance of many fans of her wide range of music, she is finally coming to receive canonic status and there are multiple recordings of most of her music available.
Tomorrow her birthday is being celebrated by this notable concert in London, “Madame Farrenc Goes to the Revolution,” performed by Tekla Arts with the Marcel Chamber Ensemble, with a selection of songs, chamber music and her Symphony n. 3 in G minor, Op.36.
1848 has been called the European Spring. A wave of revolution swept across the continent and, for three days in February, it engulfed Paris…. In that same moment, Louise Farrenc – celebrated concert pianist, composer, and Professor of Piano at the Paris conservatoire – was quietly conducting her own revolution of gender and class in conventional musical form. How important was the one to the other?
We love the premise of Louise as a revolutionary – which she clearly was – even while her musical language was so firmly rooted in the central European symphonic tradition.
We are celebrating Farrenc’s birthday by releasing revised editions of our two publications of Farrenc’s Symphonies – n. 1 in c minor op. 32 and n. 3 in G Minor, op. 36. In both cases, we happily incorporated detailed feedback from conductors who performed from our editions (as well as input from our editors themselves). For Symphony n. 1 we had comments and suggestions from Nisan Ak. Her performance of the first movement of the Symphony (Andante Sostenuto – Allegro), performed by the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra last year, is available on YouTube. And for the Symphony n. 3, we benefitted from the experience of Dr. Cynthia Katsarelis, who in addition to leading performances of the symphony, studied it as part of her Doctoral research. Our editor of Symphony n. 3 is Ron Krentzman, and for Symphony n. 2 it is Brian McWhorter.
In celebration, we are offering five free PDF copies of each symphony (1 and 3), to be given to winners chosen at random, at the end of the day Monday June 1 ( 23:59 EDT) 2025. Sign up is here, and everyone signing up will receive a $5 off coupon (good for our Farrenc editions only). Let Louise’s party begin!!
AND enjoy this 1-minute video highlighting Louise’s fight for Equal Pay!