Page 18 - The Plymouth Philharmonic Legends and Legacies 11-2-2024 digital program flipbook

There is so much excellent, well-crafted, exciting and beautiful music composed for
orchestra that we must continue to explore — and there’s no time like the present!

Tonight’s program features a dramatic and innovative symphony from the 19th century,
inspired by the tremendous compositions of Mozart and Beethoven that came before. The
composer is Louise Farrenc [pronounced: fah-RONK]. Close your eyes as you listen and
you’ll hear the distinct influences of Amadeus and Ludwig on her music.
The program also includes a gorgeous 20th century guitar concerto penned by a composer
who was blind since age 3, and concludes with the powerful overture to Mozart’s opera, Don
Giovanni. It’s all an embarrassment of riches. Enjoy!

— Steven Karidoyanes

Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 35 Louise Farrenc
(1804 — 1875)

LOUISE FARRENC, née Jeanne-Louise Dumont, was born on May 31, 1804, and died in
Paris on September 15, 1875. Her thirty-five-minute Symphony No. 2 was composed and
premiered in 1845.

Jeanne-Louise Dumont was the only daughter of the Dumonts, a family of sculptors
who lived in the artist’s colony at the Sorbonne. One of her first piano teachers was her
godmother Anne-Elisabeth Cécile Soria, a virtuoso and early advocate of ergonomic
keyboards. Soria noted that Jeanne-Louise also demonstrated an acumen for solfège
and composition, and encouraged her to focus on her piano studies, rather than
specializing in voice or song composition. As a teenager, Jeanne-Louise’s parents
decided to allow her to pursue professional studies as a concert pianist, so she took
private lessons with the teachers of Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn (including Moscheles)
and with friends of Beethoven (Hummel and Reicha). Her music was praised by Clara
and Robert Schumann, but women could not be admitted to European conservatories
at that time. Robert reviewed her chamber music in his Neue Zeitschrift für Musik.

As Louise Dumont, she began to perform publicly, especially with the flautist, fellow
composer, and music publisher Aristide Farrenc, who she married in 1821 (at age
seventeen). Her public recitals led to a contract to teach music to the royal household
of the Duc d’Orleans. She also taught composition privately, and for forty years, the
couple shared interests and child-raising duties, building successful careers in related
fields.
By 1842 she became one of the first female music professors in Europe, and the only
such woman appointed to the Paris Conservatoire during the nineteenth century
[Hélène de Montgeroult (1764–1836) taught piano there for three years from 1795–98].
She fought for equal pay from her (all-male) colleagues for eight years, receiving it
from Director Daniel Auber after the success of her Nonet in E-flat (1850). At the Paris
Conservatoire, she was restricted to training virtuoso pianists, since “composition” was
reserved for male students and male teachers until 1870.

16 Plymouth Philharmonic O r ches tr a
16 Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra