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The author of an important history of music in the United States once asked Beach if she resented
being called an American composer. Her reply, he reported, was, “No, but I would rather be called a
composer.” There is little doubt that she frequently gave the same answer when asked about being
called a woman composer.
She was widely known for the broad range of her strong musical mind, which led her to translate
European theoretical works into English and to mount a campaign in favor of the work of Brahms
when his music was still considered to be too difficult and modern. The Boston Symphony Orchestra
engaged her as soloist eleven times and also premiered her Gaelic Symphony on October 30, 1896. It
is believed to have been the first symphony by a woman ever performed in the United States.

After her husband’s death, in 1910, Mrs. Beach spent four years in Europe, where her Piano Concerto,
her symphony, and her shorter works were widely performed. She returned at the outbreak of the
First World War, and for most of the rest of her long and fruitful life as a busy composer, she lived in
New Hampshire.

Beach began to compose her Piano Concerto in 1897, worked on it in Boston between September
1898 and September 1899, and revised it during the following months. She intended it not only as a
work for others to play, but one for herself to perform, enabling her to rejoin the concert hall. The
Boston Symphony already knew her well as a soloist, because previously, she had played numerous
concerti with them; in addition to the Chopin, she had performed Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn,
Schumann, and Saint-Saëns with the orchestra.
The concerto’s premiere took place in Symphony Hall, Boston on April 7, 1900, with Beach performing
as soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Wilhelm Gericke conducting. Eager to be back
performing after her husband died, she later played the concerto with the Chicago, Philadelphia,
Leipzig, Hamburg, and Berlin orchestras, among others.
The Piano Concerto has four movements, the last two connected. The first, Allegro moderato, in
sonata form, is the work’s longest movement. Serious in mood, it features, as Beach described it,
the “piano and orchestra vying with each other in the development of the two principal themes.” The
orchestra introduces the first theme, which is followed by the piano’s passionately intense cadenza.
The piano sings out the second theme, based on Beach’s lyrical song, “Jeune fille et jeune fleur”
(“Young Girl and Young Flower”) Op.1, No.4, the lament of a father at his young daughter’s burial.
The second movement, Scherzo, subtitled “perpetuum mobile,” (perpetual motion) is quite brief.
Beach based it completely on another of her songs, “Empress of Night,” Op.2, No. 3, set to a poem by
her husband, dedicated to her mother. The song’s accompaniment makes up the piano’s “perpetuum
mobile.” The strings present the song’s vocal line. Before the reprise of the principal theme, the piano
has another short cadenza.

The third movement, Largo, is slow, and in Beach’s words, is a “dark tragic lament”, which rises to a
fervent climax. She composed it using her song, “Twilight,” Op.2, No.1, the setting of which she had
dedicated to her husband, who had written the poem; it describes the transition from dusk to darkness
and equates day with life and night with death. After a soft transition, the music flows directly into
the final movement, a joyful, spirited rondo, Allegro con scioltezza. This finale showcases the piano’s
brilliance, but, before the end, does briefly recall the third movement’s tragic theme.

PAGE 16 Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra