Farrenc, Louise (1804 – 1875)

[LMcD]

The works of this composer seems to feature quite often these on various stations. I've just been listening to her 3rd Symphony on Yle Klassinen (I didn't know that Brittany had its own symphony orchestra) and the same station broadcast her Clarinet Trio the other day. I find her compositions pleasant but not remarkable, and wonder what others think.

[mikealdren]

There's a huge amount of political correctness in programming nowadays and orchestras are under pressure to programme works by composers other than 'dead white males'. It's a bit of a problem because most 'classical music' was written by that group.
As a result, the few female composers from the past of any note: Farrenc, Price, Beach, Smyth, Clara Schumann et al are now hugely over-represented in the concert hall and on the radio waves. My personal view is that they were all competent but none of them was a great composer or wrote a masterpiece. In an effort so fill programmes, even their minor works are being dredged up but I guess common sense will eventually prevail.

[smittims]

I endorse mike's remarks entirely, though I'm not so confident that common sense will eventually prevail!

I have a recording of Farrenc's third, and an overture of hers, which turns up on Through the Night occasionally, is a good piece. There's nothing 'wrong ' with this music. But it doesn't deserve broadcasting more often than music by all the hundreds of neglected minor male composers of the past, and it takes up air-time which could be used to play better music by many fine composers who are totally ignored by Radio 3 .

[Pulcinella]

Her Clarinet trio in E flat, Op 44, featured on an early BBC MM CD (Volume 4, Number 9), alongside works by Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, and Marie Grandval.
Dug out so might just get a spin.

[LMcD]

I endorse mike's remarks entirely, though I'm not so confident that common sense will eventually prevail!

I have a recording of Farrenc's third, and an overture of hers, which turns up on Through the Night occasionally, is a good piece. There's nothing 'wrong ' with this music. But it doesn't deserve broadcasting more often than music by all the hundreds of neglected minor male composers of the past, and it takes up air-time which could be used to play better music by many fine composers who are totally ignored by Radio 3 .

I agree - I think there's a degree of guilty overcompensation for previous neglect involved. It would be really nice to hear more Rawsthorne and Alwyn (to name just a couple).

[Pulcinella]

Her Clarinet trio in E flat, Op 44, featured on an early BBC MM CD (Volume 4, Number 9), alongside works by Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn, and Marie Grandval.
Dug out so might just get a spin.

Unlikely to be spun again.

[LMcD]

Unlikely to be spun again.

Just the Farrenc, or the whole disc?

[Pulcinella]

Just the Farrenc, or the whole disc?

Only listened to that (and the Grandval)!
Fanny and Clara don't appeal, I'm afraid.

[LMcD]

Only listened to that (and the Grandval)!
Fanny and Clara don't appeal, I'm afraid.

I would happily listen on occasions to a complete, pleasant albeit undistinguished work than yet another bleeding extract from K467, Mozart's (or Holst's) 'Jupiter', Mahler's 5th, Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto, the Concierto de Aranjuez, or the New World (to name but a few).

[Pulcinella]

I would happily listen on occasions to a complete, pleasant albeit undistinguished work than yet another bleeding extract from K467, Mozart's (or Holst's) 'Jupiter', Mahler's 5th, Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto, the Concierto de Aranjuez, or the New World (to name but a few).

True, but then I no longer let R3 inflict them on me!

[Ian Thumwood]

I am really surprised by the comments on this thread because I have been surprised how good Farrenc was from what little I have heard. She is certainly better than the average stuff churned out by Fanny Mendelssohn or Clara Schumann.

Part of the problem for me is that Classical music went to sleep in the period after Beethoven and so much of it is pretty ordinary regardless of who wrote it. Classical music seemed to wakeup in the 1890s . I am not surprised by the reaction as female composers in the 2nd half of where working at a time when Classical music was at a low point and women had less access than their male counterparts. Farrenc was lucky because she seemed to be championed. In my opinion, Farrenc should not be criticised for being a good composer at a time when so much populist and lightweight stuff was being churned out by much of the composing community.

I am in the fence with this argument. I read a book by Amanda Beer last year which was a feminist exercise to rehabilitate female composers who she felt were major composers who were well ahead of their male counterparts. Unfortunately most examples seemed to come from Early Music and the results I found online were disappointing. What annoyed me was that the examples did not represent the best examples to argue the case. Farrenc was missing and only mentioned in passing. The only chapter I was convinced by was Lili Boulanger.



There are plenty of good female composers and the tone of this thread is a little depressing. It is not Political Correctness but a necessary addressing of the balance. I am glad that Farrenc is finding a new audience and think that the comments on this thread are the first negative ones I have read about Farrenc. On YouTube and Amazon the reactions have been very positive.

[smittims]

'Classical Music went to sleep in the period after Beethoven and ... seemed to wake up in the 1890s.'

I'm not sure what you mean by 'went to sleep' , Ian! Perhaps you are unacquainted with the music of Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Verdi, all of whom wrote a lot of pretty 'woken-up' music between Beethoven and 1890 !

I don't think there have been negative comments here about Farrenc. They all seem pretty fair to me, and in the light of what you've said about Mozart I'm surprised you rate Farrenc so highly. If you don't think her recent exposure on Radio 3 is due to political correctness but to the quality of her music, how do you account for the fact that it is played far more often than that of Moscheles, Spohr , Meyerbeer, Boieldieu, Vieuxtemps and Marschner, who were surely just as good but are virtually unplayed on Radio 3?

[Barbirollians]

I am with Ian that the music of Farrenc especially her chamber music is a great deal more interesting than some of the composers smittims mentions . I note Tom Service rated Farrenc’s Third very highly in his series on symphonies he wrote for the Guardian long before she started getting much radio play .

Perhaps with the recent attention to women and black and minority ethnic composers the BBC is catching up for all the years they were ignored. For me though a little Amy Beach goes a long way…

[Pulcinella]

If my 'Unlikely to be spun again' comment is a negative one, then it's really because, in general, music, especially chamber music, of this period doesn't appeal (as I say in my Profile and fairly frequently in other posts, such as BaL works that I have little interest in).
Not a great fan of the clarinet, either, tbh (Copland's concerto being an exception), so that compounded things in this particular instance.

[LMcD]

I am with Ian that the music of Farrenc especially her chamber music is a great deal more interesting than some of the composers smittims mentions . I note Tom Service rated Farrenc’s Third very highly in his series on symphonies he wrote for the Guardian long before she started getting much radio play .

Perhaps with the recent attention to women and black and minority ethnic composers the BBC is catching up for all the years they were ignored. For me though a little Amy Beach goes a long way…

I think 'redressing the balance' best sums up what's been happening,
I won't let Tom Service's recommendation, which was probably extremely exuberant and enthusiastic, put me off her music.