program notes by Dr. Richard E. Rodda
■ There are few better examples in the history of music of innate genius, rigorous training, steadfast ambition and sheer hard work overcoming seemingly insurmountable obstacles than Louise Farrenc. She was born in Paris in 1804 into a distinguished artistic family — her father and brother were both Prix de Rome-winning sculptors — and started studying piano and music theory at age six. At fifteen she broke a significant gender barrier by being accepted into the previously all-male composition class at the Paris Conservatoire. Two years later she married Aristide Farrenc, a flutist at the Théâtre Italien, a respected teacher, and founder of a music publishing firm. During the 1830s, Louise Farrenc established an impressive career in Paris as a pianist, composer and teacher, and undertook several concert tours around the country. She began composing seriously during those years, not just small pieces for piano but also large-scale chamber and orchestral works — two piano quintets, two piano trios, a nonet and sextet for mixed ensembles, and sonatas for cello and violin, as well as two overtures and three symphonies, which received notable performances. Hardly any other significant French composer was then writing such challenging abstract works. In 1842, Farrenc was appointed piano professor at the Paris Conservatoire and she distinguished herself in that capacity for the next three decades as the only woman to hold such a prominent permanent position at the school during the entire 19th century. When Louise Farrenc died in Paris on September 15, 1875 she was regarded as one of the foremost female musicians of her time.
Farrenc first broached the orchestral genres in 1834 with two concert overtures: the first (E minor, Op. 23) was finished that summer, the second (E-flat major, Op. 24) by December. No. 1 was performed in Paris in 1835 and No. 2 in 1840, when Farrenc was in the midst of writing her three symphonies.
Each of Farrenc’s overtures follows a well-crafted and finely orchestrated sonata form. The Overture No. 1 opens with an introduction whose broad gait and noble gravity pay homage to the opening of many of Haydn’s mature symphonies. The main theme is swift and agitated; the complementary subject, begun by the clarinet, is lyrical and more relaxed in mood. The development section skillfully weaves the lyrical phrases of the second theme with the agitated rhythms of the main theme. After a full stop, the materials of the exposition are recapitulated to close this too-littleknown work by one of France’s most gifted 19th-century musicians.
©2021 Dr. Richard E. Rodda
