Louise Farrenc Symphony No. 3

In the mid 19th century, the way to make yourself famous in
France as a composer was to write operas. From Cherubini, to
Meyerbeer, to Bizet, to Berlioz, to Gounod, to Massenet, to
Offenbach, to Saint Saens, to foreign composers who wrote
specifically for the Paris Opera like Rossini, Verdi and others,
if you wanted to be somebody, especially as a French composer,
you wrote operas, and you wrote a lot of them. But one composer
in France bucked the trend, and her name was Louise Farrenc.
Farrenc never wrote an opera - instead she focused on chamber
music, works for solo piano, and three symphonies that were in a
firmly Germanic style. Writing in a style that was not en vogue
in her home country, along with the obvious gender imbalances of
the time, meant that you might expect that Farrenc was completely
ignored during her life. But that’s not the case. She had a
highly successful career as a pianist, a pedagogue, and yes, as a
composer too. But after her death, her music was largely
forgotten. Bu in the last 15-20 years there has been a concerted
effort at bringing Farrenc’s music back to life, part of a larger
movement to rediscover the work of composers who were unfairly
maligned or treated during their lifetimes and after. One of
Farrenc’s greatest works, and the one we’re going to be talking
about today, is her 3rd symphony in G Minor. On the surface this
is a piece in the mid-to-late German Romantic symphonic
tradition, with lots of echoes of Mendelssohn and Schumann, but
there’s a lot more to it than that. So today on this Patreon
sponsored episode, we’ll discuss how Farrenc’s music fit into
French musical life, how a symphony was a still expected to sound
in 1847, and of course, this dramatic and powerful symphony that
is only now beginning to find its rightful place on stage. Join
us!