Mayer: Symphony no 1

 Day 365

Emelie Mayer; Symphony no 1 in C minor

NDR Radiophilharmonie 

Leo McFall

For my final piece in 2025 I continued my exploration of women composers, this time with one from Germany after concentrating on those from France and Englands. Emelie Mayer (1812-1883) was a well connected composer who had a particular association with Loewe (day 343). She had an extensive output, including at least 6 symphonies. There is some confusion over the number of the numbering and some of them are lost so there is no definitive list. According to Wikipedia she was called 'the Female Beethoven' although no source is given for that statement.

This symphony (undoubtedly her first) dates from 1850. For its time it is quite old fashioned. Haydn and Beethoven are the main influences although there are some hints in the harmony of Schubert and Schumann.  It thought that is was quite an uneven work. The first movement seemed fairly routine, with some quite gauche harmony in places, but the middle movements in particularly were more attractive. The slow movement was lyrical and expressive and the scherzo had a real sense of energy. The finale was quite exciting in places but the ending didn't quite work for me.

So not a masterpiece but certainly worth hearing. I suspect that there are lots of symphonies of this type - highly competent but without anything remarkable - in music libraries across Germany. It is almost pot luck which of the them get recorded.

........................................................................................................................................................................

That's the end of this project. I managed to listen to a new piece by a new composer every day this year. It has been a fascinating experience. I didn't have much of a plan when I started out and certainly did not intend to cover 365 composers but as I got into it I realised that I had gone a long way without repeating a composer so decided to make that a feature. Again to start with I selected pieces more or less at random, but as it developed I started grouping pieces into themes.

I have tried to cover the entire history of western music. The earliest music was from about 1200 (Perotin) and the most recent from 2009 (Helen Grime). No major period has been missed out but looking back it is clear that my particular interest in 19th century music shines through. I don't think that I have missed out any composers who are undoubtedly of the first rank but there is no doubt that there are plenty of composers who I could have chosen instead of the ones which I finally ended up listening to. Another 365 project would undoubtedly have had a radically different set of pieces.

This table shows the nationality of the composers. I've tried to show where they predominantly worked rather than where they were born, as that reflects better their musical style. So Offenbach and Meyerbeer are for example listed as French and not German,

Nationality	Number
British/Irish	84
German/Austrian	77
French	69
American	29
Russian	26
Italian	20
Flemish/Belgian	8
Polish	7
Czech	6
Danish	6
Spanish	5
Hungarian	4
Swiss	4
Australian	3
Greek	3
Swedish	3
Norwegian	2
Argentinian	1
Brazilian	1
Dutch	1
Estonian	1
Finnish	1
Georgian	1
Japanese	1
Lithuanian	1
Romanian	1

I'm slightly surprised by the lack of Italian composers, given my enthusiasm for Verdi and Rossini. The large number of American composers is explained a deliberate exploration of that repertoire to fill in gaps in my knowledge.

I set up a list of genres at the beginning of the project. On reflection this could have been more extensive as some pieces (particularly very old and very new) don't fit naturally into these categories, But this gives a good broad indication of what I have been listening to - it clearly shows my preferences for opera and symphonies and my comparative indifference to the concerto. I am surprised that there is not more song here - if I did this project again I would have explored the song repertory in more detail. 

ballet	7
chamber	36
choral	52
concerto	29
incidental	3
instrumental	14
keyboard	18
opera	65
orchestral	48
song	22
symphony	71
total	365

Of the 365 composers 31 were women. I made a conscious effort later in the year to include women composers and although I could undoubtedly have included more I am pleased with the number that I achieved. Had I been doing this project even 10 years ago there would have been very little chance that I would have included so many women. That shows just how much of this repertory has been opened up by recordings in recent years. So that there is no special pleading here it is worth noting that women composers feature in the lists below of both the best and the worst pieces!

So what were the highlight, and lowlights, of the year?

First, pieces which made a really strong impression by composers that I already knew (the last column is the day referenced in the blog)

Messager	Les P’tites Michu	21
Grieg	Peer Gynt (complete)	26
Britten	String quartet no 3	30
Szymanowski	Violin concerto no 1	43
Dukas	Ariane et Barbe-Blue	46
Bridge	The Sea	48
Hahn	Venezia	54
Poulenc	Figure Humaine	60
Nielsen	Maskarade	69
Cherubini	Les Abencerages	70
Mussorgsky	Khovanshchina	84
Alwyn	Symphony no 3	88
Chausson	Le Roi Arthus	103
Charpentier	Louise	105
Glazunov	String quartet no 4	116
Suppé	Requiem	179
Weelkes	Anthems	209
Puccini	Il Tabarro	254
Monteverdi	8th book of madrigals	261
Lassus	Missa super Triste depart	292
Wolf-Ferrari	Il Segreto di Susanna	314
Weir	Night at the Chinese opera	315
Macmillan	The confessions of Isabel Gowdie	341

Second, pieces which made a similarly strong impression by composers that I did not previously know

Ferrenc	Symphony no 3	33
Varney	Les Mousquetaires au couvent	133
Loder	Raymond and Agnes	168
Pizetti	Requiem	182
Gossec	Requiem	186
Moniuszko	Straszny Dwór	197
Carver	O bone Jesu	207
Soulima Stravinsky	String quartet no 1	214
Schmidt	Symphony no 4	233
Petterson	Symphony no 7	272
Howell	Lamia	328
Sohy	Symphony in C sharp	332
Reznicek	Donna Diana	350
Strohl	Symphonie de la Forêt	361

Finally a few pieces that I never want to hear again!

Schoenberg	String quartet no 3	23
Ethel Smyth	Double concerto	42
Wagner	American Centennial March	67
Sorabji	Opus Clavicembalisticum	96
Milhaud	14th and 15th quartets	99
Alkan	Le Festin d’Esope	142
Balfe	The Bohemian Girl	167
G Prokofiev	Concerto for turntables	216
Pfitzner	Symphony in C	235
Furtwangler	Symphony no 2	237
Strauss	Daphne	252
Busoni	Piano concerto	259
Van Dieren	Chinese Symphony	280
Messiaen	La Nativité du Seigneur	286
Webern	Songs with orchestra	304
Coleridge- Taylor	Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast	318
Medtner	Piano concerto no 3	363

That's it for this blog. Next year I want to listen to 100 operas by 100 composers.

Reyer: Salammbô

Day 364

Reyer: Salammbô

Soloists

Orchestra and Chorus of the Opéra de Marseilles

Lawrence Foster

I've been doing some research on performances of French opera in the 1890s and Reyer  (1823-1909) is one of the names which keeps cropping up. His was most notable for Sigurd, his French version of the Nibelungen myths but this opera, based on the novel by Flaubert, was also a repertory piece. Up to the First World War his operas were part of the standard repertory, at least in France, and record collectors will know that most of the French singers who made recordings in the early years of the gramophone often recorded items by Reyer. But his work went out of fashion very quickly - even more so that Meyerbeer - and performances now are few and far between.

Salammbô is a late work (1890) which must be one of the last works in the true French Grand Opera style. It must have seemed very old fashioned even when it was first performed. It has all of the ingredients of the genre: big choruses, dramatic confrontations, ballet, spectacular scenery and lots of off stage effects. But on its own terms I thought that it was a very impressive piece. The drama really takes hold - particularly in the big duet in the third act, and there is very little of the rum-ti-tum 'painting by numbers' that one so often finds in these big French operas. It held my attention throughout its five acts.  It must have been a huge spectacle when it was first put on.

There is no modern recording of Sigurd but there are some unofficial off-air recordings. I certainly hope to add that to my list of operas to listen to next year.

Medtner: Piano concerto no 3

Day 363

Medtner: Piano concerto no 3 no 3 in E minor op 60

Nikolai Dimidenko

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

Jerzy Makymiuk

I am not conscious of ever having heard any Medtner and after this piece I am not sure that I want to hear any more. I thought that it was very poor. The romantic piano concerto is not one of the forms that I am particularly interested in to start with but I couldn't get anywhere with this. The idiom is probably best described as watered-down Rachmaninov without the tunes!  It seems to spend a long time getting nowhere and had very little to say along the way. I am sure that had I been listening to this cold on the radio I would have switched off. The booklet which comes with the recording makes extraordinary high claims for the quality of this music, emphasising the composer's mastery of form. As far as I am concerned he must have been writing about a different piece because I heard none of that, even though I was concentrating hard and following the score.

It merits a late entry on the list of pieces which I certainly do not want to hear again!

Alan Bush: Dialectic

Day 362

Alan Bush: Dialectic

Aeolian Quartet

Alan Bush is remembered as much for his communist associations as for his music. All four of his full length operas were given their first performance in East Germany. I love the story - which I think is true - that after the first performance of his piano concerto, which ends with a chorus singing revolutionary Leninist texts, the conductor Adrian Boult immediately launched the orchestra into the national anthem in order to stop the applause of the mainly left-wing audience!

Dialectic was the piece which made Bush’s reputation. It was written in 1929 and achieve international recognition when it was performed at the Prague festival in the 1930s.  It is about as far from agit-prop as you can imagine. It is a serious one-movement work for string quartet which explores at length an opening motive which permeates the whole piece. It is largely contrapuntal and has moments of tremendous rhythmic energy. It is unlike most of the inter-war British music that I know. The composer who most comes to mind is Tippett, but in 1929 Tippett was still finding his feet musically and any influence there is is in the other direction, something Tippett himself acknowledged.

This was a very old recording transferred from 78s (there are modern recordings but this one is on YouTube with the score) and so so of the details were probably a bit muddy. But it certainly was good enough to show that this is fine piece which deserves to be part of the quartet repertory.

Rita Strohl: Symphonie de la Forêt

Day 361

Rita Strohl: Symphonie de la Forêt

Orchestra National D’Ile-de-France

Case Scaglione

This was a fabulous piece. Rita Strohl lived from 1865-1941 and was well connected with many of the key French musicians of her time. Like many of the female composers I have covered in this blog she had some early success but rather faded from view towards the latter part of her life. This four movement symphony from 1901 is a substantial work lasting well over 30 mins. It is a really good example of turn of the century French music of the type we have seen before in this blog from composers such as as Debussy, Dukas, Chausson , Charpentier and others. It stands comparison with the best of them. It it full of colour, brilliant orchestration, melodic invention and typically French harmony. It has sardonic wit and elegance. In fact it seems to have everything needed to be a repertory piece: had it been written by Debussy it would I think be a part of the standard orchestral programme.There have been some really remarkable music by women composers in this project but this one stands out as being extra special. 

Sousa: Désirée

Day 360

Sousa: Désirée

Soloists

Pocono Pops chorus and orchestra

Jerrold Fisher

This was great fun. Sousa is of course the King of the march. I knew that he had written some light operas but this was my first chance to hear one of them. Désirée dates from 1883 and so is a relatively early work. I had expected it to be an American version of Gilbert and Sullivan but in fact it was much more reminiscent of Offenbach. Indeed it reminded me several times of the recordings of Offenbach made in English made by Sadlers Wells opera in the 1960s. There’s a bit of everything in the score. A waltz song, some patter songs, a sentimental song and some vigorous choruses. All in all great entertainment for Boxing Day. I can see it making a good end of term piece for a school or college production - I don’t think that it would work any more on a fully-professional stage.

Poston: Three carols

Day 359

Elizabeth Poston: Three carols

Praise our Lord

Bethlehem

The Boar’s Head Carol

St Albans Cathedral Choir

Tom Winpenny

Elizabeth Poston has a secure place in musical history as the composer of the lovely carol Jesus Christ the Apple Tree. We sang it at school when it was still a fairly new piece (it was written for the King’s College Festival of 9 Lessons and Carols in 1967) and it has been a favourite of mine ever since. Its appeal lies in its simplicity, its ‘white note’ harmony and the memorable leap to the top G in the last line. 

It probably took her only a couple of hours to write and yet it has overshadowed everything else she wrote in a long life as a working musician. Indeed one study of her work is entitled Beyond the Apple Tree. It must have been a bitter sweet experience to have written one tiny peice which achieved musical immortality.

So on Christmas Day I was keen to hear some of her other carols. The first two are written in memory of Peter Warlock. Praise the Lord has an organ accompaniment and some attractive rhythmic counterpoint - Bethlehem is a simpler piece for unaccompanied choir - it was rather beautiful. Piston’s arrangement of the Boar’s Head Carol was, I thought, rather less successful. It was over elaborate and was perhaps trying to be too clever.  

So I am pleased to have explored beyond the apple tree but it may come as no surprise that I came back to it after these three carols. Posterity isn’t always wrong. That simple carol has a magic all of its own.