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.

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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.