Violin Sonatas by Nineteenth-Century Women Composers

Description

This recording forms part of a broader movement of rediscovery that, for over four decades, has been fostered by the recording industry and by the ever-widening circulation of rare and neglected repertoires. Despite the immense growth of the classical catalogue, only a small fraction of the musical heritage preserved in archives and libraries has so far been brought to light through performance and recording. It is precisely thanks to this ongoing effort that the work of many women composers—some well regarded in their lifetime, others long forgotten—can once again be heard and appreciated in its true dimension. In the musical centres of nineteenth-century Europe—particularly in Germany and France—women could study, publish, and perform more freely than in other regions, even if the paths to full professional recognition remained complex and uneven.
For much of the nineteenth century, the institutional and social structures governing musical life limited the number of women able to pursue composition professionally. Some were prevented from performing, others from signing works that were the fruit of their own labour; conservatoires were largely the preserve of men, and society consigned women to a secondary role. Later music historiography, shaped by a canon largely defined in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, excluded women from its central narratives, despite their documented presence in the musical culture of the time.
This project is intended not only as a tribute, but also as an invitation to listen afresh: the music of these composers should not be treated as a mere historical curiosity, but recognised as a living and necessary part of the chamber repertoire.
The present CD focuses on works for violin and piano that foreground an intense and equal dialogue between the two instruments. These compositions are firmly grounded in their historical context, while combining lyricism and virtuosity with moments of intimate introspection.
The composers presented here, in performances by two outstanding musicians, Giuliana De Siato and Annarosa Partipilo, are Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade, Emilie Mayer, Luise Adolpha Le Beau and Louise Farrenc. Active in different settings, they share an artistic path shaped by rigorous training and a constant search for legitimacy within a musical world numerically dominated by men yet not closed to women’s participation. Within this environment, talent, education, and access to professional networks determined opportunities far more than gender alone.

Cécile Louise Stéphanie Chaminade (Paris, 1857 – Monte Carlo, 1944) was a French composer and pianist, the author of a vast catalogue comprising more than four hundred works, including numerous piano pieces, chamber music, mélodies and orchestral scores. Despite the considerable publishing success she enjoyed during her lifetime, her reputation declined sharply over the course of the twentieth century.
Although she passed the Paris Conservatoire entrance examination with excellent results, thanks to the support of Georges Bizet, she was nonetheless unable to attend: her father considered such a path inappropriate for a young bourgeois woman. She therefore continued her training privately with distinguished teachers, including Félix Le Couppey and Marie Gabriel Augustin Savard.
From the 1880s onwards she pursued an active concert career as a pianist, initially performing music by other composers and later establishing herself through her own works. In 1913 she was awarded the Légion d’honneur, the first woman composer to receive this honour, albeit at a time when her music had long been neglected in her native country.
Rooted in late Romanticism, Chaminade’s writing alternates intimate lyricism with brilliant virtuosity. The Capriccio, Op. 18 for violin and piano (1881), included on this CD, offers a significant example, characterised by clear textures, refined chromatic harmonies, and an intense, expressive dialogue between the two instruments.

Emilie Mayer (Friedland, 1812 – Berlin, 1883) was a German composer and sculptor. She began studying the piano as a child and around 1840 became a pupil of Carl Loewe in Stettin. She subsequently moved to Berlin, where she completed her musical training, studying fugue and counterpoint with Adolph Bernhard Marx and orchestration with Wilhelm Wieprecht.
By the middle of the nineteenth century Mayer was already an established musician, her works meeting with the approval of audiences and critics alike. Her output includes the Singspiel Die Fischerin, several symphonies and overtures, choral compositions and lieder, as well as numerous instrumental works, including sonatas for violin and cello, piano trios and string quartets. She also wrote three piano sonatas and a series of shorter pieces.
Mayer was initially influenced by the Viennese Classical style, while her later works reveal a more Romantic language. Her harmonies are marked by sudden tonal shifts and by frequent use of seventh chords, often with diminished sevenths, allowing for a wide range of resolutions.
The Sonata in E flat major, included on this CD, unfolds in four movements: Allegro maestoso, Andante, Rondo. Allegro assai, and Finale: Adagio – Presto. Its structure reflects Classical models (movements contrasting in tempo and character), yet with a harmonic and melodic language typical of the nineteenth century.

Luise Adolpha Le Beau (Rastatt, 1850 – Baden-Baden, 1927) was a German composer and pianist. She began composing at the age of fifteen and made her debut as a pianist at eighteen with the Baden court orchestra. During her career she encountered leading musical figures such as Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms, and met the musicologist Eduard Hanslick. In 1873 she spent a brief period in Baden-Baden, where she took piano lessons with the virtuoso Clara Wieck Schumann.
In 1876 she moved with her family to Munich, where she was highly regarded by the conductor Hans von Bülow, who drew her talents to the attention of Josef Rheinberger, a respected composer and teacher of counterpoint and harmony. Rheinberger, impressed by her Sonata for violin and piano, Op. 10, took her as a pupil and nicknamed her a “lady emancipata”, recognising in her one of the few women composers able to emerge at a time when female creativity was rarely valued. She was, however, fortunate to have been born into a family that encouraged her studies from an early stage.
Le Beau’s output is extensive and varied: it includes solo piano pieces, sonatas and works for string instruments and piano, a symphony, a symphonic poem (Hohenbaden, Op. 43), a concerto and a fantasy for piano and orchestra, an overture, two operas, a substantial body of choral music and forty-seven lieder. Her compositions display formal command combined with a pronounced Romantic lyricism, with strong, clearly delineated themes, rigorous sonata-form structures, and a colouristic use of chords and recurring motifs. This CD includes her Sonata for violin and piano, Op. 10, composed around 1875. The sonata is in three movements, following the typical structure of the Romantic sonata: Allegro, Andante cantabile, Allegro con fuoco – Presto. It combines a cantabile melodic line with rigorous formal construction: while remaining within Classical structures, it employs harmonic colours typical of the late nineteenth century to create tension and contrast.

Louise Farrenc (Paris, 1804 – Paris, 1875) was a French composer, pianist, teacher and scholar. Born into a family of artists, in which women enjoyed an unusual degree of freedom for the time, she began studying music very early, taking lessons from a pupil of Muzio Clementi. By her mid-teens she was a pianist of professional calibre, an excellent student of theory and a promising composer. At fifteen she began studying composition and orchestration with Anton Reicha at the Paris Conservatoire.
In the 1830s she undertook tours as a pianist and composer, quickly acquiring fame. In 1842 she was appointed professor of piano at the Paris Conservatoire, the only woman to hold a chair, a position she retained for more than thirty years, until 1873.
Farrenc’s contribution to music extends beyond compositional skill alone: at a time when women achieved renown primarily as performers, and when the musical scene privileged theatre and salon music, she established herself as a scholar and pioneer. Together with her husband, she devoted herself to the rediscovery of early music, publishing important works for harpsichord.
Farrenc’s output ranges from piano compositions written between 1820 and 1830 to orchestral works composed from 1834 onwards. Her works include symphonies, overtures, trios, sonatas for violin and piano, fugues, variations and much more, all characterised by a refined balance between technique and lyricism.
The Sonata for violin and piano No. 2 in A major, Op. 39, included on this CD, consists of four movements: Allegro grazioso, Scherzo (Allegro – vivace), Adagio, Allegro. Brilliant in style, the sonata reflects a fully realised formal ambition across its four movements. Farrenc creates a balanced relationship between violin and piano, without either instrument claiming clear supremacy. The Scherzo has a character reminiscent of Mendelssohn in its lightness and brilliance, while the Finale returns to more Classical forms with energy and agility.
After this brief introduction, offered in the hope of encouraging a more informed listening to these pieces, all that remains is to wish you an enjoyable listen, celebrating a body of music that continues to enrich our understanding of nineteenth-century creativity in all its diversity.
Valentina Riontino