Grandes Dames

GRANDES DAMES & COMPOSERS - On your CD, you perform works by six "Grandes Dames": Clara Schumann, Fanny Hensel, Lera Auerbach, Amy Beach, Flora Geisselbrecht, and Rita Strohl. Which criteria did you use in making your selection? Rita Strohl's Sonata has been part of our concerts for several years now, and we wanted to introduce that work with a series of shorter works to begin the CD. Thus, although the first five pieces are thoroughly different, the order we have chosen for them is deliberate; we feel that there is a kind of common thread running through them. The tracklist is conceived like a concert programme; the last piece, Rita Strohl's melancholy "Solitude", fulfills the function of an encore. - Women had to struggle for recognition as composers well into the 20th century, and many of their works remain undiscovered because music, like painting and literature, was considered a predominantly male domain for a long time. Why do you think it's important to focus on female composers? Statistics reveal a bleak picture of the limited impact of female composers in all areas of classical music. Yet there are so many treasures to be unearthed! We aim to rediscover this wonderful music, which was thought to have been forgotten, and to perform as much of it as possible. The fact that these works also enrich the constantly growing yet comparatively small body of repertoire written for cello and piano is, of course, a bonus.... (from the booklet notes)