Les Parisiennes - French Women Composers of the Long Nineteenth Century - Diana Ambache
4. Meyerbeer’s Prophète, Viardot at Chopin’s funeral, chamber music societies in the Second Republic 1848-1852
Les Parisiennes - French Women Composers of the Long Nineteenth Century - Diana Ambache
Diana Ambache [+]
Musician and scholar
She was the first woman in Britain to found and direct her own classical orchestra, the Ambache Chamber Orchestra; they performed and recorded Mozart Piano Concertos and gave modern premières of works by female composers; http://www.ambache.co.uk/records.htm.
As a pianist she has given concerts, taught and lectured in over 30 countries on five continents. Teaching English as a foreign language has taken her to India, Laos, Myanmar and Peru.
Published in 2021, her first book: The Soul of the Journey is her account of the music and art inspired by the excursions of Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn to Scotland and Italy. Cambridge University Press issued her Grażyna Bacewicz, the First Lady of Polish Music in 2022.
Description
The Duke of Orléons facilitated grand opera’s rise to glory; (160,000 francs were spent on Meyerbeer’s Les Huguenots in 1836). Paris was a magnet for foreign musicians; Chopin, Rossini, Paganini and Liszt were drawn by its musical culture. At the heart of musical life in Paris, salons were increasingly important; the hostesses ranged from Juliette Récamier (1777-1849) to aristocrats such as Princesse Mathilde Bonaparte (1820-1904), niece of Napoléon I. Adapting The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo wrote the libretto of La Esmeralda for Louise Bertin (1805-1877) in 1836, Romances were popular, and Pauline Duchambge (1878-1858) published her Album musical pour l’année 1841. The Album de Mme Viardot-Garcia appeared in 1843. Louise Farrenc wrote her three Symphonies in 1842, 1845, and 1847.