Navona Records release an album of piano music performed by Iris Graffman Wenglin and the late Ruth Lomon (1930-2017). Hommage to Women Composers, sees the duo set out on a mission to uncover the buried works of female composers over the years and bring them deserved recognition...

Ruth Lomon (Composer and Resident Scholar at the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University and Composer-in-Residence with Boston Secession) and her friend Iris Graffman Wenglin (Florida-based pianist and lecturer) embarked on this project after Lomon, looking for music written by women, discovered that there were very few scores to be found, and even fewer that were properly printed.

Featuring compositions by 11 female composers - Clara Wieck Schumann, Germaine Tailleferre, Louise Talma, Miriam Gideon, Barbara Pentland, Marga Richter, Thea Musgrave, Jacqueline Fontyn, Marta Ptaszyńska, Shulamit Ran, and Lomon herself - this album offers a cross-section of genius and innovation through the Romantic period to the late 20th Century. From the grace and rhythmic definition of Schumann’s 'Five Caprices' (1831) and 'Polonaise' (1832), to the array of lyricism, rhythmic momentum, and moments of pointillist texture in Pentland’s 'Three Piano Duets After Pictures by Paul Klee' (1958) and the brief yet personality-packed movements of Ran’s 'Children’s Scenes' (1970), the diversity of styles, textures, and arrangements all within the genre of piano duet is a marvel to behold. The impact of female composers on the world of music is known by some, although there is a long way to go in unearthing the full treasure trove that is compositions by female artists throughout history.

While the duo perform these pieces well, I would have loved to have them performed by a full orchestra. I'm assuming (probably incorrectly) that the piano wasn't the sole instrument on all of these compositions and so we're not really hearing these pieces as originally performed... and if they were all composed for piano, then this begs the question why there aren't more works for orchestra by women composers.

8

Darren Rea