Farrenc: Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 36
Lakeview Orchestra will perform Farrenc’s Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 36 on December 3rd, 2019 at the Athenaeum Theatre.
Louise Farrenc (1804 – 1875)
Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 36
Perhaps no group in world history has been as marginalized, as repressed, as controlled, and as alienated as women. This sad reality seems to be one of those irritating facets of human thought and behavior that just won’t die. Human history is filled to the brim with the systematic repression of the very people who are responsible for the continuation of human life. Collective human society seems to have an obsession with controlling women in not only what they should do, but how they should act and even think. As far as we can tell, the entire premise of this ideology is based on physical strength and not one iota more. But from this premise, the dangerous and destructive idea emerged that somehow our mother (or daughter) does not deserve the same societal respect and opportunities that are provided to our father (or son). Why, in 2019, the planet hasn’t collectively excised this false philosophy and discarded it to the dustbin of the world’s failed ideas is astonishing. What is even more astonishing is that women throughout history have managed to overcome this wide-reaching prejudice, in order to accomplish their own dreams and even excel at the development of humanity. Tonight, we will hear the result of one particular woman’s journey for recognition in the male-dominated world of Western concert music.
Farrenc was born Jeanne Louise Dumont in Paris, France, on May 31, 1804 – the same year Napoleon was crowned emperor of France. This was a world in upheaval, one which constantly challenged old doctrines, and in some ways thus allowed a learned and extremely thoughtful woman like Farrenc to challenge the status quo. Born into a long line of famous sculptors whose works are displayed in such places as the Louvre, Farrenc grew up in a family that was very open to women exploring their artistic abilities. Because of this, Farrenc was allowed the freedom to express her musical passions right from the start. She came to music early and showed great talent for it at a very young age, eventually taking lessons from great piano masters such as Ignaz Moscheles and Johann Nepomuk Hummel. At the same time as she studied piano, Farrenc also became interested in composing her own music, and at only 15 years of age she enrolled at the Paris Conservatory. At the Conservatory she met a fellow student Aristide Farrenc, who studied flute. The pair became friends and eventually married in 1821. Aristide was a great proponent of his wife's composition works and supported her entirely. It is mainly due to Aristide that Farrenc's work is still available to audiences in the twenty-first century, since they survive as a result of Aristide’s constant efforts to get the publishing houses to publish his wife’s works.
To be sure, Farrenc had to earn a living, and as a woman she simply would not be accepted as a composition professor. So she made a career as a concert pianist and professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory while composing on her own time. A high point in her career as a composer occurred in 1849, when fellow faculty realized that she actually was a great composer following the premiere of her Nonet. The Nonet was such a critical success in the world in which Farrenc lived and operated that it gave her the ability to request the director of the Conservatory, Daniel Auber, to raise her pay. At that time, Farrenc was making about 55% of the salaries earned by her male colleagues with comparable years of teaching. Farrenc’s equal pay demand, supported by a few – but not all – male professors, was the first recorded case of a female professor requesting and being granted equal pay to that of a man at the Paris Conservatory. Her intelligence, hard work, drive, and support from family and friends eventually led her to be one of the most sought-after piano pedagogy professors of her time.
Much of Farrenc’s success as a composer (not as an eminent professor of piano) in the mid-19th century in Europe was due to her ideals of how music as a discipline is the result of clarity of thought and structure, coupled with concise expressive power and underlying musical momentum. There is nothing at all in this third symphony that sounds “female” – the first 60 seconds of the work will show the listener that this is just simply the wrong way to view the piece. Music is not such an obtuse realm to be demoted to such primitive ways of thinking. This symphony has all the variety and energy of any Mendelssohn, Beethoven, or Schumann symphony – and we never think of those symphonies as “male.”
Farrenc’s last completed orchestral work, Symphony No. 3 in G minor, was finished in 1847. Premiering in 1849, it follows in the style of Beethoven. The first movement moves seamlessly and impressively from a short, slow introduction into a feverish Allegro, which climaxes with a wild coda that unleashes the movement’s pent-up intensity. The slow second movement opens with a clarinet melody that is magnificently cosseted by low brass and woodwind accompaniment in the form of an aria. The scherzo (the third movement), an all-out energetic force of momentum, incorporates an intentional, somewhat cynical, and hauntingly off-balanced approach to early Romantic era symphonic structure. The finale, which caps off the whole work, presents some of the most memorable tunes of the piece. Passages of contrapuntal rectitude burn with a diabolical ferocity before a dark, uncompromisingly minor-key coda. There may be referents here, above all Mozart’s G minor Symphony, No. 40, as well as Schumann and even Chopin, in the flexibility of Farrenc’s tunes, but the result is something distinctively her own: a uniquely expressive and significant voice that needs to be recognized and heard.
All that Farrenc does, and more, in her third symphony is why this piece deserves a place alongside early Romantic era symphonies in the repertoires of every orchestra. Farrenc illustrates why gender balance matters for classical music. It's not because women compose differently from men; rather, it's because excluding half the population means excluding half the genius – which is simply idiotic. Louise Farrenc contributed three remarkable symphonies to the canon of French instrumental music. She was admired in her lifetime by Schumann and Berlioz. She was at the center of Parisian musical life as a teacher, composer, and scholar, but her posthumous reputation has hardly done her or her music the justice they deserve. Enjoy getting to know this shamefully neglected work.
Program Notes by Luke Smith.
Lakeview Orchestra will perform Farrenc’s Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 36 on December 3rd, 2019. Your Evening Awaits >>>