The Aalto Music Theater and the Philharmonie in the German city of Essen will once again be the meeting place for music by female composers from March 12-15. The third edition of this Komponistinnenfestival showcases German Maria Herz, Irish Ina Boyle, and Swedish Elfrida Andrée as absolute must-discovers. Lectures will also be part of the promising program.
The Componist Women Festival her:voice builds on a tradition where forgotten repertoire, historical pioneers, and contemporary voices are placed side by side. With only music by women on the program, the festival aims, according to artistic director Merle Fahrholz, to open 'new perspectives.' 'Not because the music would necessarily be different from that of men. Nor because it would supposedly be better or because those works should necessarily be included in a new canon,' she writes in the foreword to the festival brochure, 'but because of their origins. These reflect eventful lives, massive resistance, and courageous self-affirmation that touch on different levels than those of their male colleagues.'
Fled from the Nazis
Take for example Maria Herz (1878-1950), born in Cologne into a Jewish textile family. Between the two world wars, she experienced her most creative period while also having to care for her four growing children after her husband's death. In 1926, she managed to achieve a breakthrough as a composer by placing her deceased husband Albert's first name before her own. However, after fleeing the Nazis in 1935, 'Albert Maria Herz' fell into complete obscurity.
It wasn't until her artistic legacy landed in the Zentralbibliothek in Zurich in 2015 and students began studying it that Herz could gradually be rediscovered. Thanks to German cellist Raphaela Gromes, who also released the acclaimed CD Women featuring works by 24 female composers in 2023, Herz's cello concerto is being performed again today. During the festival, Gromes is accompanied by the Essen Philharmonie. In the always interesting side program of lectures and conversation concerts , the cellist will also explore the life and work of Maria Herz more deeply with the students.
Bold
The program of this symphony concert conducted by the Italian-Turkish conductor Nil Venditti the second symphony by the French composer Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) and the rhapsody The Magic Harp by the Irish Ina Boyle (1889-1967). There's a well-known passage about her from a letter by Ralph Vaughan Williams: 'I think it's tremendously brave of you to go on with so little recognition. The only thing one can say is that it will come eventually.' I quote this as one of the epigraphs in my book Woman at the Piano, but as far as I could determine, she remains a composer who is rarely, if ever, heard. I'm curious whether this festival could be a turning point for Ina Boyle.
Socially Engaged
Another composer I discuss in Woman at the Piano but whose work I've never heard live, is the Swedish Elfrida Andrée (1841-1929). This pupil of Niels Gade was Sweden's first female organist and telegrapher – she showed an interest in 'male professions' from an early age. Festival director Merle Fahrholz points to the social commitment of both the composer and her librettist, Nobel Prize winner Selma Lagerlöf. In Fritjof Saga, Andrée's only opera, an Old Norse saga is told from the perspective of the women left behind when their husbands go to war.
The artistic team around director Anika Rutkofsky, winner of the prestigious Ring Award, transforms this archaic Viking tale with its unusual, female narrative voice into a surprisingly modern production, the festival organizers promise.
World premiere
Andrée and Lagerlöf submitted the work in 1894 for a competition marking the opening of the new Royal Opera House in Stockholm, but it was never performed. More than 130 years later, the Fritjof Saga finally receives a full-fledged stage production in Essen World premiere – immediately another striking example of how the festival manages to unearth forgotten repertoire at each edition.
At the first edition the opera Fausto (1825) by French composer Louise Bertin (1805-1877) – the first to turn Goethe's masterpiece into an opera – was an absolute discovery. And last year at the second edition we were introduced to the symphony The Great War by Charlotte Sohy (1887-1955) – or Charles Sohy as the male pseudonym went that this Parisian woman adopted in hopes of recognition. Sohy began La grande guerre in 1914, but the work remained unperformed for more than a century, forgotten somewhere in a drawer.
It's worth noting that the war theme resurfaces at each edition of the festival. Or how such forgotten works remain relevant no matter what…
The strength of
As mentioned, the festival is not limited to concerts. It combines music with reflection through an extensive symposium on themes such as pioneering spirit, gender in opera, and the visibility of female composers in music history. Componist Women Festival her:voice The power of
her:voice her:voice is that it doesn't want to be a niche event. The festival demonstrates how rich and diverse the repertoire of female composers is, and how self-evident it really should be that this music is part of the standard repertoire. Some concerts, such as the Fritjof Saga, are also programmed outside the festival.
• Composer Festival her:voice III from March 12 to 15 in Essen (Germany). Consult here the full program of concerts and lectures.
• This article also appeared on the blog Notes from a Woman at the Piano.
