Farrenc: Symphonies Nos 1 & 3

Album review

Louise Farrenc, a pioneer of striking stature among female composers in France, has been receiving attention for her often entirely original chamber music and piano music, but she also wrote a number of orchestral works that have been sparsely played and recorded. They have been championed by conductor Laurence Equilbey and her Insula Orchestra, and anyone enthusiastic about the history of music by women will welcome this nicely recorded release. The Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 32, although composed in 1842 when Farrenc was almost 40, is something of a student essay in the symphonic form, with many gestures resembling source material found in Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67. The Symphony No. 3 in G minor, Op. 36, was written just five years later, and Beethoven is an influence here as well, but Farrenc's treatment is freer, with more of the distinctive and serious voice revealed in the composer's chamber music. Equilbey moves the works fully into the Romantic era with a rather explosive approach that contrasts her orchestra's trademark slinky sound with big, forceful climaxes. These are not works on the order of Farrenc's chamber music, which everyone should hear, but neither are they conventional, and they will reward the listener with plenty of surprises. The Symphony No. 3 could be added profitably to any symphonic program of early 19th century music.

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