Emilie Mayer

Synopsis

Today’s date marks the birthday of one of the most prolific 19th century women composers. Emilie Luise Friderica Mayer was born on May 14th in 1812 in the North German town of Friedland, the third of five children and the eldest daughter of a well-to-do pharmacist.  No one else in her family was musically inclined, but after the death of her father when she was 28 years old, a comfortable inheritance enabled Emilie to devote the rest of her life to music and composition.

Despite the barriers to women as composers in her time, Emilie Mayer wrote and published orchestral and chamber works – including eight symphonies over a dozen concert overtures -- and starting in the 1840s through to the time of her death in 1883, got them performed in Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Lyon, Brussels and Vienna.

Her early works are very much in the classical Viennese tradition of Beethoven, but as the decades passed, her style became much more in the high Romantic style. For most of the 20th century her works remained largely forgotten, but a 21st century reappraisal has resulted in new interest, recordings, and performances of the symphonies and overtures of Emilie Mayer.

Music Played in Today's Program

Emilie Mayer (1812-1883) – Symphony No. 4 in b (New Brandenburg Philharmonie; Stefan Malzew, cond.) Capriccio 5339

On This Day

Births

• 1885 - German conductor and composer, Otto Klemperer, in Breslau;

• 1917 - American composer Lou Harrison, in Portland, Ore.;

Deaths

• 1847 - German composer Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, age 41, in Berlin; She was the sister of Felix Mendelssohn;

Premieres

• 1723 - Handel: opera "Flavio, re de' Langobardi" (Flavio, King of the Langobards), in London at the King's Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: May 25);

• 1832 - Mendelssohn: "Hebrides" Overture ("Fingal's Cave"), in London, conducted by the composer;

• 1914 - R. Strauss: ballet "Josephslegende," in Paris;

• 1919 - Debussy: Saxophone Rhapsody (orchestral version by Roger-Ducasse), at a Société Nationale de Musique concert conducted by André Caplet at the Salle Gaveau in Paris;

• 1923 - Holst: "The Perfect Fool," in London at Covent Garden Opera House;

• 1941 - Cage: "Third Construction" for four percussionists, in San Francisco;

• 1942 - Copland: "Lincoln Portrait," by the Cincinnati Symphony conducted by André Kostelanetz, with William Adams the narrator;

• 1953 - American premiere of Stravinsky's opera, "The Rake's Progress," at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, with the composer conducting; The world premiere performance occurred on September 11, 1951, in Venice, again with the composer conducting;

• 1966 - Ginastera: "Concerto per Corde," by the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting;

• 1986 - Rautavaara: Symphony No. 5, in Helsinki, by Finnish Radio Symphony, Esa-Pekka Salonen conducting;

• 1987 - Alvin Singleton: "Shadows" for orchestra. By the Atlanta Symphony, Robert Shaw conducting;

• 1992 - James MacMillan: "Sinfonietta" at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, by the London Sinfonietta, Martyn Brabbins conducting;

• 1993 - Philip Glass: opera "Orphée" (based on the Jean Cocteau film), by the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass.;

Others

• 1719 - Handel is commanded by the Lord Chamberlain (Thomas Holles, Duke of Newcastle), to hire singers for the recently established Royal Academy of Music's productions of Italian operas (Gregorian date: May 25);

• 1974 - Final London concert performance by conductor Leopold Stokowski, age 92 conducting the New Philharmonia Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall: The program was Symphony No. 4 by Brahms, the "Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis" by Vaughan Williams, the "Merry Waltz" by Otto Klemperer, and the "Rapsodie espagnole" by Ravel; This was not Stokowski's "final" concert appearance, however; He was on the podium again in Venice in July of that year, and continued to make studio recordings; He died on September 13, 1977, at the age of 95 in his house in Nether Wallop, Hampshire, England;