“It has happened more than once that a composition has come to me, ready-made as it were, between the demands of other work.”
No stranger to the american public, Amy Beach (1867-1944) still ranks among the lesser known composers in the rest of the world. As a child prodigy born in New Hampshire, she soon moved to Boston with her family. At the age of sixteen she made her debut as a piano soloist playing Moscheles’ second piano concerto. Her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra came a few years later with Chopin’s second piano concerto, and received rave reviews.
Her marriage at the age of eighteen to a man 25 years her senior put an end to her career as a virtuoso, as he demanded she should not give more than one concert in public a year.
But she was allowed to compose, and compose she did, although she never had more than a year of counterpoint as formal schooling: she was the first american woman to write a symphony, and she composed chamber music, choral pieces and many, many songs.
Widowed at the age of 43, she took up her piano career again touring in the US and Europe.
Comments
Hi James, we did the Berg Lieder straight out of the Universal Edition, but then Philipp is great at transposing “on sight”. Sorry not to be of more help, thanks for the compliment.
helene lindqvist sings alban bergs jugendleider (beautifully), but in a key that is often higher than the one in the universal edition. is there some way i could get a hold of this higher version of bergs jugendlieder, or a way to contact ms lindquist myself. thsnkyou.