Emilie Mayer

Synopsis

Today marks the birthday of one of the most prolific 19th century women composers. Emilie Luise Friderica Mayer was born May 14, 1812 in the 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, a comfortable inheritance enabled her to devote the rest of her life to music and composition.

Despite the barriers to women as composers in her time, 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; New Brandenburg Philharmonie; Stefan Malzew, conductor; Capriccio 5339

On This Day

Births

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

• 1917 - American composer Lou Harrison, in Portland, Oregon

Deaths

• 1847 - German composer Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, 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, Massachusetts

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, 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 95 in his house in Nether Wallop, Hampshire, England.