Thursday 8 March / LSO St Luke’s
Rediscovering compositions that have been hidden in archives, libraries or private
collections for centuries — some unheard since their first performance
International Florence B Price
R
esearch shows there are around 6,000
overlooked female composers from
Women’s Day Concert Overture No. 2 the past. Many of these women were
successful, respected and celebrated in
LSO St Luke’s Marianna Martines their time, but have since been forgotten;
their music lost to modern audiences.
7.30—9.30pm two arias from the
Thursday 8 March 2018 Sant’Elena Oratorio Tonight’s concert, on International
Women’s Day, aims to begin the journey
BBC Concert Orchestra Augusta Holmès towards righting this wrong. It marks the
culmination of an ambitious project by
conductor: Jane Glover Allegro Feroce BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities
soprano: Ilona Domnich Research Council (AHRC) to bring long-
presenter: Sarah Walker Johanna Müller-Hermann overdue recognition to five of these women:
Leokadiya Kashperova (1872—1940), a
Drei Gesänge Russian pedagogue and pianist who taught
Stravinsky; Marianna Martines (1744—1813),
Leokadiya Kashperova an Austrian who enjoyed fame throughout
Symphony in B Minor, Op. 4 Europe in her lifetime; Florence B Price
(1887—1953), an esteemed African
American symphonist; Augusta Holmès
(1847—1903), a French-Irish writer of large-
scale oratorios and operas; and Johanna
Müller-Hermann (1868—1941), an Austrian
whose works range from chamber music
to orchestral tone-poems and oratorios.
“In March 2017, the AHRC commissioned
five researchers [above right] to uncover
the works of historical female composers
whose musical genius had been confined
to the pages of history — often simply
because of their gender,” explains Chief
Executive of the AHRC Professor Andrew
Thompson. “Many of the compositions
have been hidden in archives, libraries or
private collections for centuries, unheard
since their first performance. Through their
research, the remarkable history and music
This evening's concert will be broadcast of these women can now be discovered by
live by BBC Radio and available for today’s audiences. We’re delighted to have
30 days after broadcast via the Radio 3 partnered with BBC Radio 3 to revive the
website. You can also download BBC Radio music of these forgotten composers, and
programmes onto your mobile or tablet to be able to hear this music at a special
via the BBC iPlayer Radio app. Please turn concert on International Women’s Day, will
off all mobile phones and watch alarms. be extremely momentous in celebrating
the achievements and influence of women
Photography and recording is not permitted in the musical realm.”
Works from each of the five composers
will be performed tonight by the BBC
Concert Orchestra and broadcast live on
BBC Radio 3. Additionally, recordings of
other previously unheard pieces, which
range from chamber music to full-scale
symphonic works, have been made by
the BBC Orchestras and Choirs, as well as
some of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation
Artists. “Through researching for both
International Women’s Day and Composer
of the Week, a regular daily strand which
features a comprehensive exploration of
composers across five hours a week, we
uncovered many rarely-heard recorded
works. However, we also discovered
that it was not possible to feature some
composers because the performances
or recordings to play to our listeners just
didn’t exist,” says BBC Radio 3 Editor
Edwina Wolstencroft. “This ground-
breaking project means BBC Radio 3
can now bring the incredible works by
these female composers to the large
modern-day audiences they deserve.”
Despite the barriers broken down by
female composers in the past, including
those celebrated tonight, the under-
representation of women in many areas
of classical music continues. “Many of the
challenges that faced Florence B Price in
the 1930s and 40s still face us,” says one
of the researchers, Dr Shirley Thompson,
University of Westminster, herself an
orchestral composer. “In the classical
canon, there are very few orchestral
pieces by women composers, especially
women of colour, and that’s the same
today.”
Dr Carola Darwin is a lecturer in music
history at the Royal College of Music and
researched the work of Johanna Müller-
Hermann for the project. She hopes that
celebrating the achievements of women
composers from the past will help inspire
today’s musicians. “Until very recently,
music history had erased many women
from the record, but projects like this show
they have always been there. It’s really
important that young musicians, like those
I teach, know it’s possible for women to be
composers — and to be great composers,”
she explains.
The project also aims to educate
audiences, as Alan Davey, Controller
of BBC Radio 3, explains: “It’s part of BBC
Radio 3’s fundamental, democratic mission
to make sure everyone has access to things
that are really high quality, to the very best.
And not just to provide people with what
they love, but also to offer them things
they might like or want to discover —
things they don’t yet know they love.
It’s incredibly exciting to think that, in
many cases, this is the first time these
works will have been heard in 100 years.
Or even the first time they will ever have
been performed. It means that we are
not only expanding the canon of classical
music, but also actually helping to redress
its historic imbalance when it comes to
gender and diversity.”
 Defying prejudices of several kinds, Florence B Price
brought African-American culture to the world of
classical music, says Dr Shirley Thompson, composer
CONCERT OVERTURE and Reader in Composition and Performance at the
NO. 2 University of Westminster
I
The Concert Overture No. 2 (c.1943) for n June 1933 the renowned Chicago
Orchestra follows Concert Overture No. 1 Symphony Orchestra performed
where Florence B Price arranges a series Florence B Price’s Symphony in E minor.
of spirituals for full orchestra. The “To have a symphonic work performed
spirituals employed in this work includes, by a major orchestra is a remarkable
Go Down Moses, Every Time I Feel the Spirit achievement for any composer, but for
and Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen. it to be by a woman — and a woman of
colour — is simply extraordinary,” says Dr
Known for her lush orchestrations, Shirley Thompson. Florence B Price came
melancholic lyricism and purposeful to Shirley’s attention through her research
integration of African American vernacular on composers of African descent. “Since
music, this work encapsulates Price’s key my student days, I’ve been shocked at the
stylistic features. Throughout the work, lack of cultural diversity in the classical
her compositional techniques include the music canon, particularly the lack of
Photograph of Florence Beatrice Smith Price (1888-1953) Manuscript Collection 988, Box 2, folder 1, item 6, University of Arkansas Libraries, Fayetteville
use of call and response; rhythmic unison African cultures and their influences,”
syncopation; blue notes; the pentatonic Shirley explains. “But my research
scale; and the employment of poignant found they have always been there —
instrumental solos. we have records of the black trumpeter
and composer John Blanke playing in
Concert Overture No. 2 begins teasingly the court of King Henry VIII in 1511.
with fragments of Let My Spirit Go worked Nineteenth-century prejudices meant
through the orchestral texture. After they were written out of musical history.”
building to a majestic climax of the
full melodic line, the harmonies shift Price particularly stood out to Shirley
chromatically to introduce Nobody Knows as both the first African-American woman
the Troubles I’ve Seen with a haunting to have a symphony performed by a major
cello solo. A solo violin adopts the tune, orchestra and for her use of west African
accompanied by an angelic harp motif. cultural and musical influences in her
Florence B
Every Time I Feel the Spirit is introduced music. Price’s Symphony in E minor had won
with a jaunty, syncopated rhythm and first prize in the Wannamaker Foundation
is featured in each orchestral section. Awards, and its performance was extremely
However, once Price introduces the three well received by critics and audiences at the
melodies, she does not stop there, but time. “The wonderful reviews encouraged
interlaces them through the second half Florence to keep going with her orchestral
Price
of the work that concludes with a rousing writing and she went on to write at least
Presto. two other symphonies and numerous
large-scale works, many of which were
Dr Shirley Thompson performed by leading orchestras and
performers of the day, including the
celebrated contralto Marian Anderson,”
“Price’s symphonies says Shirley.
are filled with cultural These professionally productive years
references to her life coincided with a troubled period in Price’s
life. She had grown up in a well-respected
in Arkansas” family in Little Rock, Arkansas, where
her music-teacher mother encouraged
her talent and Price went on to achieve
a Double First at the New England
Conservatoire of Music.
In 1927, racial tensions in Little Rock led
Price and her husband to move to Chicago,
but they were to divorce four years later.
“The 1930s and 40s were a challenging time
for Florence. She had two young children
to raise alone, she had lost a baby son, and
she barely had a place to live — moving
from house to house with her children
every few months,” says Shirley. “That she
managed to compose, and on such a large
and fruitful scale, is astonishing.”
Perhaps the struggle of day-to-day life
served as inspiration to Price, as her work
frequently references the vernacular.
“Her symphonies are filled with cultural
references to her life in Arkansas such as
her observations of people who worked in
cotton fields in the Deep South. In Symphony
No. 1 in E Minor she refers back to her roots.
She grew up in church, listening to gospel
music and spirituals, and she invoked
these subtle influences such as these
into the piece,” explains Shirley.
Her African heritage is also a strong voice
in Price’s work and she makes use of many
musical devices from African culture. “She
often works in the pentatonic scale, like
traditional music in parts of Africa. In the
third movement of her first symphony she
used the Juba dance, an African ritual dance
with a very particular rhythm,” says Shirley.
“She was probably the first person to
have introduced it into the classical
mainstream. The use of these techniques
is unusual even today — I’m one of the few
classical composers to use hip hop, soul
and reggae in my work, for example —
but it would have been unheard of then.”
Price’s work also tells another story: that
of the Harlem Renaissance Movement. She
was friends and moved in circles with many
of the artists at the heart of the movement.
“There was a strong body of artists, pan-
African in their thinking, who wanted to
assert their race and culture through their
art. Florence was a member of the National
Organisation of Negro Musicians, whose
members were giving powerful perform-
ances in key places,” explains Shirley.
Following her death in 1953, changing
tastes meant Price’s musical style fell
out of fashion. Some of her work has
been lost but the rest is lodged with
University of Arkansas Special Libraries,
which Shirley has liaised with to receive
copies of original scores. “Her music has
so much to tell us. The way she weaves
together different strands — everyday life;
spiritual roots; African heritage — reflects
how life was for her and people like her at
that time. Her work is a cultural tapestry
of what was happening at the turn of the
century in the American South.”
Music publisher Schott will also be publishing
Price's score in a bid to help bring her music,
and the music of Augusta Holmès, to a wider
audience.
Florence B Price (1887—1953) was a composer,
pianist and organist. She composed over
300 works that were performed by leading
orchestras and performers of the day. Her
symphonies and chamber works are noted
for their integration of African-American folk
music. Price achieved success at a time when
restrictive Jim Crow laws were in place in the
South, and the Harlem Renaissance Movement
was taking flight.

SANT’ELENA
AL CALVARIO
Raggio di luce
Nel mirar quel sasso amato
Oratorios were performed in Vienna
during the penitential season before
Easter. The subject matters were often
weighty and were meant to inspire piety
in the listeners.
The plot of Sant’Elena places a woman
centre-stage: Helen, mother of the Emperor
Constantine the Great (272—337 ad). Her
visionary intention is to find the true cross
on Calvary where Christ was crucified.
Raggio di luce occurs in Act I as she searches
for the cross and is inspired by divine light.
The bright A major tonality, and repeated
notes in the bass line, together with the off-
beat syncopation give a sense of propulsion.
In a second section, the tempo becomes
slower, the tonality changes into the minor
key, and the orchestral accompaniment
is marked out by a rhythmic throbbing
and descending bassline, hinting at the
physical struggle that Helen must endure.
If Raggio di luce bundled together optimism
and action, Nel mirar quel sasso amato
presents the opposite: stasis. Helen’s
sense of awe before the tomb of Christ is
reflected in the music or, more precisely, in
Marianna
the lack of music. Instead of the traditional
orchestral introduction at the beginning
of an aria, the voice of Helen is heard
immediately, emerging from silence. Her
swooping melody reaching to the lower
ranges of the voice embodies the depths
Martines
of her wonderment. The opening cantabile
section in E major then gives way to a
more agitated second section in the minor
key. Almost breathlessly with short phrases
divided by rests, Helen goes further with
her meditation on Christ’s crucifixion.
But the darkness is ultimately dispelled
as Helen returns to her state of adoration
before the ‘beloved rock’ of Christ’s tomb.
Professor Jeremy Llewellyn
“Martines had lessons
from Haydn; she played
piano duets with Mozart;
she was a favourite of
Empress Maria Theresa”
The house where Marianna Martines grew up
proved to have a surprising influence on the music of
Enlightenment Vienna, says Professor Jeremy Llewellyn,
Visiting Professor and Departmental Lecturer in the
Faculty of Music at the University of Oxford
S
witch on any classical music radio
station and you’ll hear the work of
Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven —
the ‘holy trinity’ of the First Viennese
School. What you won’t hear is the
work of Marianna Martines, a female
composer who also stood at the centre
of Enlightenment Vienna.
“Marianna Martines was deeply entwined
in the musical network of the time. She
does more than plug a few gaps in Haydn
or Mozart’s biographies; she was there at
the forefront,” explains Professor Jeremy
Llewellyn, whose research was inspired
by the idea of feminising this high point
in classical music. “She had lessons from
Haydn; she played piano duets with
Mozart; she was a favourite of Empress
Maria Theresa; and, at the age of 29,
she was the first woman elected to the
Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna, an
association that recognised composers
from around Europe.”
Martines grew up in a large house in Vienna,
and its inhabitants were to play a key role
in her musical career. Her father was from
Naples and her mother from Vienna, so
she spoke fluent Italian and German, as
well as French and English, and enjoyed
an unusually broad education for a girl at
the time. The upper floors of the building
were home to a friend of her father, Pietro
Metastasio. “Metastasio is perhaps the
greatest librettist of opera and oratorio
in the 18th century.
Marianna Martines (1744—1813) was an
Austrian composer, singer and pianist from
a noble Neapolitan family. She was a keyboard
virtuoso and wrote extensively for her
instrument, becoming a prodigy of Metastasio
and several visiting composers, and attracting
illustrious musicians to her regular salons.
Martines enjoyed fame throughout Europe
in her lifetime, but has since had little
recognition.
Originally from Italy, he comes to Vienna
and serves as poet laureate,” says Jeremy.
“In letters he mentions how Marianna
played or sang for him. He recognises
her talent and encourages her musical
education. When he dies, he leaves his
entire estate to the Martines children.
It’s quite clear that having the artistic
patronage of the court poet would have
had an enormous effect on Marianna.”
A young Joseph Haydn is thought to have
lived in the loft rooms of the same building.
“Haydn teaches Marianna keyboard skills,
and she also has lessons from composer
and singing teacher Nicola Porpora, a
frequent guest in the house,” explains
Jeremy. In later years, Martines established
music salons in the houses she lived in,
and they attracted illustrious musicians,
including Mozart, who composed a piano
duet to play with Martines.
Martines’s virtuosic skills were not limited
to composing — from a young age she sang
and played piano at court and went on to
perform regularly for the Empress Maria
Theresa. “From reports we know that
Marianna Martines was a very proficient
singer. In many of her pieces we find the
voice parts are quite dazzling — vocal
tricks and trills; quick grace notes; and
scales that race up and down,” says Jeremy.
Valued as both a composer and
performer, Martines was an important
part of the musical world in her own right,
says Jeremy. “A report of the day refers to
Martines as being representative of the
enlightened values of Vienna.” However,
as a member of the minor nobility and
woman of independent means, her
performances were private affairs.
“She was not permitted to have a court
position and there was no need for her
to have the income from a large concert
career. This meant much of her work
was never published and existed in only
autograph manuscripts,” explains Jeremy.
“Did she gift some of these to friends?
Were they kept by her family? Are they
lying in someone’s attic right now? We just
don’t know — but we do know that many
pieces have been lost. Out of 31 sonatas
recorded in 1846, we have just three.”
Jeremy received a copy of the Sant’Elena
al Calvario manuscript written in Martines’s
own hand, and he has undertaken the
editing of the score. “I was fortunate
that it was quite complete and accurate
— she was very precise,” explains Jeremy,
who believes the piece in many ways
encapsulates the different aspects of
Martines’s life. “It’s a poem written by
her friend Metastasio and composed for a
performance to the Empress Maria Theresa.”
The lyrics tell the story of Saint Helen,
the mother of the Emperor Constantine.
“At the time, Maria Theresa is also mother
to a future emperor, Joseph II. So we have an
influential woman composer, creating music
for and about powerful, devoted women
— women who are history makers,” says
Jeremy. “Is Martines bringing together these
ideas, conveying a sense of Enlightenment
Vienna as a place for powerful women?
It is my hope that the music will tell us.”
 The formidable Augusta Holmès broke down
barriers to produce strong, powerful scores, says
Dr Anastasia Belina, librettist, opera director,
music historian and Acting Head of Undergraduate
ALLEGRO FEROCE Programmes at the Royal College of Music
I
Hailed as a musical Marianne by none t says something of European society
other than Saint-Saens, Augusta Holmès at the time that Augusta Holmès felt
was courageous, principled, stood up to obliged to publish her early work under
social injustice, and held her own in a the male pseudonym Hermann Zenta.
profession dominated by men. “In the 19th century, it was unusual for
women to compose and, if they did, it was
Allegro Feroce, performed in tonight’s expected they would create little trifles
concert, was written by Holmès in her — songs, chamber music and small piano
early twenties (several years before she pieces. They were certainly discouraged
met César Franck). It was never published from publishing,” says Dr Anastasia Belina.
during the composer’s lifetime and, so “Augusta Holmès did not produce trifles.
far, all attempts to find any record of its She wrote large-scale works, bigger than
performance have brought no results. most of the male composers at the time,
It is, therefore, very likely that Holmès’s for 300-piece orchestras and choirs of
work will be given a world premiere 900 singers. Her music was often political
150 years after its composition. and drew inspiration from classic myths;
it was entirely free of the dainties and
Uncharacteristically for Holmès, sentimentalities expected of a female
the work does not have a title, only a composer.”
tempo indication, which means that it is
probably a part of a larger work, possibly It was Holmès’s strong character that
a symphony, that may have been lost, attracted Anastasia’s attention. “When
destroyed, or is still waiting to be found I came across Augusta Holmès it was love
in dusty archives. at first sight. In both my academic and
professional life, I’ve always focused on
Augusta Holmés is a composer of the work of neglected composers — I like
powerful, energetic music that is free the idea of bringing back something that
of sentimentalities and full of zest for life. is worthy of being known. Augusta was a
Augusta
Through its fiery dynamism, Allegro Feroce woman who achieved tremendous success
will enable the audience to understand — in 1895 she was the first woman to have
how this woman held her own in a difficult an opera premiered at the Théâtre de
profession. Although her more mature l’Opéra (Palais Garnier) in Paris — against
works were described as ‘masculine’ all the difficulties and barriers society
and ‘virile’ this early work already bears presented.”
Holmès
the traits that would lead to it being
characterised in these terms.
Dr Anastasia Belina
Augusta Holmès (1847—1903) was a
“Her work was entirely French composer. She had a large circle of
artistic friends and admirers, including Liszt,
free of the dainties and Rossini, Saint-Saens, Cezar Franck, and even
sentimentalities expected Richard Wagner. She composed large-scale
orchestral and choral works, writing a piece
of a female composer” for 1,200 performers for the centenary of
the French Revolution (Ode triomphalei)
Photo: Music-Images /Alamy
premiered at the 1889 Universal Exhibition.
The first recordings of Holmès’s
symphonic music were made in
1994, but much of her catalogue
remains undiscovered.
Holmès was born in Paris in 1847, a French
citizen of Irish descent. Both her parents
were interested in art and literature, but
her mother was against the idea of the
young Augusta learning music. It wasn’t
until her mother died, when Holmès was
eleven, that she began music lessons. “It
was immediately obvious Augusta had a
huge talent, and she progressed quickly
— studying piano, singing and clarinet,”
says Anastasia. As a woman, she could not
study orchestration at the conservatoire,
but her father’s artistic connections meant
she was informally mentored by a number
of composers in the music salon he created
for her in the family home.
Holmès studied with composers including
Hyacinthe Klosé, a former band master,
which may account for the heavy use of
brass in her work, says Anastasia. Alongside
her musical education, she also studied
literature and used her poetic talent in
her work. Very unusually, Holmès wrote
the lyrics to almost all her songs, cantatas,
operas, and oratorios.
In 1875, Holmès became a pupil of César
Franck. “She was an able composer before,
but after she met Franck she started to
produce these huge works, one after
another, and her composition career just
took off,” says Anastasia. “She started
winning competitions and getting works
performed by prestigious orchestras —
often as the first female composer ever
to do so.”
Although she lived with her lover, the
poet Catulle Mendés, and had five children
with him, Holmès never married. When her
father died, she was heir to his fortune and
was seen as an independent woman in the
eyes of the law. “Holmès played some part
in her children’s upbringing, but she left
them principally in the care of their father,
and made a point of not drawing any
attention to the fact that she was a mother.
So she was financially independent, not
bound by domestic chores or obligations,
and, therefore, able to dedicate herself to
her music,” explains Anastasia. This led to
an impressive musical output, including
dramatic symphonies and symphonic poems,
choral works, operas, and many songs.
Her work was well-received by audiences
and she was highly regarded among fellow
composers. However, critics were often
unsettled by the size and scale of her work,
says Anastasia. “Her first opera, Héro et
Leandre, was described as too ambitious
for a woman,” she says. “Holmès was also
passionate about political causes and
nationalist spirit. Her music is character-
ised by a strong, powerful call to arms. It’s
masculine, heroic, majestic, and uses large
forces. Her friend, composer Franz Liszt
described the work of most male composers
of the time as ‘mere trifles’ compared to
the work of Augusta. Yet at the same time,
she also had a more feminine lyrical side,
with beautiful melodies.”
Prejudice against the role of women as
creatives coupled with the practicality
of performing works that required such
large orchestras and choirs, meant
Holmès’s work was little performed
after her death. Anastasia has studied
copies of the manuscripts held in the
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris.
“Many are unpublished and only a handful
of her pieces have been performed in
recent years,” says Anastasia, who cannot
find any record of a performance of the
Allegro Feroce in the UK or France. “It’s
truly an unheard work, so I’m excited to
hear what this principled, courageous
and inspirational woman sounds like.”
 Johanna Müller-Hermann is a missing piece to the story
DREI GESÄNGE of Vienna’s extraordinary musical life in the early 20th
Vorfrühling
century, says Dr Carola Darwin, operatic and concert
Trauminsel soprano, and lecturer in music history at the Royal
Liebeshymnus College of Music

J
Johanna Müller-Hermann’s Drei Gesänge ohanna Müller-Hermann did not let Although late to start — her first work In 1938, the New Vienna Conservatoire
are settings of three poems which all conventions of the day stand in the wasn’t published until she was 36 — Müller- where she taught was closed by the Nazis,
use a vivid, almost dream-like imagery way of her aspiration to become a Hermann went on to publish several large- and Müller-Hermann’s music was scattered
to communicate a mysterious, quasi- composer. As soon as she had the financial scale pieces, most notably her oratorio and forgotten. “Very little information
spiritual message. The first poem is by security of marriage, Müller-Hermann Lied der Erinnerung, works for orchestra, remains. I found a thesis written in Vienna
the poet, playwright and librettist Hugo went against her father’s wish for her to for unaccompanied choir, and a range of 20 years ago and when I emailed the woman
von Hofmannsthal; the other two are have a ‘respectable’ job and resigned from chamber music and songs. Her music was who wrote it, she said I was the only person
by the composer’s sister, the singer Tona her position as a primary school teacher. performed regularly in the Musikverein and to have ever shown any scholarly interest,”
Hermann. The poems’ vivid images make She began studying music theory and other fine concert halls in Vienna. So why, says Carola, who has worked with the BBC
possible a wide variety of orchestral composition at a time when women after such great success and reputation, to find scores for performance. “We are
word-painting. The first song Vorfrühling could attend university classes only has her music been lost to modern fortunate that Müller-Hermann’s sister,
opens with a clear evocation of the spring with the permission of the lecturer. audiences until now? a highly-regarded singer in her own right,
wind in rising flute scales and tremolando was a great supporter of her sister’s work,
strings, for example, while at the close of By 1918 she had taken over from “History tends to focus on the innovators. often premiering it. After Müller-Hermann
the final song, an earthquake shudders in her former composition teacher, Josef At that time in Vienna, Schoenberg was died, her sister left a number of scores,
the double basses. Foerster, at the New Vienna Conservatoire turning his back on the formal structures both published and in manuscript, at
and become the first woman in the of the Germanic tradition and instead the Austrian National Library.”
These songs are some of Müller-Hermann’s German-speaking world to teach theory writing atonal, and then serial, music.
last published works, and show clearly her and composition in a conservatoire. “She It was radical, exciting and challenging,” Performance rights were in place for the
extraordinary gift for harmony and timbre. was a truly remarkable woman; confident, explains Carola. Like her teacher printed works, but the library informed
Individual lines in her music can seem progressive and utterly professional,” Zemlinsky, Müller-Hermann never Carola she would need permission from
extremely angular, almost atonal, but the says Dr Carola Darwin. followed Schoenberg into serialism — an heir to perform any unpublished works.
surrounding texture always makes her her subtle, shifting harmonic language “My heart sank, but I asked the library if
harmonic thinking clear. As a result, the Müller-Hermann studied under music- always retained a sense of key. “She was they had any leads. To my amazement an

Johanna
listener is drawn from one key to another ologist Guido Adler and then Alexander progressive in her own way — she took email appeared in my inbox a few days
through a constantly shifting world of Zemlinsky, and it was her connection to existing musical structures and stretched later from her great nephew. He was
mood and colour. The composer’s Viennese the latter that prompted Carola’s interest. the harmonies almost to breaking point — amazed and delighted to hear that the
contemporary, Schoenberg, famously “The centre of my research work is early but, once she was dead, her music seemed BBC were thinking of performing her
described his music as ‘the emancipation 20th century Vienna. I have always been old-fashioned. This is how women often works in London.”
of dissonance’. In Müller-Hermann’s work, interested in how women’s voices are get lost in history.”

Müller-
dissonance is not bound or oppressed, presented, so I was looking through Much has been written about the extra-
but soothed and given meaning by the biographical dictionaries to find female ordinary musical world of Vienna in the
harmony, like a wild child comforted by composers of the time. There was so little early 20th century, but Carola believes
one who understands. about Müller-Hermann, and I hadn’t heard there’s a gap in the story. “We talk about
any recordings of her work, so it was hard the atonal revolution and the political
Dr Carola Darwin to know if she was any good,” explains situation, but what role does women’s
Carola. “But then I discovered she studied creativity play? Müller-Hermann is one

Hermann
with Zemlinsky — a remarkable composer. of those missing pieces — and we can only
“She took existing musical He also taught Arnold Schoenberg, Alma
Mahler and Erich Korngold. She was
start to fill in those gaps by listening to
how she makes the music speak,” she
structures and stretched trained by the very best.” says. “Drei Gesange are settings of poems
Photo reproduced with permission of Erich Hermann

the harmonies almost that come from the end of her career when
she was at her bravest harmonically and
to breaking point” at the height of her talent. It will be so
Johanna Müller-Hermann (1868—1941) exciting to hear what she has to say.”
was an Austrian pedagogue and composer,
especially known for her orchestral music,
chamber music and songs, and her use of
subtle chromatic harmonies. Despite teaching
at the New Vienna Conservatoire for more
than 20 years, she is almost unknown today
and there are only a handful of recordings
of her work.
SYMPHONY IN
B MINOR, OP. 4
Andante-Allegro risoluto
Allegretto scherzando
Andante
Andante sostenuto-Molto Allegro
How often in a lifetime of concert-going
does one witness the reappearance of such
a symphony redolent with folk tunes and
richly expressive of the composer’s love
for Russia’s dramatic outdoors — and its
Romantic poetry? Kashperova was herself
a poet and in Evening and Night (broadcast
today by the BBC Singers) she set Polonsky’s
evocative verses depicting the Black Sea
coastline and the ‘phosphorescent light’
of the Caucasian moon. How often does
one celebrate the re-birth of a composer
silenced in her prime by the destructive
impact of modern history?
Rather than fill our thoughts with ‘helpful
comment’ let us make of our listening
minds a blank canvas receptive to
the unfamiliar colours and gestures of
Leokadiya Kashperova’s creation — and
let her music speak for itself. She has had
to wait such a long time it would be an
impertinence, surely, to cause a distraction
just as she rises to her feet to share with
us her passions and her world.
Tonight’s auspicious performance could
not have happened without the generous
Leokadiya
support of musicological colleagues at
the St Petersburg Conservatoire and
the Glinka Museum of Musical Culture,
Moscow. Furthermore, I gratefully
acknowledge the extraordinary initiative
of BBC Radio 3, the BBC Concert Orchestra,
Kashperova
and the Arts & Humanities Research
Council (AHRC).
Dr Graham Griffiths
“It’s a seamless experience
to listen to; there are no
joins. You almost feel like
it hasn’t been composed”
An aside in Stravinsky’s autobiography led
Dr Graham Griffiths, Honorary Research Fellow
(Musicology) at City, University of London to
discover the untold story of another inspiring
Russian pianist-composer
M
usic history remembers Leokadiya
Kashperova as little more than a
footnote to the great Russian-born
composer Igor Stravinsky. She was his
piano teacher, referred to by Stravinsky
in his autobiography — though not even by
name.
It was this brief mention, however, that
piqued the interest of Dr Graham Griffiths
in 2002 when he was researching his
doctorate in Stravinsky at Christ Church,
Oxford. “I’m interested in music education,
so I was keen to know how Stravinsky
learned music as a child and young
man. Kashperova was his last and most
important piano teacher; she was the
one who elevated his piano playing skills
from talented amateur to professional,”
says Graham. “Despite referring to her in
the most disparaging terms — calling her
his ‘antiquated’ teacher and a ‘blockhead’
— Stravinsky did acknowledge that she
gave him not only an excellent piano
technique, but also a ‘sense of métier’.
It took Stravinsky another 20 years to
become a pianist-composer like her.”
Far from the image painted by Stravinsky
of an old-fashioned matronly figure,
Kashperova was in her late twenties
Photo courtesy of The Glinka National Consortium of Musical Culture, Moscow (345-219) when she taught him. “Very unusually for
a woman at that time, she was performing
regularly both in Russia and also on the
international stage, in Berlin, Leipzig,
and even London. She wrote a symphony,
a piano concerto, choral works, chamber
music, piano solos and art-songs, and was
extremely well respected and celebrated
in her own right,” says Graham.
Then in 1916, at the age of 44, her
life took a dramatic turn and the steady
ascendency of her career came to an
abrupt halt. Kashperova — who circulated
among the cultured elite in Tsarist
St Petersburg — met and married the
Bolshevik revolutionary Sergei Andropov,
a close associate of Lenin, within weeks
of him becoming her piano pupil.
“At the time she had just been accepted
for a top job teaching at the Smolny
Institute in Petrograd, where daughters
of the Russian nobility were educated,
but after meeting Andropov she hurriedly
sends a letter of resignation — before she
even starts,” explains Graham. “Initially,
I imagined that he disapproved of her
appointment but on greater reflection
I think he saved her life. The following
year the Smolny Institute was shut down
and its neoclassical buildings were co-
opted as the headquarters of the Bolshevik
Party. After the Revolution, Andropov got
them both out of Petrograd very quickly.”
Several research trips to Russia have
enabled Graham to discover what happened
to Kashperova in the following years.
“There’s a period of about four years that
I can’t trace but I suspect she was in hiding
with her husband’s family in the Caucasus.
In 1922, they moved to Moscow, but she is
still laying low: there were no more public
performances of her music during the last
20 years of her life,” he says.
However, away from public gaze,
Kashperova was still composing — as
Graham recently discovered. After years
of searching through libraries and archives
in St Petersburg and Moscow, Graham
finally tracked down a catalogue entry at
the Glinka National Museum Consortium
of Musical Culture.
“It was a very slow process as nobody
in Russia had ever heard of Kashperova.
I’d found some scores (and had worn out
several pairs of shoes in the process!)
but very little biographical material, so
I couldn’t quite believe it when I opened
a box-file at the Glinka. Inside was a
collection of her letters, photos and, most
importantly, several manuscripts,” explains
Graham, who was the first person to look
at them since they were donated to the
museum by the composer’s nephew in 1971.
“They’re not sketches; these are finished
works ready to send to a publisher.”
In fact, the process has already begun.
After Graham has edited them, music
publisher Boosey & Hawkes will publish
a Kashperova Edition beginning with the
Symphony, chamber music and songs.
The project will also include many of
these ‘hidden’ manuscripts, beginning
with two choral works (Evening and Night)
which the BBC Singers have now recorded.
“Kashperova’s music is in the Romantic
style, it’s lyrical and warm, characterised
by subtle and very pleasing harmonic
shifts. It’s a seamless experience to listen
to; there are no joins. You almost feel
like it hasn’t been composed,” explains
Graham. He believes the Symphony in B
minor Opus 4 being performed today is her
most important composition and is excited
finally to hear it. “The Russian Revolution
effectively silenced Kashperova. Now we
have the precious opportunity, as it were,
to bring her back to life.”
Leokadiya Kashperova (1872—1940)
was a Russian concert-pianist (a renowned
interpreter of Balakirev’s music) who wrote
instrumental music and art-songs in a Romantic,
yet personal, style. She enjoyed considerable
success in St Petersburg prior to the Revolution,
and her music was performed in London in 1907
at the Aeolian and Queen’s Hall. Her role as a
composer is almost completely unknown today,
and she is recognised primarily as Stravinsky’s
piano teacher.
Translations
Marianna Martines Johanna Müller-Hermann
VORFRÜHLING EARLY SPRING TRAUMINSEL DREAM ISLAND
RAGGIO DI LUCE RAY OF LIGHT Hugo von Hofmannsthal Hugo von Hofmannsthal Tona Hermann Tona Hermann

Raggio di luce
Dal ciel discende,
Che mi conduce,
Che il cor m’accende,
Che di me stessa
Maggior mi fa.
Ferve nel petto
Lo spirto acceso;
E il corpo stanco,
Reso più franco,
Non sente il peso
Di lunga età.
NEL MIRAR QUEL
SASSO AMATO
Nel mirar quel
sasso amato,
Che raccolse il
sommo Bene,
Mi ricordo le sue pene,
Mi rammento il nostro error.
Parmi questo il dì funesto,
Che spirò l’eterna
Prole,
E che il volto ascose il Sole
Per pietà de suo Fattor.
Ray of light
Descends from the heavens,
Which leads me on,
Which sets my heart on fire,
Which magnifies me
Beyond what I am,
Fervent in my heart
The spirit alight;
And the body weary,
Rendered more sincere,
Does not feel the weight
Of old age.
IN ADMIRATION BEFORE
THIS BELOVED ROCK
In admiration before
this beloved rock
That encompassed the
Highest Good
I call to mind His sorrows
I remember our sinfulness.
Here on that fateful day
When the eternal Son
breathed His last
And the Sun hid its face
Out of piety for its Maker.
Es läuft der Frühlingswind The spring wind runs Durch Meer der Schmerzen Kein Sturm, der beugt Through the ocean of sorrow No storms that bend
durch kahle Alleen through leafless avenues, die Segel zogen nur lindes Wehen the sails pulled only gentle breezes
seltsame Dinge sind there are strange things da taucht mir ein Eiland aus Weiden still, when an island came in sight out of the quiet willows
in seinem Wehen. in his mournful blowing. aus brausenden Wogen. die neigend stehen. out of the roaring waves. that stand bowing.
Er hat sich gewiegt He lulls and rocks Im Grenzenlosen Kein harter Laut In the boundlessness No harsh sounds
wo Weinen war, where there was weeping ein offenes Tor, doch fernes Klingen an open gate but distant ringing,
und hat sich geschmiegt and has nestled dahinter ein Leuchten im Abendrot behind it a glowing in the sunset,
in zerrüttetes Haar. into tattered hair. wie Blumenflor die Vögel singen. as if from a meadow of flowers. the birds are singing.
Er schüttelt nieder He tossed down Ist mein dies Land? Kein falsches Licht, Is this land mine? No false light,
Akazienblüten the acacia flowers dies Blühen mein? nur Sonnenstrahlen Is the blossoming mine? only the sun’s rays,
und kühlt die Glieder, and cooled the limbs ein Ahnen landet: und nachts der Mond A premonition settles and at night the moon
die atmend glühten. that glowed in their breathing. ich trete ein. den Weg zu malen I enter. to paint the path.
Durch die glatten Through the smooth Kein Haus den Blicken, Kein Rufen, kein Mahnen No house in view No calling, no warning
kahlen Alleen leafless avenues doch grünt ein Dach nur Blumen rot, yet a roof rises green only red flowers,
treibt sein Wehen his gusts drive und Quellen strömen ein klarer See, and springs gush a clear lake,
blasse Schatten. the pale shadows. dem Fuße nach. ein starker Tod. from its foot. a strong death.
Und der Duft, And the scent O Glück, zu gewaltig, O joy too vast
den er gebracht, that he brought allein zu erkunden! to explore it alone!
von wo er gekommen from where he came O nahte ein Nachen If only a barque were to approach
seit gestern Nacht. since last night. im Traum mir verbunden. beholden to me in my dream.
Lippen im Lachen Lips in laughter
LIEBESHYMNUS HYMN TO LOVE
hat er berührt, he has touched,
Tona Hermann Tona Hermann
die weichen und wachen burrowing through
Fluren durchspürt. the soft, waking fields.
Brennt rot die Flamme, vom Wind entfacht If the flame burns red, kindled by the wind
Er glitt durch die Flöte He sailed through the flute und glühen Knospen in Sommernacht and the buds glow in the summer night
als schluchzender Schrei, as a sobbing cry, viel röter die Rosen in meiner Hand, still redder are the roses in my hand,
an dämmernder Röte past the red dusk im Sturm erblüht aus heiligem Brand. which sprang in a storm from sacred fire.
flog er vorbei. he fled.
Ist weiss der Schnee wie ein Engelsgesicht If the snow is white as an angel’s face,
Er flog mit Schweigen He flew in silence sind licht die Wölkchen in Mondenlicht If the little clouds are bright in the moonlight
durch flüsternde Zimmer through whispering rooms noch reiner aus Schleiern mein Sehnen steigt still purer rises my longing from the mists
und löschte im Neigen and, bending, extinguished noch lichter ein Wunsch, der wartet und schweigt. still brighter the wish that waits and is silent.
der Ampel Schimmer. the shimmer of the lights.
Wär’n nah der Himmel, die Sterne zu greifen, Were the heavens near, the stars within reach,
wär ewiger Frühling und ewiges Reife were spring eternal and eternally ripening.
viel süßer ist’s, dein Herz zu erreichen, Still it is sweeter to reach your heart,
viel wonniger, selber dem Baume zu gleichen. more blissful, to be like a tree myself.

Ragen die Berge mit blumigen Pfaden, The mountains rise up with their flowery paths
blauen die Meere an grünen Gestaden, The seas shimmer blue by the green banks
mein Auge versinkt in and’rem Glanz, Yet, my eyes drown in a different lustre
und trunken wind ich den blüh’nden Kranz. And dazed I weave the blossoming wreath.

Erbebt die Erde, versinkt im All, When the earth shudders and sinks into the universe,
Translations: verschwingt der Glocken letzter Hall, And the last sounds of the bells fade away,
Marianna Martines by Professor Jeremy Llewellyn hinflutet mein Lieben durch Tod und Zeit my loving will pour through death and time
Johanna Müller-Hermann by Carola Darwin and Wiebke Thormählen zu ew’gem Strom der Unendlichkeit. into the ceaseless stream of eternity.
BBC Concert Orchestra
That there are no previous recordings of 1st violins Piccolo
the pieces being played tonight does not Rebecca Turner Sophie Johnson
faze Ileana Ruhemann, principal flute Peter Bussereau
for the BBC Concert Orchestra. “The BBC Chereene Price Oboes
Concert Orchestra champions little-known Lucy Hartley Gareth Hulse
composers, so we often perform music that’s Cormac Browne Rachel Harwood-White
never been recorded,” says Ileana, who has Juan Gonzalez Victoria Walpole
played with the orchestra for 30 years. “It Rustom Pomeroy
also means you’re not influenced by previous Caroline Bishop Cor Anglais
recordings, and gives you the freedom to Zanete Uskane Victoria Walpole
interpret the music in your own way. There Tim Warburton
are many famous flute solos that people Clarinets
have heard again and again, so I like 2nd violins Katherine Spencer
the fact that I’m often able to play music Michael Gray James Maltby
people are hearing for the very first time.” Matthew Elston Derek Hannigan
Marcus Broome
During rehearsals, Ileana says she will be David Beaman Bass clarinet
listening for ways in which the forgotten Daniel Mullin Derek Hannigan
female composers may have been influenced Anna Ritchie
by their more famous contemporaries. Tim Birchall Bassoons
“These are remarkable women who worked Derek Hannigan John McDougall
alongside, or were even taught by, musicians Naomi Rump Julia Staniforth

T
he mission of the BBC Concert
Orchestra is to bring inspiring
musical experiences to everyone,
everywhere, with the ensemble’s great
versatility as the key. The orchestra can
be heard regularly on BBC Radio 2’s Friday
Night is Music Night, and for BBC Radio 3
it searches out the unusual and quirky,
profiling classical masterpieces in an
entertaining way. For TV, the orchestra
has performed on the soundtracks of The
Hunt, The Paradise and Jonathan Strange &
Mr Norrell, among others, and on the big
screen it can be heard in the film The
Lady in the Van.
we know very well. I’ll be listening to hear Jane Gaskell
whether the music of Augusta Holmès Violas
Last year the BBC Proms performances Along with its regular engagements Performing previously has influences of César Franck. How does Timothy Welch Horns
at the Royal Albert Hall included a cele- throughout the UK, the BBC Concert Marianna Martines, a contemporary of Nigel Goodwin Alex Wide
bration of John Williams’s extraordinary Orchestra has toured internationally unrecorded works allows Mozart, sound? And in what way do the Helen Knief Jonathan Bareham
achievements to mark his 85th birthday to China, Japan, Sweden, Abu Dhabi great opportunities, says subtle chromatic harmonies of Müller- John McDougall Mark Johnson
and a centenary tribute to Ella Fitzgerald and coast to coast in the USA. Hermann take shape?” Mike Briggs David Wythe
and Dizzy Gillespie. It also featured in the
Ileana Ruhemann, principal Judit Kelemen
party that is Proms in the Park, featuring The BBC Concert Orchestra has produced flute for the BBC Concert Although Ileana has performed numerous Laurie Anderson Trumpets
a host of musical stars in the Last Night ‘Singing for the Brain’ sessions with the Orchestra works composed by women throughout her Catherine Moore
of the Proms open-air concert. Alzheimer’s Society and last year brought career (including those by the BBC Concert Cellos David McCallum
BBC Music’s Ten Pieces initiative to Orchestra’s female composer in residence, James Barralet John Blackshaw
As an Associate Orchestra at the secondary school children in Birmingham Dobrinka Tabakova), virtually all were Matthew Lee
Southbank Centre, the BBC Concert and Bristol. It also performed at the second written in recent decades. “This project is Josephine Abbott Trombones
Orchestra’s highlights this season include BBC Music Awards and appeared as the unusual because we so rarely get to play Ben Rogerson Steve Turton
a dramatic evening of music from the Film ‘impossible orchestra’ alongside 27 star music by women from earlier times,” says William Hewer Mike Lloyd
Noir greats, the musical revue Sondheim performers in the film and CD release of Ileana. “The live orchestral performance Jamie Pringle David Stewart
on Sondheim, an evening of glitz, glamour God Only Knows. at LSO St Luke’s gives it an added sense
and charm celebrating the 100th birthday of occasion. I’m excited to hear what the Double basses Tuba
of Alan J Lerner and a return to the Queen work of these interesting women — each Dominic Worsley Sasha Koushk-Jalali
Elizabeth Hall performing music by David so different — will sound like when we play.” Andrew Wood
Bedford. Georgina McGrath Timpani
Rebecca Welsh Nigel Thomas

Flutes Percussion
Ileana Ruhemann Stephen Whibley
Nicola Summerscales
Sophie Johnson Harp
Deian Rowlands
Jane Glover Conductor
Photo: John Batten
B I
ritish conductor Jane Glover studied
at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, where
after graduation she completed her
D.Phil on 17th-century Venetian opera.
She holds a personal professorship at
the University of London, is a Fellow of
the Royal College of Music, an Honorary
Member of the Royal Academy of Music,
and the holder of several honorary
degrees. In 2015—16 she has been Visiting
Professor of Opera at the University of
Oxford. She was created a Commander
of the British Empire in the 2003 New
Year’s Honours.
Jane Glover has been Chicago’s Music of
the Baroque’s music director since 2002.
She made her professional debut at the
Wexford Festival in 1975, conducting her
own edition of Cavalli’s L’Eritrea. She joined
Glyndebourne in 1979 and was music
director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera
from 1981 until 1985. She was artistic
director of the London Mozart Players from
1984 to 1991, and has also held principal
conductorships of both the Huddersfield
and the London Choral Societies. From
2009 until 2016 she was Director of Opera
at the Royal Academy of Music where she
is now the Felix Mendelssohn Visiting
Professor.
Jane Glover has conducted all the major
symphony and chamber orchestras in
Britain, as well as orchestras in Europe,
the United States, Asia, and Australia.
In recent seasons she has appeared with
the New York Philharmonic, the Cleveland
Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra,
the San Francisco, Houston, St Louis,
Sydney, Cincinnati, and Toronto symphony
orchestras, the Orchestra of St Luke’s,
the Belgrade Philharmonic, and Orchestre
Nationale de Bordeaux et Aquitaine. She
also works with the period-instrument
orchestras Philharmonia Baroque, and
the Handel and Haydn Society.
In demand on the international opera
stage, Jane Glover has appeared with
numerous companies including the
Metropolitan Opera, Royal Opera, Covent
Garden, English National Opera, Royal
Danish Opera, Glyndebourne, the Berlin
Staatsoper, Glimmerglass Opera, New York
City Opera, Opera National de Bordeaux,
Opera Australia, Chicago Opera Theater,
Opera National du Rhin, Opera Theatre
of Saint Louis, Luminato, Teatro Real,
Madrid, and Teatro La Fenice.
Known as a Mozart specialist, she has
conducted all the Mozart operas all
over the world regularly since she first
performed them at Glyndebourne in the
1980s. Her core operatic repertoire also
includes Monteverdi, Handel, and Britten.
Highlights of recent seasons include The
Magic Flute with the Metropolitan Opera,
L’Elisir d’amore for Houston Grand Opera,
La Clemenza di Tito for Aspen, Alcina for
Washington Opera and Medea for Opera
Omaha The Turn of the Screw, Jephtha and
Lucio Silla in Bordeaux, The Rape of Lucretia,
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Cosí fan
tutte at the Aspen Music Festival, Gluck’s
Armide and Iphigenie en Aulide with Met
Young Artists and Juilliard, Don Giovanni
and The Magic Flute at Opera Theatre
of Saint Louis, and Eugene Onegin, The
Rake’s Progress, The Marriage of Figaro,
L’incoronazione di Poppea, and the world
premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’
Kommilitonen! at the Royal Academy
of Music.
Jane Glover’s discography includes a
series of Mozart and Haydn symphonies
with the London Mozart Players and
recordings of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert,
Mendelssohn, Britten, and Walton with
the London Philharmonic, the Royal
Philharmonic, and the BBC Singers.
Recent releases include Handel’s Messiah
(Signum) and Haydn Masses (Naxos). Her
critically acclaimed book Mozart’s Women
was published in 2005. She has just
finished a book on Handel.
Ilona Domnich
Soprano
lona Domnich was born in St Petersburg
and studied at the Royal College of Music
(RCM). She was discovered by Vera Rozsa
who invited her to join the RCM after
hearing her at a vocal masterclass. She
went on to win the prestigious Wingate
Scholarship and has been working with
Enid Hartle, Yvonne Kenny, Joan Rodgers,
Susan Roberts and Ludmilla Andrew.
On the concert platform, she has performed
at the Royal Albert Hall, Barbican,
Symphony Hall, Bridgewater Hall, Cadogan
Hall, Sage Gateshead, Wigmore Hall,
St Martin-in-the-Fields, Queen Elizabeth
Hall, St John’s Smith Square, St James’
Piccadilly, St George’s Hanover Square
and in St Petersburg, Paris, Jersey Seillans,
Anghiari, Menton, Jerusalem and Japan for
orchestras including the LSO, BBC Concert
Orchestra and Southbank Sinfonia.
Her operatic roles include Rosina Il
Barbiere di Siviglia for English National
Opera, Jacqueline Fortunio for Grange
Park and Buxton Festival Opera, Tatyana
Eugene Onegin for Grange Park and Iford
Arts Festival, Gilda Rigoletto at Bury Court
and the Anghiari and Ischia Festivals in
Italy, Blonde Die Entführung aus dem Serail
at Dartington Opera School, Mimi La
Boheme, Zerlina Don Giovanni and Pamina
Die Zauberflöte for English Touring Opera,
Melisande Pelleas et Melisande at Grimeborn
Festival and Bury Court Opera, Countess
Le Nozze di Figaro for Co Opera, Magda
La Rondine for Iford Arts Festival, Venus
The Judgment of Paris at the Wigmore Hall,
Mimi La Bohème for Vignette Productions
in London, Cambridge and festivals
in France as well as Madam Herz Der
Schauspieldirektor, Colombina The Jewel
Box and Lisetta La Vera Costanza. She
also recently covered the roles of Stella/
Olympia/Antonia/Giulietta in the new
production of Les Contes d’hoffmann and
Gilda Rigoletto for English National Opera.
She has performed Chopin recitals with
Angela Hewitt and various broadcasts
for BBC Radio including Poulenc’s La voix
humaine. Her repertoire includes Mozart’s
Mass in C Minor, Mendelssohn’s Elijah,
Mahler’s 2nd Symphony, Verdi’s Requiem,
Faure’s Requiem, Dvorak’s Te Deum, Strauss’
Brentano Songs, Poulenc’s La voix humaine
and Gloria, Shostakovich’s 14th Symphony
and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. She has
made many recordings including her own
solo albums Le Secret which she recorded
on the Quarts label in 2009 and an album
of operatic arias Surrender, voices of
Persephone released in 2015 on Signum
Classics.
BBC Concert Orchestra
Principal Conductor: Bramwell Tovey
Guest Conductor: Keith Lockhart
Conductor Laureate: Barry Wordsworth
Composer in Residence:
Dobrinka Tabakove
General Manager: Andrew Connolly
Team Assistant: Molly Gallagher
Producer: Neil Varley
Concerts and Planning Manager:
Carolyn Hendry
Concerts and Planning Co-ordinator:
Ruth Potter
Concerts and Broadcast Co-ordinator
Ayesha Labrom
Orchestra Manager: Alex Walden
Orchestra Personnel Manager:
Claire Tapping
Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager:
Collette Astley-Jones
Music Librarian: Tim Cotter
Orchestral Production Manager:
Rob Jordan
Stage and Transport Manager: Scott Jones
Editor: Martin Smith
Lead Producer: Luke Whitlock
Production Coordinator: Amy Wheel
BBC London Orchestras and Choirs
Marketing and Learning
Head of Marketing, Publications
and Learning: Kate Finch
Communications Manager:
Camilla Dervan
Assistant Publicist: Anna Hughes
Marketing Manager: Sarah Hirons
Marketing Executives:
Jennifer Barrett, Siân Bateman
Marketing Co-ordinator: Charlotte Parr
Senior Learning Manager: Ellara Wakely
Learning Managers:
Lauren Creed, Melanie Fryer
Learning Co-ordinators: Rebecca Burns,
Catherine Humphrey, Naomi Selwyn
Words: Kate Langrish
Design: ian@eandp.co.uk
Illustrations: Jim Sangster
Photography (academics): Steven Haywood

Published by the Arts and Humanities Research Council

Polaris House, North Star Avenue, Swindon SN2 1FL
www.ahrc.ac.uk

© Arts and Humanities Research Council 2018

Details in this programme were correct at time of going to press