The opening program of our 31st season “Harmony at Home” celebrated two talented women composers who have been unjustly neglected: Fanny Mendelssohn (the older sister of Felix), and Sophia Corri Dussek (wife of Jan Ladislav Dussek). We performed two little-known instrumental duos from among their oeuvre together with piano trios by Felix Mendelssohn and Jan Ladislav Dussek offering a window on domestic music-making in the early 19th century. 

Fanny was an excellent pianist and composer who showed prodigious musical ability from an early age. She was very supportive of her brother Felix’s composing (he was four years younger), offering him constructive criticism and guidance. Prevailing attitudes about women of the day, however, discouraged her from pursuing a professional career in music. Her father wrote to her in 1820, “Music will perhaps become his [Felix’s] profession, but for you it can and must be only an ornament.” 

The siblings shared a deep passion for music, and Felix sought to support Fanny by arranging to have some of her works published under his name. An embarrassing moment came about when Felix visited Queen Victoria, who announced she would be singing her favorite of his songs, “Italien.” Felix was forced to admit that the work was actually by his sister Fanny! 

Fanny’s husband, the painter Wilhelm Hensel, was supportive of her composing. Her works were performed alongside her brother’s at the family’s house concerts in Berlin (Sonntageskonzerte). Her only known public performance took place in 1838 when Fanny played Felix’s Piano Concerto No. 1. As it was, she was not identified as the performer on the program - rather it listed the work was performed by a relative.

By contrast, Sophia Corri’s family encouraged her musical career. From a very young age, she studied voice with her father, Domenico Corri, an Italian composer, impresario, and music publisher who immigrated to London from Italy (via several years in Edinburgh). In addition to becoming an acclaimed soprano, she also became an accomplished harpist, pianist, and composer.

Sophia made her London debut in 1791 on the notable Salomon concerts with Haydn directing from the harpsichord. She became a frequent featured soprano on that series. She also was soprano soloist for the first performance of Mozart’s Requiem given in London.

In 1792, at the tender age of 16, she met her husband-to-be, the renowned traveling piano virtuoso Jan Ladislav Dussek who had recently arrived in London. The two of course met through their common musical circles—in addition to singing, she had already been performing on both piano and harp. After only a year, the two married, and shortly thereafter, Dussek entered into a publishing partnership with Sophia’s father.

Their marital partnership became rocky after only a few years. Sophia made a failed attempt to leave London with another man, and when the Corri-Dussek business faltered (and debtors were knocking at the door), Dussek fled to Hamburg to avoid prison. By that point, the couple had just given birth to their only daughter, Olivia.

After Dussek died in 1812, Sophia was able to remarry. She settled in Paddington with her husband the viola player John Alvis Moralt and established a music school. She continued to perform and compose, most especially for the harp and piano. To this day, her compositions for harp remain a vital part of harp repertoire.

In early August, Artistic Directors Suzanne Stumpf and Daniel Ryan traveled to Salt Lake City to give a lecture-recital at The National Flute Association conference. The performance and presentation, entitled “Baroque Rediscoveries from the Old and New Worlds” centered about their research recovering “lost” chamber music for flute and to discuss their publications OPR Editions that make this music available to a wider public. They are joined by flutist and longtime colleague María Diez Canedo from Mexico. Music included works by the Pla brothers, Tessarini, Lampe, and others, scored for 2 flutes and harpsichord.

The presentation was very well-received, with the audience asking excellent questions afterwards. Many of our OPR Editions of the rediscovered works were purchased by attendees.

Musicians of the Old Post Road shoot for the ‘Stars’

By John Zeugner, Telegram & Gazette Reviewer

It’s no secret that classical music, like everything truthful, rational, beautiful and compassionate, has been losing ground lately. And there are lots of attempted cures: live orchestral accompaniment to intensely popular films; flash crowd-sourced concerts; highly flexible small chamber orchestras (A Far Cry, The Knights); new off-beat venues (nightclubs, waterfront penthouses) for contemporary compositions; steep discounts for under age audiences; and the apparent winner — themed programs that subsume composers under bold titles that suggest potential audiences will find a way into something more than music.

Case in point: “Stars in Their Eyes,” Thursday night’s concert at the Worcester Historical Museum by Musicians of the Old Post Road. One could also point to Worcester Chamber Music Society’s recent concerts boldly titled: “Love and Vengeance”; “Vampires and Crocodiles”; “Censored Identity.” What’s in a name? Maybe a wider audience.

SITE’s bold-titled theme encompassed the surprising proposition that fairly obscure 18th century scientists with astronomical interests also wrote music. SITE took an added step and provided an interesting mini lecture before the concert by Harvard astronomer, James Moran, with details about William Herschel, the most celebrated astronomer of his time for his discovery of the planet Uranus. Herschel was a German émigré to Bath, England, where he was that legendary town’s band director and resident composer until his telescope production and successful data mining of the night sky overflooded and buried his musical career. Moran also supplied information about our own father of rocketry, Robert Goddard.

Only hyper cognoscenti have ever heard of scientist-composers Johann Christopher Schmidt, John Marsh, Johan Daniel Berlin or Carl Frederich Baumgarten. The ever energetic Musicians of the Old Post Road had dug out some of those scientists’ neglected scores, and, characteristically, gave them superbly polished performances. Schmidt’s Chaconne from his Les Quatre Saisons certainly had elements of Vivaldi’s better known version, especially in the supple traverso/flute work of Suzanne Stumpf and her guest partner Rachel Carpentier. Their sweet sound in this piece and also in Baumgarten’s enlarged quartet in the concert’s second half spiraled above and through deft string accompaniment by violinists Sarah Darling, and Jesse Irons, Marcia Cassidy viola and cellist Daniel Ryan. As always Michael Bahmann’s gifted harpsichord playing provided solid underpinning.

For this reviewer, Herschel’s “Symphonia di Camera in F Minor” was the most arresting music of the evening. There was a darker, denser tone to his three movements which seem far less derivative. Marsh’s String Quartet seemed a pale mimic of Haydn’s more spritely and beguiling efforts. Herschel’s work, on the other hand, commanded attention and had almost romantic era anticipations in its suppressed energy and churning but sturdy individual lines. A SITE 2.0 might entirely focus on Herschel.

There was one traditional gesture toward well-knowness: the concert ended with three selections from Rameau’s opera “Castor et Pollux,” and featured guest soprano Kristen Watson resplendent in a black sleeveless gown and striking mirror-grey long scarf. Her delivery in the second “Ariette” movement was sumptuous and stunning as she sang out “Shine, shine, new stars” neatly tying up SITE’s theme.

https://www.telegram.com/entertainmentlife/20190503/musicians-of-old-post-road-shoot-for-stars

2019 marks the 300th anniversary of the Dresden Festival of the Planets. In 1719, the Dresden court reached its climax of cultural display for the marriage of the Crown Prince Friedrich Augustus to Maria Josepha, daughter of the Emperor Joseph I of Austria. This weeks-long spectacle centered on musical works created to celebrate the six planets known at that time.

Among the many court activities was the performance on September 23rd of Kapellmeister Johann Christoph Schmidt’s French divertissement, Les quatres saisons, part of the Festival of Venus. An open air stage was constructed for this performance in the Grossen Garten, and it is said to have been danced by more than 100 members of the court.

Our 2018-19 season finale program “Stars in Their Eyes,” features music by 18th-century scientist-musicians and other works inspired by stargazing. We have chosen to include Schmidt's wonderful chaconne from his Les quatres saisons on this concert that concludes our season exploring the impact of the Enlightenment on 18th-century music and culture.

The musician/astronomer Caroline Lucretia Herschel was a younger sister to William Herschel, one of the featured scientist-composers for our “Stars in Their Eyes” program. Like her older brother, she was also an accomplished musician, playing harpsichord and performing as a vocal soloist for the oratorio concerts her brother organized in Bath.

Born in Hanover, Caroline was struck by typhus at the age of ten, which stunted her growth—she never grew taller than 4 feet, 3 inches. After her father’s death, she journeyed to England in 1772 to join William who had been sent there earlier by their father for refuge. She managed William’s household affairs, participated in his music-making activities, and eventually began assisting him with his work in astronomy as that interest came to the fore and began to dominate his career path.

Although she worked with William throughout her own career as an astronomer, eventually she developed more independence in her research pursuits and is credited with the discovery of several comets. She was the first woman to receive a salary as a scientist and was the first woman to be awarded a Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomy Society (1828). The King of Prussia presented her with a Gold Medal for Science on her 96th birthday (1846). She lived to be 97 years old.

by Suzanne Stumpf

In looking back at the art of past centuries today, we all know who the most worthy composers were, right? Names such as Mozart and Beethoven always float to the surface.

It has become part of our mission to not only identify these sidelined composers and to discover their interesting works, but even more importantly to endeavor to understand and convey their language and their pioneering efforts as convincingly as possible for today’s audiences. Although without question there is a reason for the recognition of our popular composers, there are treasures by the colleagues who surrounded them that have been unjustly forgotten or lost by mere happenstance. Finding and presenting the bigger picture can only enrich everyone’s enjoyment.

Read the full article here:

https://www.earlymusicamerica.org/web-articles/musicians-of-the-old-post-road-at-30/

Feeling grateful!! Thanks to all who attended our recent "Mozart's Viennese Circle" concerts. Both the Parish Hall at Emmanuel in Boston and the First Parish in Wayland were packed! We so appreciated everyone's enthusiasm and the lively discussions about our "quartet" of composers at the receptions. Onward now to our season closer, "Stars in the Eyes," exploring repertoire by cutting-edge 18th-century scientist-musicians and rarely-heard Baroque music inspired by gazing at the sky!