Susan Tomes' album Women and the Piano, released on Hyperion, is an attractive compilation that emerged from her research for a book on female pianists across history. As she discovered, many of these women also wrote music, producing short works for the salons and domestic circles to which they were frequently restricted.
A dozen composers, familiar and new
Thanks to pioneering performers such as Tomes, some of the dozen women presented here are familiar names, but several will be new to many, as will their appealing compositions. Among them is Marianne Martines, who received lessons in lieu of rent from the family lodger, Haydn. Her miniature A major sonata possesses the sparkle of Scarlatti.
Marianna von Auenbrugger died aged 23, but she was taught by Salieri, who paid for the publication of the Mozartian E-flat major sonata recorded here. Music by Clara Schumann, Fanny Mendelssohn and Cécile Chaminade needs little introduction, but the album also introduces Polish virtuoso Maria Agata Szymanowska, whose Caprice sur la Romance de Joconde was dedicated to her St Petersburg neighbour, John Field.
Rare repertoire and poetic touch
Venezuelan pianist Teresa Carreño, who played for Abraham Lincoln, contributes Un Bal en Rêve, which appears to channel Happy Birthday a quarter century before it was published. Raie Da Costa's syncopated Razor Blades is pure Billy Mayerl.
None of this would be half so rewarding if it were not for Tomes' poetic instincts. Her sensitive touch, combined with Hyperion's natural sound, give this polite and appealing music ample room to make its case.
