• Eternal Feminine Podcast Series

    Amice Calverley

    October 23, 2020

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    In this episode of The Eternal Feminine Podcast Series, we discuss Canadian composer Amice Calverley (1896-1959). Born in London (UK) to Edmund Leveson Calverley and Sybil (née Salvin) Calverley, Amice and her family ultimately settled in Oakville, Ontario (Canada) in 1912. Calverley studied composition under famed composers Healey Willan and Ralph Vaughan Williams before pursuing a career in archaeology. Her entire body of compositions (mostly from her studies with Willan) have been entrusted to the care of the Canadian Music Centre in Toronto by her niece, Sybil Rampen.

    We were very fortunate to interview Ms. Rampen, who offered a unique perspective on Calverley’s life and works.

    Listen to the full podcast to hear excerpts from our interview with Ms. Rampen, as well as our recording of Calverley’s delightful Cradle Song.

    Watch the full video interview with Ms. Rampen here.

    Read more about Calverley in “Inter-National Treasure.”

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  • Eternal Feminine Podcast Series

    Augusta Holmès

    October 10, 2020

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    In this episode of The Eternal Feminine Podcast Series, we discuss French composer Augusta Holmès (1847-1903). Holmès was a prolific creator and resolutely independent woman whose impressive list of friends and admirers included Saint-Saëns, Liszt, Franck, Renoir, Rodin, and Wagner. A fiercely determined composer, her many creations ranged from operas and cantatas to symphonic and instrumental works. Sadly, much of her music remains unpublished to this day and despite her widespread popularity during her lifetime, her life and works have only recently begun to be rediscovered.

    Listen to the full podcast to hear our discussion of this remarkable woman and our recording of Holmès’ delightful pastiche Le ruban rose.

    Read more about Holmès in “More Than a Muse.”

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  • Eternal Feminine Podcast Series

    Liza Lehmann & Radclyffe Hall

    September 25, 2020

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    In this episode of The Eternal Feminine Podcast Series, we discuss two women: English composer Liza Lehmann (1862-1918) and English poet Radclyffe Hall (1880-1943). Both women lived during the turn of the 19th century; Lehmann was the daughter of famed portrait painter Rudolph Lehmann and his wife Amelia, a singer, composer, and amateur artist. Liza Lehmann enjoyed a successful, if not short career as a concert singer, gaining the admiration of audiences at home and abroad. She began composing after her marriage to Herbert Bedford, an equally talented composer, writer, and inventor. Radclyffe Hall was a novelist and poet, best known for her novel The Well of Loneliness, which sought to raise awareness and understanding of lesbianism in society at large. Her first partner, Mabel Batten, was a well-known amateur singer and composer and it is likely due to this connection that Lehmann knew Radclyffe Hall and came to set her poetry.

    Listen to the full podcast to hear our discussion of these two remarkable women and our recording of the piece “The Silver Rose.”

    Read more about Liza Lehmann and Radclyffe Hall in “A Whole Lotta Lehmann” and “Trial by Tabloid”.

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  • Eternal Feminine Podcast Series

    Clara Schumann

    September 12, 2020

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    In this episode of The Eternal Feminine Podcast Series, we discuss Clara Schumann (née Wieck) (1819-1896). Clara was born into a musical household and her father, pianist and teacher Friedrich Wieck, was determined that Clara should be a musical star from an early age. She soon won the hearts of the public, both in her native Germany and abroad, and relished her elevated status as a celebrated musician. Her marriage to the composer Robert Schumann in 1840 marked a change in her own compositional output, probably because she was the primary breadwinner of the family; Clara still gave concert tours despite having 8 children to raise and an increasingly ill husband. A fiercely determined woman, she continued touring and teaching until shortly before her death in 1896.

    Listen to the full podcast to hear our discussion of this amazing woman and our recording of Schumann’s tender Liebst du um Schönheit.

    Read more about “The Queen of the Piano.”

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  • Eternal Feminine Podcast Series

    Fanny Hensel

    August 29, 2020

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    In this episode of The Eternal Feminine Podcast Series, we discuss Fanny Hensel (née Mendelssohn, later Mendelssohn-Bartholdy) (1805-1847). Born into a prominent German Jewish family, Fanny showed promising musical talent from an early age, but was prevented from pursuing a musical career by social conventions of the time, as well as the strict opinions of her father and brother (the composer Felix Mendelssohn). She contented herself with being a “critical eye” to her brother’s works (with whom she shared a close relationship), and eventually married Wilhelm Hensel, a painter, who, happily, encouraged her in her musical pursuits. Fanny Hensel composed over 400 musical works during her short lifetime ranging from vocal and piano works to chamber works and cantatas.

    Listen to the full podcast to hear our discussion of this amazing woman and our recording of Hensel’s beautiful piece Sehnsucht nach Italien.

    To learn more about Hensel’s fascinating roots and legacy, read our article “What’s in a name?”

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  • Eternal Feminine Podcast Series

    Alma Mahler-Werfel

    August 14, 2020

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    In this episode of The Eternal Feminine Podcast Series, we discuss Alma Mahler-Werfel (née Schindler) (1879-1964). Born to a well-known Viennese painter and his singer wife, Alma gained a certain notoriety through her marriages to Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius and Franz Werfel, and her relationships with such notables as Alexander von Zemlinsky and Oskar Kokoschka. What is perhaps somewhat less explored about Alma’s life is that she also aspired to be a composer at one point, and that she left behind a portfolio of compositions that are quite well-constructed and interesting in their own right.

    Listen to the full podcast for more about her and our live recording of Ansturm.

    To learn more about Alma Mahler-Werfel’s life, check out “There’s Something about Alma”.

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  • Eternal Feminine Podcast Series

    Poldowski (Régine Wieniawski)

    July 31, 2020

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    In this episode of The Eternal Feminine Podcast Series, we discuss Polish/British pianist and composer Poldowski (1879-1932). A woman of many names, Poldowski was born Irena Régine (Regina) Wieniawski in Belgium to an English mother (Isabella Wieniawski née Hampton) and the famous Polish violinist Henryk (Henri) Wieniawski. Young Régine showed musical talent at a young age and was the only one of her siblings to become a musician. She eventually married into the English aristocracy (thus becoming Lady Dean Paul), and made a name for herself as a sensitive composer of many genres, particularly in her setting of French poetry.

    Listen to the full podcast for more insight into this somewhat elusive figure and hear our live recording of her poignant work Berceuse d’Armorique, which she wrote after the death of her young son.

    To learn more about Poldowski’s famously colorful family, check out “From Tsars to Stars.”

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  • Pauline Viardot-Garcia
    Eternal Feminine Podcast Series

    Pauline Viardot

    July 27, 2020

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    In our first episode of The Eternal Feminine Podcast Series, we discuss French composer and opera singer Pauline Viardot-Garcia (1821-1910). We know her primarily as one of the legendary divas of the 19th century, famed and fêted for the exquisite beauty of her voice and the passion which she infused into her performances. As a singer, she was not only brilliant in her art, but also a very savvy businesswoman. Later, she would become a great voice teacher as well, following in the Garcia family tradition.

    And yet, as much as that would have been, in and of itself, she was still so much more.

    Listen to the podcast to learn about this multi-faceted creator and artist and to hear our rendition of Viardot’s beautiful piece Haï luli.

    To read more about Viardot, check out “Six Degrees of Pauline Viardot“.

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