One could hardly intuit from these fresh and flowing violin sonatas the obstacles their female composers had to face - family opposition for Mel Bonis in France and Ethel Smyth in England, institutional conservatism for Elfrida AndrÃ©e in Sweden. It has taken a century and more for that initial prejudice to fall away, and they are now beginning to attract a fair hearing for their music. What ultimately matters, of course, is not whether composers are male or female but whether they write good music, and these three sonatas - melodically expansive, rhythmically vivacious, harmonically warm - point to the musical riches that further exploration of their creators' output will uncover.

Tracklist:

Violin Sonata in B Flat Major~Allegro con spirito
Violin Sonata in B Flat Major~Andante cantabile
Violin Sonata in B Flat Major~Finale. Allegro moderato e risoluto
Violin Sonata in F Sharp Minor, Op. 112~Moderato
Violin Sonata in F Sharp Minor, Op. 112~Presto
Violin Sonata in F Sharp Minor, Op. 112~Lento (ThÃ¨me Populaire Grec Recueilli Par Bourgault-Ducoudray)
Violin Sonata in F Sharp Minor, Op. 112~Final. Con moto
Violin Sonata in A Minor, Op. 7~Allegro Moderato
Violin Sonata in A Minor, Op. 7~Scherzo. Allegro grazioso
Violin Sonata in A Minor, Op. 7~Romanze. Andante grazioso
Violin Sonata in A Minor, Op. 7~Finale. Allegro vivace

UPC: 5060640070134
Label: Toccata
Release Date: 8.20.21
Format: CD

Andree / Vogel / Cesetti - First Ladies (CD)