Louise Farrenc: Complete Works for Violin and Fortepiano (CD)

Anders Muskens, fortepiano, and Aleksandra Kwiatkowska, historical violin, present a new album of the complete works for violin and fortepiano by an important female composer of the nineteenth century: Louise Farrenc (1804–1875). Farrenc was a highly regarded virtuoso pianist and composer, considerably famous in her times also as an editor and pedagogue. Unfortunately today, her fame and compositions are nearly all forgotten, just like those of many other female composers. Seeking to revive her music, this album presents Farrenc’s complete works for violin and pianoforte recorded for the first time on period instruments, with a Georg Klotz violin c. 1796, loaned from the Dutch Nationaal Muziekinstrumenten Fonds collection, and a Joseph Johann Brodmann fortepiano, built in Vienna c. 1827, from the Schloss Weißenbrunn Foundation collection. Recorded in October 2022 in the context of the 2022 Artist-in-Residence Programme for strings and fortepiano, this album was produced with the generous support of the Schloss Weißenbrunn Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Adriana Jacoba Fonds, and the Geelvinck Muziek Musea. 

Track Listing

1. Violin Sonata No. 1, Op. 37: I. Largo-Allegro

2. Violin Sonata No. 1, Op. 37: II. Poco adagio

3. Violin Sonata No. 1, Op. 37: III. Finale. Allegro vivace

4. Violin Sonata No. 2, Op .39: I. Allegro grazioso

5. Violin Sonata No. 2, Op .39: II. Scherzo. Allegro

6. Violin Sonata No. 2, Op .39: III. Adagio

7. Violin Sonata No. 2, Op .39: IV. Finale. Allegro
   Variations concertantes sur une mélodie Suisse, Op. 20