Elfrida Andree - Piano Quintet E Minor (1865)

Elfrida Andree

(19 February 1841 – 11 January 1929)

,  Swedish organist, composer, and conductor.

 

 

 Piano Quintet E Minor (1865/24세)

Composer: Elfrida Andrée (19 February 1841 -- 11 January 1929)
- Performers: Midsummer's Music Ensemble
- Year of Recording: 1998

Piano Quintet in E minor, written in 1865.

00:00 - I. Allegro molto vivace
08:13 - II. Andante maestoso
15:10 - III. Finale: Allegro energico

Elfrida Andrée's Piano Quintet would almost certainly have come to the attention of the musical public had she been a man. As it was, despite her great talent, she and her music stood very little chance.

She was born in the Swedish town of Visby on the island of Gotland. The child of avid amateur musicians, she was sent at age 14 to study the organ in Stockholm. She became a virtuoso, the first woman cathedral organist, the first woman conductor and symphonist. Her composition teachers included Ludwig Norman and Niels Gade. Besides her musical work she was politically active and important in the Swedish feminist movement and became the first woman telegraphist. It should be remembered that female composers emerging in the second half of the 19th century did so against the background of the salon and as such most did not obtain a level of composition which went beyond this milieu. Andrée was but one of a very few whose music reached the highest levels of professionalism.

- The influence of Mendelssohn and to a lesser degree Schumann can be heard in the opening Allegro molto vivace. The main theme is muscular and thrusting while the lyrical second theme provides an excellent contrast.
- The following Andante maestoso is an elegy. The gorgeous but funereal main theme is very fine

indeed. The development is more hopeful.
- In the finale, Allegro energico, we again hear the spirit of Schumann in the triumphant opening bars, but here the melodic inspiration is better his. The second theme almost turns the movement into a Romanza

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Andrée was born in Visby. She was the pupil of Ludvig Norman and Niels Wilhelm Gade. Her sister was the singer Fredrika Stenhammar. An activist in the Swedish women's movement, she was one

of the first female organists to be officially appointed in Scandinavia. She began work in Stockholm in 1861 and became the organist at Gothenburg Cathedral in 1867. For her services, she was elected to the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. She died in Gothenburg.

Andrée's two organ symphonies are still performed today. Her other compositions included the opera Fritiofs saga (1899, libretto by Selma Lagerlöf), several works for orchestra including two symphonies, a piano quartet in A minor (1870) and a piano quintet in E minor (published in 1865), a piano trio in G minor (1887) (and another published posthumously in C minor), a string quartet in D minor from 1861 and another in A major, pieces for violin (including sonatas in E flat and B flat major) and for piano, two Swedish masses, an 1879 choral ballade "Snöfrid", and lieder.

A 1996 recording on the Caprice label featured Andrée's piano quintet, along with a piano sonata,

the string quartet in D minor, and vocal music.