Farrenc: Symphonies Nos. 2 and 3

Pursuing a musical career was no easy matter for women in the 19th century, but Louise Farrenc’s character and determination resulted in her becoming a respected part of the European scene, and the first ever female senior professor of piano at the Paris Conservatoire. Farrenc’s Second Symphony owes something to Mozartian models, with imaginative writing for winds and hints of Beethoven. The Third Symphony is notable for a richness of harmonic writing which, in its colour and lyricism, is reminiscent of Mendelssohn and Schumann.