Musicians put focus on the lesser played pieces

Apr. 15—PLATTSBURGH — Hannah Holman and Réne Lecuona possess an affinity for finding works breathtakingly beautiful but not often played or very well known.

Holman is a cellist for the New York City Ballet Orchestra and principal cellist of the Quad City Symphony.

Dr. Lecuona is professor of piano at The University of Iowa has been praised by critics in here and abroad for her chamber music interpretations and solo performances.

Their last CD, "Trouvaille" ("Lucky Find") featured pieces by French composer Louis Vierne and Hungarian composer Ernö Dohnányi.

"It was focused on three romantic sonatas that are underplayed," Holman said.

"So, we brought them to the table."

'ETHEL, DORA & LUDWIG'

This Saturday at 7:30 p.m. via Zoom, the duo brings to Piano By Nature "Ethel, Dora & a Gent Called Ludwig."

The program features: Ethel Smyth "Sonata for Cello and Piano in A minor, Opus 5:" Dora Pejačević "Sonata for Cello and Piano in E minor, Op. 35 1st movement-Allegro moderato;" and Ludwig Beethoven "Sonata in G minor for Piano and Cello, Opus 5 No. 2."

Smyth and Pejačević reflect the duo's women forward decision to uplift women's voices.

"So, we did some research," Holman said.

"Réne did a lot of research on women composers that wrote for the cello and piano. And we found there were so many, it was actually hard to narrow it down."

But they did to three and received a grant from the University of Iowa to record a CD of three works: Ethel Smyth (English composer, 1858-1944): "Sonata for Cello and Piano in A minor, Op. 5" (1887); Dora Pejačević (Croatian composer, 1885-1923): "Sonata for Cello and Piano in E minor, Op. 35 (1913)" and Henriëtte Bosmans (Dutch composer, 1995-1952): "Sonata for Cello and Piano in A minor, Op. 13" (1919).

"We are presenting one full sonata from this project, plus one movement as an appetizer on the second work," Holman said.

"We want to also bring out one of our old friends, which was the Beethoven G minor sonata.

"The Ethel Smyth is a complete sonata by an English woman who was incredible, and then the Dora Pejačević, we are doing one movement. So that's kind of how we constructed the program."

UNCONVENTIONAL WOMEN

The musicians conducted their research online using resources such as YouTube, Spotify, WorldCat as well as the University of Iowa library and a very good librarian there.

"One of the things that we noticed is that not only did we hear little strains of this music and read about the incredible lives these women led, but also, the Pejačević, we realized there was only one recording in existence where there are hundreds of recordings of the Beethoven," Holman said.

"I don't think there's been a pairing of these particular three women together, and so it's super exciting for us that we are getting the chance to not only bring it to the people and have a chance to record it for the future."

Previously, Lecuona researched women composers to create a new piano literature course at the University of Iowa featuring solo piano works for women composers.

"It was very eye-opening to me that many of the women composers were extremely successful during their own lifetimes," she said.

Lecuona cited Élisabeth de Haulteterre in the French court in the early 18th century, Teresa Carreño, a rock star all throughout the 19th century.

"Innumerable women were extremely successful," she said.

"Marianne Martinez was very successful. She played duets with Mozart and had singing lessons with famous people; Haydn accompanying her on the piano during her singing lessons.

"It was very interesting and we need to recognize women from privileged backgrounds or, number two, women from professional musical families were extremely successful."

Lecuona's theory is that classism trumped sexism.

"I'm not a scholar," she said.

"I am a piano professor who dabbles in scholarship. So, a professor in women's studies, I don't know what they would think, but this is my observation."

NOBLE BLOOD

Pejačević was the daughter of Hungarian-Croatian Count Teodor Pejacsevich and Hungarian Baroness Lilla Vay de Vaya.

"Of course, she was not allowed due to her gender, to study formally, but she had access to fantastic private tutors," Lecuona said.

"So the family name and fortune opened doors to her. She was a lifelong student. I'm not casting aspersions on her. She devoted herself to literature and history, music composition. She was a fabulous pianist."

In Munich in 1923, Pejačević tragically died in her mid-30s from complications after childbirth with her son, Theo.

"That took a lot of women in those days," Lecuona said.

"It was like going to battle."

ROYAL BATTLE

Smyth took a stand for her artistic freedom squaring-off against her father, Major General John Hall Smyth, who served in Royal Artillery.

"Smyth was the daughter of a well-to-do military figure," Lecuona said.

"So once again, her family had the resources. Following a very protracted fight with her father, in the end he supported her going to Germany to study. And there she met, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Clara Schumann. So, she had resources behind her."

Smyth's opera, Der Wald ('The Woods') was the first opera written by a woman and produced at New York Metropolitan Opera in 1905.

PRIVILEGED POSITION

"Henriëtte Bosmans, which we are not performing on Saturday, but which is the third sonata we are going to do for our CD," Lecuona said.

"She was the daughter of two of the Netherlands most important musicians."

Bosmans' father was principal cellist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and her mother, pianist Sara Benedicts, was a piano teacher at the Amsterdam Conservatory.

"Henriëtte soloed as a pianist with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, one of the world's greatest orchestras, more than 100 times," Lecuona said.

"So where the sexism I think comes in is the survival of the legacy. I take responsibility for probably very flawed theories, but that is my theory. "

Bosmans and Pejačević were well-known in their respective countries, but not elsewhere.

"Smyth is the most famous of the three," Holman said.

"She was very big in the Suffragette Movement. Just the fact that she was performed at the Met in 1905, she had a bigger reach."

'THE MARCH OF WOMEN'

Lecuona shared a cute story about "Dame Ethel," who was a feminist in the English suffragette movement from 1911 to 1913.

"She had to do some jail time," she said.

"Some of the suffragettes got a little ..."

"Rowdy," Holman said.

"They broke some windows in some places," Lecuona said.

Sir Thomas Beecham came to visit the jailed Smyth in Holloway Prison, where she did a two-month bid.

"She was conducting a hymn or a song ('The March of the Women') that she had written for the women's movement," Lecuona said.

"He found her conducting the choir on a balcony with a toothbrush.

"We think that Ludwig Beethoven and Ethel Smyth, in particular, would have really gotten along. They were both revolutionaries."

Email Robin Caudell:

rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Twitter:@RobinCaudell

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Piano By Nature presents "Ethel, Dora & A Gent Called Ludwig" featuring Hannah Holman, cello, and Réne Lecuona, piano, in a virtual concert.

WHEN: 7:30 p.m., Saturday, April 17.

ADMISSION: Free of charge.

SIGN-UP: At the bottom of the front page of website (www.pianobynature.org). A link will be sent on the day of the concert and all viewers need to do is 'press play' when the 'doors' open anytime after 6:30 p.m. EST. If viewers wish to listen later or listen again, go to Hannah and Rene's concert page on Piano by Nature website to find the published link to their concert. Watch it as many times as you like for two weeks.