Emilie Mayer was born in 1812. She never married, and had an inclination toward music from childhood, but she took up composition seriously only after her father's suicide in 1840. She was quite prolific, writing eight symphonies (several are lost) as well as an opera, a Piano Concerto, and a good deal of chamber music. The Symphony No. 4 in B minor recorded here was almost lost too, but conductor Stefan Malzew provides a reconstruction based on a four-hand piano score published in 1860. His work is straightforward in its ...
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Emilie Mayer was born in 1812. She never married, and had an inclination toward music from childhood, but she took up composition seriously only after her father's suicide in 1840. She was quite prolific, writing eight symphonies (several are lost) as well as an opera, a Piano Concerto, and a good deal of chamber music. The Symphony No. 4 in B minor recorded here was almost lost too, but conductor Stefan Malzew provides a reconstruction based on a four-hand piano score published in 1860. His work is straightforward in its orchestration, but what is conveyed is enough to establish the work as the strongest one on the album. Mayer had a substantial melodic gift that strikes the listener most strongly in the symphony, where it makes inroads into unexpected places. The Piano Concerto, String Quartet, and Piano Sonata are more Mozartian, but by no means pedestrian or derivative. The slow movement of the piano sonata has Chopinesque ornamentation. At the end you get a waltz, with the Stockhausen-like title...
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![Mayer: Symphony No. 4 [Ewa Kupiec; Yang Tai; Klenke Quartett; Neubrandenburger Philharmonie; Stefan Malzew; Sebastian Tewinkel] [Capriccio: C5339]](https://www3.alibris-static.com/cover/o48445pz1il_t.jpg)
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