Farrenc: Solo Piano Works, Vol. 2 – The Silence Between the Notes Joanne Polk

• Louise Farrenc (1804 - 1875): Mélodie in A-Flat Major:
• 1Farrenc: Mélodie in A-Flat Major02:03
• 12 Études de dextérité, Op. 41:
• 2Farrenc: 12 Études de dextérité, Op. 41: No. 1, Allegro con fuoco02:03
• 3Farrenc: 12 Études de dextérité, Op. 41: No. 2, Allegro moderato02:28
• 4Farrenc: 12 Études de dextérité, Op. 41: No. 3, Allegro01:54
• 5Farrenc: 12 Études de dextérité, Op. 41: No. 4, Allegretto01:50
• 6Farrenc: 12 Études de dextérité, Op. 41: No. 5, Andante con moto04:12
• 7Farrenc: 12 Études de dextérité, Op. 41: No. 6, Allegro maestoso02:17
• 8Farrenc: 12 Études de dextérité, Op. 41: No. 7, Andante espressivo01:59
• 9Farrenc: 12 Études de dextérité, Op. 41: No. 8, Allegro01:50
• 10Farrenc: 12 Études de dextérité, Op. 41: No. 9, Vivace01:35
• 11Farrenc: 12 Études de dextérité, Op. 41: No. 10, Vivace01:37
• 12Farrenc: 12 Études de dextérité, Op. 41: No. 11, Allegro01:18
• 13Farrenc: 12 Études de dextérité, Op. 41: No. 12, Moderato02:17
• 30 Études, Op. 26:
• 14Farrenc: 30 Études, Op. 26: No. 2, Moderato01:19
• 15Farrenc: 30 Études, Op. 26: No. 7, Andante espressivo01:54
• 16Farrenc: 30 Études, Op. 26: No. 8, Andantino03:53
• 17Farrenc: 30 Études, Op. 26: No. 13, Moderato02:02
• 18Farrenc: 30 Études, Op. 26: No. 16, Andante grazioso02:06
• 19Farrenc: 30 Études, Op. 26: No. 19, Presto02:09
• 20Farrenc: 30 Études, Op. 26: No. 20, Allegretto01:42
• 21Farrenc: 30 Études, Op. 26: No. 23, Fuga01:27
• 22Farrenc: 30 Études, Op. 26: No. 26, Moderato02:01
• 23Farrenc: 30 Études, Op. 26: No. 27, Allegro agitato03:29
• 24Farrenc: 30 Études, Op. 26: No. 28, Allegro spiritoso01:31
• 25Farrenc: 30 Études, Op. 26: No. 30, Allegro01:47
• Les italiennes, Op. 14:
• 26Farrenc: Les italiennes, Op. 14: No. 2, Cavatine de Bellini's "La straniera"07:35
• 27Farrenc: Les italiennes, Op. 14: No. 3, Cavatine de Carafa's "Bérénice"08:39
• Total Runtime01:08:57

Info for Farrenc: Solo Piano Works, Vol. 2 – The Silence Between the Notes

"The Silence Between the Notes - Louise Farrenc: Solo Piano Works, Vol. 2" is the new album from pianist Joanne Polk. The album is a compliment to Polk's acclaimed 2020 release, Louise Farrenc: Etudes & Variations for Solo Piano.

As the first female professor of piano at the Paris Conservatory in 1842, Farrenc broke the long-standing barrier of gender discrimination at the Conservatory, and as a published composer of music for solo piano, chamber ensembles, and orchestra she was able to establish the legitimacy of music by women in the face of accepted theories of their inferiority as creative artists. Like the handful of her female colleagues who became published composers (Fanny Mendelssohn and Clara Schumann in particular), Farrenc studied composition privately with some of the same teachers who instructed her famous male counterparts at the Paris Conservatory. And her success as a published composer had to do in part with the fact that her husband, Jacques Farrenc, was a leading Parisian music publisher who was not afraid to promote his wife’s music through publication. Regrettably, it often took familial connections of this sort to allow women in the 19th century to succeed as composers and to destroy the common prejudices against female composers of that era.

This new recording includes twelve more of the 30 Etudes that formed a large part of Joanne Polk’s first volume of the piano music of Louise Farrenc. These are, like the etudes of Liszt and Chopin, large-scale concert works that also serve to develop different specific pianistic techniques. Further expanding the recording of Farrenc’s etudes is the inclusion here of her 12 Études brillantes, written in the same virtuoso style as her 30 Etudes.

Also recorded on this album are two more examples of Farrenc’s operatic fantasies: one based on an aria from Bellini’s opera La straniera, and the other from Carafa’s opera Berenice. Both of these piano works are part of the familiar 19th-century tradition of composing transcriptions of tunes from popular operas that were currently in production at the Paris Opéra. These transcriptions were part of a collection that Farrenc published under the title Les Italiennes.

Opening the present recording is a short, lyrical piece titled simply Mélodie, an example of the popular 19th-century genre known as “songs without words.” This poetic gem speaks volumes to the depth and profundity of Farrenc’s ability to touch our souls, and to hear the silence between the notes. (Dr. Jeffrey Langford)

Joanne Polk, piano

Joanne Polk
was catapulted into the public eye with her recordings of the complete piano works of American composer Amy Beach (1867–1944) on the Arabesque Recordings label. She celebrated the centennial of Beach’s Piano Concerto by giving the work its London premiere with the English Chamber Orchestra at the Barbican Center, under the baton of Paul Goodwin, and subsequently performed it with the Women’s Philharmonic in San Francisco, under conductor Apo Hsu, in a performance described as “brilliant” by critic Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle. He lauded her performance as “an enormously vital, imaginative reading. Her playing was expansive in the opening movement, brittle and keen in the delightful scherzo. She brought a light touch to the foreshortened slow movement and fearless technical panache to the showy conclusion.”

As a result of her work to date, promoting the music of women composers, she was named one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of the Year (2014) in an article titled, “Profiles in Courage.” In September 2014, Ms. Polk’s most recent CD, The Flatterer, solo piano music of French Romantic composer Cécile Chaminade, was released on the Steinway and Sons Label. The CD was a “Pick of the Week” on New York’s classical radio station, WQXR, and debuted at Number 1 on the Classical Billboard Chart.

Her first recording in the Amy Beach series, by the still waters, received the 1998 INDIE award for best solo recording. Empress of Night, the fifth volume of Ms. Polk’s survey of Beach’s piano works, includes the Piano Concerto with the English Chamber Orchestra, Paul Goodwin conducting. The sixth volume, Morning Glories, partners Ms. Polk with the Lark Quartet in three of Amy Beach’s chamber music works. Two all-Beach performances at Merkin Concert Hall, also with the Lark Quartet, were applauded by the New York Times, which praised Polk’s “polished and assured” performances. The American Record Guide reported, “Polk and the Larks played their hearts out. We in the audience shouted ourselves hoarse with gratitude.” Her 2007 CD titled Songs of Amy Beach, recorded with baritone Patrick Mason for Bridge Records, was nominated for a 2007 Grammy Award.

In 2010, Ms. Polk’s two-CD set of solo piano music by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, Songs for Pianoforte, was released on the Newport Classic label. Her solo CD, Fanny and Felix Mendelssohn, was released in 2012 on the Bridge Records label. Completely Clara: Lieder by Clara Wieck Schumann, her debut CD for Arabesque Recording, featuring Metropolitan Opera soprano Korliss Uecker, was selected as a “Best of the Year” recording by the Seattle Times and featured on New York Public Radio’s Performance Today. Ms. Polk’s CD for Albany Records, Callisto, features the solo piano music of Judith Lang Zaimont.

Joanne Polk received her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Juilliard School, and her Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Manhattan School of Music. She has given master classes at many summer festivals and universities across the country, including Summit Music Festival, New York Summer Music Festival, Montclair State University, Kutztown University, and the University of Minnesota. In August 2012, Ms. Polk was one of four directors who launched Manhattan in the Mountains, a three-week summer music festival in the Catskill Mountains, devoted to chamber music, solo performing, and community engagement.

Ms. Polk is an exclusive Steinway artist.

This album contains no booklet.