Ethel Smyth Musique de chambre vol 1 & 2 Eggebrecht Kupsa Dutilly Quatuor Mendelssohn

The English composer was born in Kent on 23rd April 1858, the fourth of eight children of John H. Smyth, a major-general in the Royal Artillery, and his wife Nina, nee Struth. Ethel received her first piano lessons at the age of nine. After years of violent opposition by her father, Ethel Smyth began to study composition under C. Reinecke and S. Jadassohn at the Leipzig Conservatoire in 1877. One year later she became H. von Herzogenberg’s private pupil. Her early piano pieces and chamber-music works date from her time in Leipzig, as do the songs and ballads, Op. 3 and Op. 4, which were first recorded by Troubadisc (TRO-CD 01417). Among her many orchestral works and operas, the most famous are the Mass in D and the opera “The Wreckers”. 2 Between 1902 and 1912 she composed her String Quartet in E minor. “This quartet is composed in the classical mode, but with its extended harmonies, superimpositions in fourths and whole-tone motifs, as well as echoes of a kinetic energy in the style of Bartók in the finale, it certainly displays modern elements, too." The first recording of this work, together with other pieces of chamber music, is available on a Troubadisc CD (TRO- CD 01403). Other important works by the composer are her Four Songs for Mezzo-Soprano and Chamber-music Ensemble from 1907 and the Double Concerto in A for Violin, Horn and Orchestra from 1926 (TRO-CD 01405). Her great work for soloists, chorus and orchestra, "The Prison" was composed in 1930. For two years, Ethel Smyth devoted her energy to the Suffragette Movement in Britain. Through her own literary works (she wrote ten autobiographical books), she became a close friend of the author Virginia Woolf. In 1910 the University of Durham awarded her an honorary degree as Doctor of Music. In 1922 King George V honoured her with the title “Dame of the Order of the British Empire". This was followed by two further honorary doctorates: from the University of Oxford in 1926 and the University of St. Andrews in 1928. Ethel Smyth died in Woking on 8th May 1944.