Helene de Montgeroult

By Edna Stern

Item Number: NX.ORC100063

Imagine a composer, a woman, living during the classical times of the late 18th century in France. Her country is torn by revolution and grand revolutionary ideas. It is astonishing that France, who produced great composers throughout music history, failed to produce a great figure during the classical times. Or maybe it has and we don't know about it. It is hard not to see the similarities between Chopin's Revolutionary Etude and Montgeroult's Etude No.107, or between the album's opening piece, the F minor Fugue and Mendelssohn's Fugue Op.35 No.1. Helene de Montgeroult wrote and published all her music between 1795 and 1812, either before or just around the time Chopin and Mendelssohn were born. It is fitting that the ideas of equality of the French Revolution coincided with the life of a great woman composer. It is fitting, as well, that her importance and influence in the history of music be recognized today and the oversight of her achievements be corrected.

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