Ethel Smyth (1858 - 1944)
4. The Wilderness Years
Thursday 15 July 2004 12:00-13:00 (Radio 3)
Repeated: Thursday 22 July 2004 0:00-1:00 (Radio 3)
Between 1910 and 1912 Ethel Smyth virtually gave up writing music and devoted herself to the suffragist cause. One of the few works Smyth completed in 1912 were the last two movements of her String Quartet in E minor. She had written the first two movements ten years earlier. Smyth was a friend and supporter of Emmeline Pankhurst, and wrote what became the marching anthem for the cause, The March of the Women.
The years leading up to this decision had been difficult for Ethel Smyth. She had experienced conflict over a production of her opera The Wreckers in Leipzig, which resulted in many opera houses, including Covent Garden, avoiding performances of her work. Two years later though in 1908 Smyth went to Paris to hear a performance of her Four Songs for Chamber Ensemble, which Debussy praised as well as the French critics.
Donald Macleod and Odaline de la Martinez discuss these years of change and the effect they had on Ethel Smyth's music.
Playlist
The March of the Women
Eiddwen Harrhy (soprano), Plymouth Festival Chorus and Orchestra, Philip Brunelle
Virgin Classics 0777 7590222-8
Track 9
Possession
Anthony Rolfe Johnson (tenor), Graham Johnson (piano)
Hyperion CDA 66709
Track 18
3rd and 4th movements String Quartet in E minor
Archaeus Quartet
Lorelt CD LNT 114
Four Songs for Voice and Chamber Ensemble
Jane's Minstrels
BBC Recording
