Miriam Roycroft cello
Lance Coburn piano

Louise Farrenc Cello Sonata in B flat Major Op. 46 (1859)
Vítězslava Kaprálová April Preludes, Op.13 (1937)
Ethel Smyth Cello Sonata in a Minor Op.5 (1887)
Luise Adolpha LeBeau Cello sonata in D Major Op.17 (1882)
Henriëtte Bosmans Sonata (1919)

The last concert in the series focuses on unjustly neglected sonatas for cello and piano by major female composers of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) was a renowned pianist whose compositions were much admired by her peers such as Schumann, though they are only now reaching the wider audience they deserve. Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) the British composer and women’s suffrage activist is one of the seminal figures in the history of female composers, her works being widely performed during her lifetime. Luise Adolpha LeBeau’s (1850-1927) circle of supporters included figures such as the composer Johannes Brahms, violinist Joseph Joachim and conductor Hans von Bulow. Henriëtte Bosmans (1895-1952) was a celebrated piano virtuoso and the daughter of the principal cellist of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. A close friend of Benjamin Britten, interestingly her cello sonata dates from the same year (1919) as Elgar’s famous cello concerto.