DCD 013 Ethel Smythe's Chamber Music

Troubadisc has released a four-volume set surveying the chamber music of Dame Ethel Smythe (1858-1944). This remarkable English composer forged a musical career at the turn of the Twentieth Century despite crushing adversity. Facing an enormous amount of discrimination because of her sex, she managed to turn out an impressive body of music -- and have it published and performed, to boot.

Renate Eggebrecht, co-founder of Troubadisc Records, has long been a champion of women composers, so its not surprising that she would turn her attention to Smythe. The intimate nature of chamber music gives us a unique perspective on this sometimes larger-that-life figure. After all, we're talking about someone who was not only friends with luminaries such as Clara Schumann and Virginia Wolf, but was a driving force of the Women's Sufferage Movement at a time when such activity was met with active hostility and sometimes violence. And, as you'll hear in this podcast, she was a gifted composer with a talent for melody.

- Ralph Graves
President, DCD Records

This program we feature the following:

Smythe: String Quartet No. 1, Op, 1

Smythe: Sonata for Cello and Piano in A minor, Op. 5

Smythe: "Chrysilla" from Four Songs for Mezzosoprano and Chamber Orchestra

Smythe: "Before the Squall" from Three Moods of the Sea