The short-lived, San Francisco-based Women’s Philharmonic, founded in 1981 and disbanded in 2004, had an enormous impact on America’s classical music scene, promoting not only the music of woman composers but performances by prominent woman conductors and soloists. In 1992, they made their first recording for the Koch International Classics label under the direction of conductor JoAnn Falletta. Musical Concepts is pleased to return this recording, featuring works by Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Germaine Tailleferre, and Lili Boulanger, to international availability.
“Centenaries often yield rich results in recordings. … This one is music by women composers performed by the Women’s Philharmonic under Jo Ann Falletta which includes premieres of orchestral versions of two chamber-pieces, ‘D’un Soir Triste’ and ‘D’un Matin de Printemps’. I have waited many years to hear these and am overjoyed that they sound so well. Following the piano score of the first, I wonder again, ‘How did Lili do it?’ So many subtle sophisticated ideas: how did she think of them, or know they’d work? Because she was an artist-in-sound!”
–Gramophone, 1993
