27 January 2026

Scoring: 2fl.2ob.2cl.2bn-2hn.2tpt-timps-strings

Duration: c. 30 minutes

Availability of performing materials:

(i) high quality Florian Noetzel Verlag score and complimentary parts available to hire (or via repertoire exchange programme) from Harrogate Philharmonic Orchestra;

(ii) ComposHer edition available online from IMSLP.

Note: there are editorial differences between these two sets including bar numbering and rehearsal letters.

[We chose to hire the materials available from Harrogate Philharmonic. The score was wonderfully clear - mostly one system per page whereas ComposHer’s score is frequently two systems per page and therefore quite small print. HPO’s parts are printed as A4 booklets on good quality paper. We were charged a £40 hire fee plus postage, and everything was sent in plenty of time.]

Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) was a French composer, virtuoso pianist and teacher who also made history by fighting for equal pay with her male colleagues when she was appointed Professor of Piano at the Paris Conservatoire.

I was first introduced to Farrenc through her chamber music having played her Nonet for wind and strings and Sextet for piano and wind quintet. More recently I have got to know her orchestral music (2 overtures, 3 symphonies, 2 works for piano and orchestra) as various recordings have become available and I had an opportunity to play her Overture in C with Wirral Orchestra a couple of years ago.

Symphony no. 1 is a ‘full-sized’, four-movement, Romantic symphony both in terms of duration and emotional expression. The home key is C minor and Farrenc explores its associations with pathétique emotions of passion and pathos as well as Sehnsucht (the quality of yearning more usually associated with German Romanticism).

The first movement of Farrenc’s Symphony no. 1 begins with a chromatic Andante sostenuto that leads into a sonata-form Allegro with a hectic First Subject Group. This gives way to an Eb major, legato Second Subject Group with the main melody being exchanged in the woodwind accompanied by quaver passage work in the upper strings. The Development section modulates the First Subject Group through increasingly distant keys and then combines this material with the Second Subject Group in a surprisingly sparse, p dolce section (Letter I/b.221(i) or b.225(ii)). All this activity culminates in an assertive, homophonic, tutti section – hemiolas abound - that then dissolves into the Recapitulation. The movement ends with a dramatic Coda in which both subject groups are pitted against each other, interrupted by dramatic silent pauses and a short, quasi-recitative section. It is an exciting journey with plenty of rhythmic and harmonic momentum.

The second movement, in Ab major, is an extensive Adagio cantabile in 12/8 meter. The mood is pastoral and reminiscent of Beethoven’s ‘Scene by the Brook’, the second movement of his Symphony no. 6 Pastoral (1808). It presents some of the same challenges too. Formally it is quite repetitive and the pulsating, compound accompaniment and long, melodic lines need to flow. This issue of flow is made even more difficult by the fact that Farrenc rarely departs from a four-bar phrase pattern and the vast majority of these are marked with dynamic hairpins. I found these continual patterns of swell and retreat needed to be shaped with a degree of individuality otherwise they made me feel slightly bilious!

A Minuet and Trio follows which contains the sort of musical playfulness that is trademark Haydn: the Minuet main theme presents the listener with the conundrum of whether or not it begins with an anacrusis or on the first beat of the bar; lots of hemiolas threaten to derail the players; there are surprising offbeat accents in the Trio section; and there are fun, solo parts for wind and especially the horns.

The final movement, marked Allegro assai, is in 6/8. This movement is full of urgency. It is technically the trickiest movement with lots of ties across the bar line which need to be released early to keep the tempo from slowing down and prevent the ensemble coming adrift. There’s a surprising modulation from C minor to B major and back and some quick switches between duple simple and compound time, so players and conductor need to remain alert and nimble.

Chester Sinfonia and Wirral String Days performed Farrenc Symphony no. 1 as part of a Play Day that also included Beethoven Symphony no. 2 (1801-2). So much repertoire in one day was ambitious and the conducting was split between Neill Jackson and me. Farrenc sounded distinctly later Romantic in style than the Beethoven which – by date of composition – it is, of course. But the historical developments of music are far from being synchronous with chronology and it was fascinating to compare the two works. Players commented on how much they enjoyed getting to know Farrenc’s Symphony and the Chester Sinfonia players have since voted to programme it later this year in preference to the Beethoven. It is a cliché to say that this or that work deserves a place in the canon, but I really hope this work does find its way into regular repertoire. Harrogate Philharmonic Orchestra have also programmed it for Summer (2026). It is an exciting, varied, well-structured piece available in a choice of good editions and within the technical capabilities of a good amateur orchestra.