Louise Farrenc was born Jeanne-Louise Dumont in 1804 to a Parisian family of artists. She learned piano and harmony under private tutorship from Anton Reicha, who was professor of composition at the Paris Conservatory. At age seventeen, she married flautist and composer Aristide Farrenc and resumed her studies under Reicha, studying counterpoint, fugue, and instrumentation. The birth of her only daughter, Victorine, in 1826 barely slowed her down. Already renowned as a pianist, mainly for her chamber music performances, she began publishing her piano pieces through her husband’s publishing company, which would always support her work as a composer. In 1834, she composed her two overtures. The second of these, op. 24, was performed by the orchestra of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire in 1840. Three symphonies followed, composed respectively in 1841, 1845, and 1847, the third of which (op. 36) was also given the honour of a performance by the orchestra of the Société des Concerts du Conservatoire in 1849. In 1839, her Premier Quintette, op. 30 marked the beginning of her production of chamber music: a nonet, a sextet, two quintets with piano, four trios with piano, two sonatas for violin and piano, and one sonata for cello and piano. These works class Louise Farrenc as one of the pioneers of 19th century French chamber music, alongside Georges Onslow and Henri Reber. Her contribution to the form was recognised at the time, winning her the Prix Chartier (the prize for chamber music composition awarded by the Académie des Beaux-Arts) twice, in 1861 and 1869. Louise Farrenc was a professor of piano for young ladies at the Paris Conservatory beginning in 1842. Alongside her husband, a collector of some merit, she contributed to the rediscovery of keyboardists of the past with the publication Le Trésor des pianistes, a twenty-volume collection published between 1861 and 1872.

– Florence Launay –

[Traduction en anglais : Raphaël Meyer]