Can we imagine a CD dedicated to male composers? Similarly, one can wonder if the composers of this CD would have been happy with the label "female composer. After all, the label gives the impression that "being female" was their only contribution to music history. And that is a shame, because there is something special to say about every composition on this CD. The Sonata (1918) by Henriette Bosmans
… is an early work in which she was still indebted to Romanticism. The work lay dormant for nearly a century at the Netherlands Music Institute in The Hague. In 2022, the score came to the eyes of violinist Ursula Schoch and pianist Marcel Worms. It thus became the occasion for this CD. On point is the 1952 Suite by Agnes Jama, which thus did justice to her partly Slavic roots. At the time, the piece was awarded the Johan Wagenaar Prize. The self-critical Johanna Bordewijk-Roepman (husband of the writer Bordewijk) never promoted her 1923 Sonata. However, neither did she withdraw the piece. Also special are the Serenade and Tango by Paramaribo-born Majoie Hajary. A classically trained pianist, she performed worldwide. Her compositions are a mix of classical, jazz, eastern, western and much more. In 2024, Ellen de Vries hopes to publish her biography. (HJ)more
