I think I know this one, the story of the great composers of western classical music. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Wagner, etc. Sure enough, we begin with the reassuring, macho intro of Beethoven’s Fifth: da-da-da-DUM.
But that’s enough of him, fade out Beethoven. The soprano Danielle de Niese isn’t telling that story; she is telling another, parallel one, about women who compose music. Not just sing and play and inspire music by and for men, but actually write the stuff. Women always have composed and will do forever, it’s just that you don’t get to hear very much of it. Literally unsung, see?
Danielle’s journey begins with Hildegard of Bingen, who I remember from the charts in the 90s though actually she was around 900 years before that. Being a medieval German nun oddly gave her a divine freedom to write music she wouldn’t have been able to outside the convent walls. She was a wisionary, says Prof Dr Stefan Morent, the expert, and look at Danielle, she’s doing her very best not to have a fit of the giggles isn’t she? Anyway, get Stefan off, boo! Where’s Prof Dr Stephanie?
There are plenty of female experts here, and performers, including De Niese, of course. She finds a rather stern nun called Sister Lydia Stritzl OSB, to give her a lesson in how to sing Hildegard. It’s beautiful. As is Danielle’s rendition of a song by Francesca Caccini, the next composer on the list. It’s quite an exuberant and soulful performance for the baroque period, perhaps? (he says, like he knows what the hell he’s talking about). Anyway, she’s allowed to be a bit of a diva isn’t she, being an actual diva. Also she is an excellent guide.
That’s when this programme comes to life, with the music. I loved De Niese blasting out a spine-tingling Florence Price arrangement of a traditional spiritual, in an echoey church, with Mica Paris, who I also remember from the 90s. And a haunting string quartet by Elizabeth Maconchy played by (female) students at the Royal College of Music.
Confession: I’d never heard of Maconchy or Price or Caccini. Well, I guess that’s the point of the programme – and the channel. To make a few people less ignorant and to get these heroines sung again.