courtesy of Naxos of America
This Friday Chandos will release an album of two of the earliest orchestral compositions by Dora Pejačević, her Opus 33 piano concerto in G minor and her Opus 41 symphony in F-sharp minor. Pejačević died of kidney failure at the age of 37, four weeks after the birth of her only child, her son Theo. She had been born into Croatian nobility, but devoted her short life to the study of music. By the time of her death, she had accumulated an impressive catalog, but her orchestral achievements were modest in comparison to other genres. Nevertheless, Opus 33 was the first piano concerto by any Croatian composer, regardless of sex. As may be expected, Amazon.com is currently processing pre-orders for this recording.
Pejačević completed only four instrumental compositions for full orchestra. (She also composed songs for voice and orchestra.) Opus 33 was completed in 1913. Opus 41 was first completed in 1917 but then revised in 1920. (She was serving as a nurse during World War I when she began work on the symphony.) Her command of large orchestral resources is impressive enough that one can only wonder where her work would have taken her had she lived longer. On the new Chandos release Sakari Orama conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the soloist for Opus 33 is pianist Peter Donohoe.
Readers may recall that, this coming Tuesday, a sonata for violin and piano by Pejačević will be performed at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as part of the final Chamber Music Tuesday program of the season. It is unclear how long we shall have to wait before her orchestral music gets performed here in San Francisco. Hopefully I shall not be the only one hoping to have a chance to listen to a concert performance of either Opus 37 or Opus 33 with a pianist adventurous enough to rise to the occasion!
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