Louise Farrenc: Symphonies 1-3, Overtures – Insula Orchestra, Laurence Equilbey

April 27, 2023, 9:00 am

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Laurence Equilbey conducts the Insula Orchestra in the first complete recording on period instruments of Louise Farrenc’s symphonies and overtures. This 2-CD set expands upon the 2021 Erato release of Farrenc’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3, adding Symphony No. 2, Overture No. 1 in E minor, and Overture No. 2 in E-flat Major. Farrenc (1804-75) was a prominent figure in 19th-century Paris, a pioneer both as a female composer and as a symphonist in a city obsessed with opera. As Fanfare wrote in response to the recording of her Symphonies Nos. 1 and 3: “It would be hard to imagine better performances, a better-sounding recording, or better advocacy for Farrenc than we receive here from Laurence Equilbey and her period-instrument chamber orchestra.”