Witness a behind the scenes look as cellist Juliana Soltis explores Helen Crane’s ‘Six Idylls for Cello and Piano, Op. 51′, from Navona Records’ newest release, AMERICAN WOMAN!
Absent from modern texts on classical music, Helen Crane’s life is revealed through fragments: a baptismal registry from 1869, passport applications tracking her education and career, and an emergency request for protection at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin during the Great War. Despite her 21st-century obscurity, Crane enjoyed significant success in her lifetime. She was included in Baker’s Biographical Dictionary of Musicians in 1905 and won the national Composers’ Prize Competition, with her Symphonic Suite performed at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition and by the Berlin Philharmonic. Written in 1918, her Six Idylls for Cello and Piano, Op. 51 reflect the evolving musical styles she encountered in Berlin, combining late Romanticism, jarring harmonies, chromaticism, and character motifs reminiscent of early film music.
For more information on ‘AMERICAN WOMAN’, please visit the album page: https://www.navonarecords.com/catalog/nv6659/
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