Piano works by a contemporary of Mozart

Eleonore Maria Sophia Westenholz - as her full name was - was an extremely talented musician. Born three years after Mozart, she worked as a singer, pianist, glass harmonica player and composer at the court of Mecklenburg-Schwerin in Ludwigslust. She also gave concerts in cities such as Berlin, Leipzig and Copenhagen and found time to raise eight children virtually on her own. It was also in Ludwigslust that she composed her piano works, which she never published, with two insignificant exceptions.

These two volumes of "Works for piano solo" are first editions and have recently been published by Edition Massonneau, which is particularly committed to the cultural heritage of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The editor Reinhard Wulfhorst prefaces the compositions with a very informative foreword, which provides a fascinating insight into the unusual life of Sophie Westenholz. Volume I contains the sonata in C major, two sonatinas, waltzes and a capriccio, the "lighter" pieces, so to speak, while volume II contains the sonata in F minor and the sonata in C minor, two larger-scale, more ambitious works. These two sonatas in particular are worth a closer look.

Westenholz often begins her movements with relatively neutral, not exactly original themes, but uses them to develop a highly imaginative progression through a wide variety of keys and moods. She does not shy away from dramatic escalations and virtuoso outbursts either. Although her music mostly follows classical forms, it occasionally refers to early Romanticism. This is all the more astonishing given that the composer evidently came into contact neither with Beethoven's music nor with that of his successors.

As a pianist, Sophie Westenholz preferred to play works by Mozart at her court. Her last performance took place in 1813. After that, she retired from the podium, not entirely voluntarily. Her granddaughter reported the following: "She was persuaded to resign by the envy and cabal of the local members of the orchestra, who did not want to be conducted by a woman ..." Sophie Westenholz died at the age of 79 in Ludwigslust in 1838.

Eleonore Maria Sophia Westenholz (1759-1838): Works for piano solo, edited by Reinhard Wulfhorst; Volume 1: em 0119, € 20.00; Volume 2: em 0219; € 24.75; Edition Massonneau, Schwerin 2019