Chamber Music in Europe (1850-1918): Composition, Mediation and Reception Edited by Catrina Flint de Medicis and Francois de Medicis

This volume invites its readers into the highly varied world of chamber music composition, performance, and reception from England to Croatia, by way of the Czech lands, Italy, and France. It highlights ways in which the chamber music repertoire might engage in political or diplomatic issues, in chapters by Fenton, Kahan, Sa, and Thomason. The role of women in this genre of music also has a place this collection, bringing to light performances by all-women string quartets (November), and exposing the ethos of Marguerite de Saint-Marceaux's salon (Perrault). Societies devoted to works in this genre flourished throughout Europe during the time period in questions: here authors reflect on the workings of these groups and the nature of their performances in Prague (Bunzel) and Zagreb (Katalinic). Cultural transfer also has its place in these pages, across the English channel with Reiafelder's work on French chamber music composers in England, and from center to periphery in Branda's exploration of Dvorak's 'Farewell' tour. No volume on that most intimate of Romantic genres would be complete without a deep dive into musical style. Style, structure, and the Beethovenian legacy come to a head in two, in-depth studies of Franck's chamber music (de Medicis and Strucken-Paland) while questions of a 'late' or 'mature' compositional style - a sacrosanct ideal connected to Beethoven - a re held up for scrutiny in the music of Saint-Saens (Deruchie) and Dvorak (Campo-Bowen).