Kindred Spirits [CD]

Sisters Lea and Esther Birringer's new album is a recital program of three composers who all had connections musically and socially. Amanda Röntgen-Maier (1853-1894) was a Swedish violinist and composer. She was the first female to graduate as Music Director from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. She was taught by Carl Reinecke in Leipzig, and married Julius Röntgen a composer and pianist, and the son of her violin teacher Englebert Röntgren, the leader of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Her output is slender, but includes a violin concerto, a piano trio, a piano quartet and a string quartet, as well as the violin sonata and short pieces for violin and piano featured on this album. Amanda was friendly with Grieg, Anton Rubinstein, Ethel Smyth (they studied together in Leipzig), Joachim, Clara Schumann and Brahms, and this group regularly attended the musical salons and recitals given by Julius & Amanda around Europe.