'Who is afraid of women composers? I ask, adapting Ingo Metzmacher's title for his New Year's concerts: 'Who is afraid of new music?' Because the dance music of women composers is Viennese music. Vienna is also a city of women composers!' With these words, the award-winning cultural journalist and curator Irene Suchy introduces the present program of this CD, titled 'New Year's Concert of Women Composers.' Alongside contemporaries of Johann Strauss, works by women composers of our own time are also heard: Johanna Doderer, Viola Falb, Melissa Coleman, and Ursula Erhart-Schwertmann seamlessly link their works to the historical dances-from quadrille to polka française, from waltz to galop-of their predecessors. The ensemble ƒ, consisting of Anaïs Tamisier and Marianna Oczkowska on violin, Goran Kostic / Angelica Weinberger on double bass, and Ursula Erhart-Schwertmann on cello, present works by largely unknown women composers such as Constanze Geiger, Henriette Fahrbach, Gisela Frankl, Countess Anna von Stubenberg, Josefine Weinlich, Gypsy Countess Verona, and Mathilde Kralik.
