Symphony no. 3 in G minor

This symphony, completed in 1847, was Louise Farrenc’s last. It was premièred, under much more favourable circumstances than the first two, by the Orchestra de la Société des concerts du Conservatoire on 22 April 1849. Earlier, in 1840, her Ouverture no. 2 had also been performed there. But this time, in proposing a symphony, one of the most serious musical genres, she was challenging her contemporaries to face up to the questions of gender and the prejudice against women when it came to the highest spheres of musical composition. The press was unanimous in its praise of the score. Adolphe Adam (Le Constitutionnel, 16 May 1849) lauded “a perfect understanding of harmony and instrumentation such as is rarely encountered in men, and is almost phenomenal in a woman”, while Théophile Gautier (La Presse, 30 April 1849) spoke of a symphony “written in the purest traditions of the German masters”. The second and third movements in particular caught the reviewers’ attention; Oscar Commettant, for instance, pointed out the “fine instrumental effects” and the “verve and originality” of the writing (Le Siècle, 19 May 1849). Joseph d’Ortigue, however, in an article that appeared in L'Ère nouvelle on 7 May 1849, disliked such perfection: “This work left us longing for precisely the features that we should have expected of a woman’s touch: a little grace, abandon, coquettishness, and a whimsical and youthful imagination [...]”.