Beach: Gaelic Symphony / Piano Concerto

Naxos brings together, for the first time on a single disc, two of Amy Beach’s finest compositions, her Piano Concerto, Op. 45, and her "Gaelic" Symphony, Op. 32 which makes use of four traditional Irish tunes in addition to original themes composed in the same idiom and spirit. Born supremely gifted in piano and composition, she grew up in an era when society expected women to marry and stay at home, not have professional careers. Against opposition from family and society, she first became a concert pianist and, after marriage, this country ’s first successful female composer of major concert works.