Between child prodigy and wife: I have selected virtuoso works by four female composers of a generation with very different lives, but all the pieces...

Between child prodigy and wife: I have selected virtuoso works by four female composers of a generation with very different lives, but all the pieces have in common temperament and often effervescent lightness. In the meantime, many names of female composers are known, their works are played more and more. However, especially in the 19th century, a disproportionate amount of music unfortunately did not find its way into the publishing houses. This was the greatest obstacle to the safe transmission of works for posterity until the end of the 20th century. It was not until the internet that women composers were able to find their own players and audiences. In addition, female musicians' careers were made more difficult or even prevented by social circumstances. Educating a child prodigy was not only a potentially very lucrative business for ambitious parents in Mozart's time, but also in the 19th century many children were educated to stage maturity at a very early age. But after marriage, which was obligatory at some point, the girls had to limit their sphere of activity to salons or charity galas. And studying was not possible for many years anyway, so unfortunately women often received a rather superficial musical education. As always, exceptions confirm the rule. One can see from the exemplary biographies of "my" four female composers that long careers then seemed possible only in tandem with a musician who was also working professionally. And that often different rules applied to foreign women than to the "respectable ladies" of the domestic society.