Beschrijving

This richly illustrated biography chronicles the life and career of the Italian-born violinist and composer Alba Rosa Viëtor (1889–1979). From her precocious childhood admission to the Milan Conservatory and advanced training in Brussels and Vienna, to her years in the United States where she shifted focus from performance to composition, the book traces her artistic development and the personal ambitions that drove her. It places her journey within the broader context of 20th-century musical life and highlights her persistence in a male-dominated field. The narrative delves into Viëtor’s body of work—spanning solo piano, chamber, orchestral and vocal pieces—emphasising how she fused Romantic sensibility with modernist impulses and how her compositions reflect both Mediterranean mood and American cross-cultural experience. The authors review landmark works, discuss stylistic transitions, and describe how Viëtor’s music was rediscovered and revived via the eponymous foundation and archive. The text appeals both to music historians and enthusiastic practitioners of lesser-known composers. With its accessible prose, archival photographs, CD-recording references and bibliographical material, this title serves as both a detailed scholarly reference and a compelling reading for anyone interested in women in music, violin performance history or composition in the 20th Century. It is especially noteworthy for its contribution to recognising a composer who had slipped from view and is now being reassessed.