Amanda Röntgen-Maier

Amanda Sonate

The Swedish composer and violinist Amanda Maier (Carolina Amanda Erika), who is not mentioned in the most comprehensive standard work on music history, the MGG, or in any other continental European reference work, was born on February 20, 1853 in Landskrona, Sweden. She received her first violin lessons from her father Carl Edvard Maier, a native of Württemberg in southern Germany who, in addition to his work as a musician, also made a name for himself as a confectioner. The young Amanda's extraordinary talent became apparent at an early age and she was already studying at the conservatory in Stockholm at the age of 14. In 1872, she was the first woman in Sweden to be awarded the title of "Musikdirektör". To continue her studies, she went to Leipzig, where she studied composition with Carl Reinecke, among others. Her violin sonata in B minor was composed during this time and was extremely well received and awarded a prize by the Stockholm Academy. A performance of the sonata in the presence of Edvard Grieg in Leipzig, in which she was accompanied by the pianist and later husband Julius Röntgen, drew further attention to her. This was followed by performances of her violin concerto under the direction of Carl Reinecke and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and at the opera in Stockholm. In 1876 she returned to Sweden and settled in Landskrona. This was followed by tours of Russia and Finland. In 1880, she married the son of her Leipzig violin teacher, the composer and pianist Julius Röntgen, with whom she eventually moved to Amsterdam, as he had a job there as a piano teacher. Musical evenings were organized at the Röntgen home, attended by guests such as Anton Rubinstein, Clara Schumann, Joseph Joachim, Edvard Grieg and Johannes Brahms, who was very well-disposed towards Amanda. In 1886, Amanda's lung disease made itself felt for the first time, which she hoped to cure during a stay at a spa in Davos. A further stay in Nice initially alleviated her suffering so that she was able to return to Amsterdam to focus on the musical education of her two children. But the appearance of a cure was deceptive. On June 15, 1894, Amanda Röntgen-Maier died at the age of just 41.

The above-mentioned violin sonata in B minor, written during her time in Leipzig and dedicated to her father, was published in revised form in 1878 and forms the basis for this edition. The sonata is increasingly being discovered for the flute and is now available here for the first time in the version for flute and piano. The piano text is reproduced exactly, but changes were necessary in the violin part, as the violin's range in the lower register extends to a minor G, while the flute's range is at best a minor B. In a few places, the option for flutes with a B foot up to minor B is indicated. In the case of double stops, the top note of the corresponding chord is always notated for the flute. Otherwise, this edition follows the first edition in terms of dynamics and articulation.