What would it mean to ‘compose like a woman’? The present collection answers the question, in a literal sense, while undoing the premise on which the question was asked in the first place. In social and historical terms, it means enjoying privileges of upbringing, education and/or wealth that were historically denied to the vast majority of women. It means, on the part of the women represented here, a single-minded determination in pursuit of their vocation, helping them to overcome prejudice and sexism in a cultural, social and political milieu that has consistently denied women the opportunity to find and express their own voice in music. Only with movements of emancipation in the last century, and much more rapidly in the last 50 years, has this situation begun to be addressed and corrected.

What composing like a woman does not mean – as the music in this collection makes clear – is a definable set of qualities or characteristics to the music itself which would distinguish the work of female composers from the music composed by men.

This remarkable set gathers many individual recordings of music by women composers, which Brilliant Classics has quietly yet actively championed in their catalogue for decades, uniting it with exciting new outings, so that a comprehensive historical picture of the highly varied struggles and successes of women composers through the ages to our present time are chronicled and celebrated.

The revival of interest in female classical composers reflects a growing recognition of their overlooked contributions to music history. For centuries, women composers were marginalised, their works overshadowed by their male counterparts. However, recent efforts by musicians, scholars, and institutions have brought these composers into the spotlight, highlighting the richness and diversity of their compositions.

This comprehensive box set offers a wide spectrum of works by female composers, from the Medieval mystic Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) , through the Renaissance Isabella Leonarda (baptised 1620-1704), Francesca Caccini (1587-1640) and Barbara Strozzi (baptised 1619-1677), traversing the Baroque and Classical eras, and arriving in the contemporary field, with composers such as Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006) and Grażyna Bacewicz (1909-1969).

A long due homage to the art and voice of female composers, spanning nearly a thousand years!

Recordings date from 1994–2024

Booklet in English contains liner notes by Peter Quantrill