Agnes Tyrrell (1846 - 1883) Czech Republic
- andreachamizoalber
- Sep 2
- 1 min read
Composer and pianist, born in Brno in the Moravia region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, she was the daughter of an English teacher and a Czech mother. She grew up fluent in English, German, and Czech. She was a child piano prodigy and gave her first recital at age 9. She studied at the Vienna Conservatory and took composition classes with Otto Kitzler, Bruckner's teacher.
I share with you the third and fourth pieces of her work Album Leaves Op. 18. There is no score.
Due to heart problems, Agnes had to abandon her career as a pianist and devote herself entirely to composition. Despite dying young, at 36, she was a prolific composer, with more than 90 works, including piano, vocal, and choral music, operas, oratorios, and several orchestral pieces. She was one of the few women to compose a symphony before 1900. IMSLP only contains scores for piano or piano and voice. You can find them at the following link:
I share with you Gebet, a choral work by Agnes.
In 2018, her Overture in C minor had its world premiere at the Frauenkomponiert Festival in Bern, the only known recording of her orchestral music. Many of her manuscripts are preserved in the Moravian Museum in Brno, and some songs are in the Berlin State Library. Her catalogue is managed by the Kapralova Society.
Here is that recording where the Overture premiered, conducted by Jessica Horsley.
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