The classical music world just experienced the loss of one of the most recognized women conductors of the 20th century. Veronika Dudarova was an internationally recognized conductor who led Moscow orchestras for sixty years. First appointed to the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra in 1947, she became the ensemble’s chief conductor and artistic director in 1960. After leaving the MSSO in 1989 she founded and led the Symphony Orchestra of Russia in 1991 (at the age of 74), leading the ensemble until her death last week at age 92.

News of her death has traveled throughout the music world via the Associated Press, but is notably absent from the New York Times.

Dudarova was also featured in a Swedish documentary filmed in 1987 honoring women conductors entitled Dirigenterna. (Also featured in the film were Victoria Bond, Joann Falletta, Camilla Kolchinsky, Ortrud Mann, and Kerstin Nerre. New York Times overview)

More information on Dudarova can be found at the website for the Symphony Orchestra of Russia.

Numerous concerts have been planned to honor Felix Mendelssohn on the occasion of his 200th birthday. Though some bemoan the lack of enthusiasm for this momentous remembrance in the history of Western music, no one can deny that the recognition that Felix is receiving is a great deal better than the honorary concerts (or lack thereof) that memorialized his sister’s life and works. (Remember the deluge of performances when Fanny had her 200th birthday in 2005? Yeah, me neither.)

And just because nothing helps to memorialize a life (or death) better than a scandal, new evidence suggests that Felix’s music was quite possibly inspired by another star in the history of women in music: Jenny Lind.

The Independent recently reported that new evidence uncovered in the archives of the Royal Academy of Music indicates that Mendelssohn was so overcome with the soprano that he threatened suicide if she did not agree to elope with him to America. Lind’s husband, Otto Goldschmidt, a former student of Mendelssohn’s, destroyed the original document. However, Goldschmidt later signed an affidavit as to the contents of the letter and the actions he took to prevent the truth from being revealed. Mendelssohn’s connection to Lind is very evident in their shared history. Jessica Duchen reports that:

The composer, possibly infatuated, planned an opera for Lind on the Lorelei, the Rhine siren who lures men to their death. It was never completed, but Mendelssohn did write the soprano solo of Elijah for Lind. Friends, including Andersen and the pianist Clara Schumann, remarked on their attachment.

Mendelssohn died only months after the letter was written, reportedly from a series of strokes (which was the same demise that Fanny met six months prior to Felix’s death). Evidence of a romantic connection between Lind and Mendelssohn, which could very well fall into the “who cares?” category, may lead to a deeper understanding of Mendelssohn’s creative output. Professor Curtis Price of the Royal Academy of Music, who has seen the affidavit signed by Goldschmidt, is calling for “a fully scholarly investigation” into the matter. The document is kept in the Mendelssohn Foundation Archives, which is keeping it hidden away from public eye. Perhaps they are concerned as to the ways in which such evidence might reflect on the life of who is generally remembered as the “happiest” of composers – as well as suggest the power that The Swedish Nightingale had in the history of music written by dead white men.