There’s something about Chawton House Library that gets under people’s skin. Whether it’s the Elizabethan manor once owned by Jane Austen’s brother, Edward Austen Knight, the beautiful gardens and parkland within the South Downs National Park or the rare collection of early English women’s writing, the place leaves a lasting impression.
Little wonder, then, that this historic muse has been the inspiration behind crime writer Lindsay Ashford’s recent novel The Mysterious Death of Miss Jane Austen and now has captured the imagination of Vivian Montgomery, an award-winning pianist and harpsichordist and Fulbright Senior Scholar from Boston, MA.
In June, Vivian will be recording a CD at Chawton House Library of works by Barbara Strozzi, a 17th century Italian Baroque singer and composer. Joining her will be soprano Janet Youngdahl, a fellow member of Cecilia’s Circle, a group of female artists whose passion and interests lie in the early music of women composers.
Vivian believes that to be at Chawton House Library is to feel very in tune with the surroundings, which may account for its muse-like quality that seems to inspire creativity.
“I think the atmosphere is inescapable and everyone who visits is soaking up its history and its connection to a literary culture that I’ve personally been so attached to for a very long time,” Vivian says.
Vivian made her debut at Chawton House Library earlier this month with a piano recital of variations on British and American popular songs from 1790 to 1860, performed on the 1828 Stodart grand piano on loan from the University of Southampton.
Although the programme featured music by both male and female composers, what particularly interests Vivian is early women’s domestic music-making, both in terms of what women were playing and what they may have been creating themselves.
She says: “These arrangements or improvisations on popular songs were a really natural and approved channel for women’s musical activity.
“In the later part of the 18th century and especially in the early 19th century, more and more households were acquiring what you might call utilitarian pianos and more and more young women were expected to play.
“So there was a big eruption of this particular type of domestic repertoire as opposed to what would have been thought of as more demanding and deeper music, such as sonatas by renowned composers.”
As Vivian specialises in early keyboard instruments, she considers the Stodart grand piano at Chawton House Library to be a unique instrument that is perfect for the setting.
“The Stodart has such an incredible range of tone and timbre but it’s definitely a more raw and less polished sound, which takes some getting used to.
“When you play loudly, the piano has a very loud and dynamic biting sound but when you play softly, it sounds angelic and ethereal. It’s very beautiful,” says Vivian.
When Vivian returns to Chawton in June, other early instruments will be used for the CD recording of Barbara Strozzi’s cantatas, airs, and laments, which will also feature Elizabeth Kenny, a true artist of the lute, theorbo (another string instrument from the lute family) and baroque guitar, and Catherine Bott, British soprano and recognized virtuoso of early music.
The CD, Peace in Her Mouth & War in Her Heart: The Nature of Love in Songs of Barbara Strozzi, will be released in the US by Centaur Records in 2015 and be available from Chawton House Library.
Future musical events will include performances from students at Winchester College on 16 November. For more information call 01420 541010 or email info@chawton.net.