Carmen Martínez-Pierret – María Luisa Chevallier – Obras para piano

Lots of women created music without anybody listening to them. Composers who created in the privacy of their homes, far from the stage, away from institutional recognition and silenced by history. One of them was María Luisa Chevallier (1869–1951), a pianist, composer and teacher from Madrid. At the Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales (ICCMU), we have recovered part of her heritage thanks to the DEePMusic research project, an initiative that modernises the preservation and recovery of music from the past using digital tools. This research has been led by Judith Ortega Rodríguez, associate professor of musicology at the Complutense University of Madrid, and Nieves Hernández Romero, assistant professor at the University of Alcalá.

The collaboration and generosity of the composer’s family has been key to the success of the project.

To ensure the preservation of Chevallier’s musical legacy, the recovery process has included the recording of an album. And it was made using nothing less than a 1909 Steinway & Sons piano, the same one played by Joaquín Rodrigo in 1953 in the auditorium of the Faculty of Philology at the Complutense University of Madrid, when he was awarded the Grand Cross of Alfonso X the Wise.

Carmen Martínez-Pierret played the piano, breathing new life into scores that had remained silent for more than a century.