For Women's History Month, today we highlight French composer Élisabeth Jacquet de La Guerre (born March 17, 1665 in Paris) and American pianist Simone Dinnerstein (b. 1972).
In his early 30s, Johannes Brahms wrote a string quintet, which his friends disliked. He re-wrote the music into a sonata for two pianos, which his friends disliked for other reasons. He then re-wrote the music again as a Piano Quintet (for piano and string quartet), and now his friends were all in agreement that he had created a masterpiece of chamber music. And the rest of the world has since thought so, too. Hear the Brahms Piano Quintet in f-minor at 2 pm for today’s Midday Masterpiece.