{"id":270599,"date":"2025-05-01T11:43:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T15:43:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/livemusicblog.com\/?p=270599"},"modified":"2025-05-16T16:16:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T20:16:55","slug":"emma-rush-life-times-catharina-pratten-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/livemusicblog.com\/other-genres\/classical\/emma-rush-life-times-catharina-pratten-album\/","title":{"rendered":"Emma Rush Illuminates 19th-Century Guitar Pioneer With \u201cThe Life and Times of Catharina Pratten\u201d Album"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Acclaimed classical guitarist Emma Rush<\/strong>, hailed as \u201cone of Canada\u2019s premier classical guitarists\u201d (Vivascene Magazine), brings a forgotten icon to vibrant life with her latest album The Life and Times of Catharina Pratten<\/em>, available everywhere now. With a rare blend of historical depth, expressive mastery, and curatorial brilliance, Rush presents the first-ever album dedicated to 19th-century virtuosa Catharina Josepha Pratten, a woman whose legacy she is determined to restore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPratten was so prolific as a performer, composer<\/a>, educator, and publisher,\u201d says Rush. \u201cShe taught Queen Victoria\u2019s daughter, invented new music notation, and even tuned her guitar down to D\u2014a hundred years before Black Sabbath did!\u201d But despite her influence, Pratten has been \u201clargely excluded from guitar history,\u201d Rush notes. \u201cI intend to set the record straight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The album features seven previously unrecorded works by Pratten alongside first recordings of music by her father Ferdinand Pelzer<\/strong>, her husband Robert Sidney Pratten<\/strong>, colleague Leonard Schulz<\/strong>, and student Frank Mott Harrison<\/strong>, and works by her contemporaries Francisco T\u00e1rrega<\/strong>, Giulio Regondi, <\/strong>and Ernest Shand<\/strong>. \u201cI wanted an album that showed Pratten\u2019s work in context\u2014to give a picture of the guitar scene in London in the 1800s,\u201d says Rush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rush recorded the album using two historically significant guitars associated with Pratten: one bearing Pratten\u2019s personal signature, and the other a Boosey and Sons \u201cPratten model\u201d from the 1850s, effectively making them the first-ever signature series guitars. \u201cTo hold and play instruments that she herself endorsed\u2014it\u2019s like reaching through time,\u201d Rush reflects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Highlights include \u201cAbsence,\u201d which Rush calls her personal favourite: \u201cIt is a technically rich piece, but has such emotional depth and I find it really moving.\u201d The single \u201cEvening Song\u201d showcases Pratten\u2019s lyrical sensitivity and harmonic flair, demonstrating her gift for writing compact yet profoundly expressive works. Enjoy the video below:<\/p>\n\n\n

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Evening Song by Catharina Pratten<\/div><\/div>
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