The Life and Times of Catharina Pratten is out April 25, 2025 and celebrates the Victorian guitar icon and her contemporaries. The album includes seven previously unrecorded works by Pratten, first recordings of music by her father Ferdinand Pelzer, her husband Robert Sidney Pratten, her colleague Leonard Schulz, her student Frank Mott Harrison, and music by her contemporaries Francisco Tárrega, Giulio Regondi, and Ernest Shand.
Born Catharina Josepha Pelzer in Mulheim, Germany in 1824, Pratten and her family moved to England in 1829. As a child she was such a keen student of the guitar (and also concertina) that by the age of 11 her reputation as a skilled player was established. A contemporary review quoted by her biographer, Frank Mott Harrison, said “Her touch is powerful, and her execution wonderful; we were surprised how such tiny fingers could draw forth such perfect sounds…” She continued performing throughout her life, with a final concert in 1892, age 68.
Pratten also established herself as a composer. Many of her works were set in print by publisher Boosey and Sons, and others, she published herself out of her London home. Pratten’s compositions include upper intermediate works and advanced pieces, chamber music offerings, and a large collection of works in E-Major tuning. In her catalogue of well over 200 works, there are sentimental and lyrical miniatures, rousing and rhythmic marches, arrangements of popular tunes, and virtuosic fantasies..
“I simply take up my guitar and out of the tips of my fingers tumble out the sounds on the strings…” ~ Pratten letter to Harrison, Reminiscences of Madame Sidney Pratten, 1899
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The album was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.