The eighteenth century was not a kind time for female instrumentalists. There was prejudice all around...women were to obey the general unspoken rules about women speaking or performing in public places. It took determination and will to overcome this societal taboo, and a few women were able to rise above it and make music for their own and other people's pleasure. Maddalena Lombardini and Regina Strinasacchi were two such determined ladies.
Maddalena Lombardini Sirmen
Born in Venice, around the year 1735, she became a student at the Conservatorio dei Mendicati in her home town. Possibly she was an orphan, as the four Venetian conservatories were orphanages needing prospective pupils to document poverty, ill health and Venetian birth.
Her teachers at the orphanage were Antonio Vivaldi, Baldassare Galuppi and Nicola Porpora, all great masters. Maddalena studied later with Giuseppe Tartini in Padua. Tartini also wrote letters to her with suggestions about fingering and bowing, and one of these letters is often cited in treatises on violin playing. She was his favorite student.
Ludovico Sirmen
Maddalena married Sirmen, a violinist from Bergamo, and began to perform publicly with him. At one of the Concert Spirituels in Paris in 1761, they appeared together playing a double concerto which, it is believed, was their own composition. The concerto and the players were greeted with extravagant praise in the 'Mercure de France.'
After this triumph, Maddalena often presented her own compositions at these concerts. Not satisfied with playing the violin, she appeared as soloist in a harpsichord concerto at a benefit concert directed by Johann Christoph Bach and Karl Friedrich Abel
Sirmen and the Court of Saxony
However, Maddalena began to lose favor after trying her hand as a singer . She was appointed concert singer to the Court of Saxony in 1782, but was relegated to the dust bin of musicians when she appeared for the last time as a violinist at a Concert Spirituel in 1785. This once-renowned violinist, who had been compared to the great violinist Pietro Nardini, apparently died in obscurity.
Regina Strinasacchi
Born in 1764 at Ostiglia, Regina studied at the Conservatorio della Pieta in Venice and later in Paris. She also played the guitar and was praised for her beauty and charm. In 1784 she went to Vienna where she performed twice, and during this time met Wolfgang Mozart, who immediately set to work writing a sonata ( Sonata in B flat, K.454) for her which they played together at the second concert.
There was no time for rehearsal, as Mozart finished the violin part only a day before the concert and had no time to write his own part out. It was a highly successful performance and Wolfgang wrote to Leopold Mozart, "Strinasacchi plays with much taste and feeling."
Johann Conrad Schlick
Regina married Johann Conrad Schlick, a cellist who was at the Court of the Duke of Saxe-Gotha, and husband and wife toured playing duets for violin and cello. Regina's last public appearance was in 1809, when she played in Rome. Regina Strinasacchi Schlick died in 1823, and Ludwig Spohr came by her violin and used it frequently for concert appearances.
Source
The Monthly Musical Record January, 1954
For further reading about women violinists see Eighteenth Century Women Violinists
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