ABSTRACT
As Charles Rosen comments, 'that Haydn late in life found an English widow equal to the technical demands of his imagination at the keyboard should not blind us to the fact that these are the exceptions'. They may indeed be the exceptions but one should not deduce from this that many women pianists did not attain a high standard at the piano. Women pianists had to struggle against the male-enforced norms of feminine interests and conduct. However, a career as a pianist was virtually impossible for women, because of the clear restrictions placed upon them by the rigid conventions of late eighteenth-century society. Virtually without exception, women did indeed cease to perform in public after their marriage. During the 1780s, and indeed through to the end of the century, women pianists played an increasingly significant role on London's concert platforms.
