Luise Adolpha Le Beau

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Luise Adolpha Le Beau, photograph from 1872

Luise Adolpha Le Beau (born April 25, 1850 in Rastatt , † July 17, 1927 in Baden-Baden ) was a German pianist and composer .

Life

Birthplace of Luise Le Beau, Herrenstrasse 9 in Rastatt

Luise Adolpha was born at Herrenstrasse 9 in Rastatt, then part of the Grand Duchy of Baden , as the only daughter of the officer Wilhelm August Le Beau and his wife Karoline, née. Barack born. After the father left as major general in the Baden Army, both parents began to give their daughter general instruction in 1856. From the age of 5, Luise received piano lessons from her father, who was also a musician and composed. She completed her general education with an exam at a private girls' institute at the age of 16 and henceforth devoted herself to music.

After her confirmation at Easter 1865, she took piano lessons in 1866 with the Hofkapellmeister Wilhelm Kalliwoda in Karlsruhe . She also took singing lessons from Anton Haizinger . Just one year later she made her debut as a pianist and played in 1868, the E-flat Concerto of Beethoven and the G minor Concerto by Mendelssohn-Bartholdy in Karlsruhe. In 1870 she made the acquaintance of Franz Lachner and Anton Rubinstein . In 1873 she applied for piano lessons from Clara Schumann in Baden-Baden, who she taught for a summer. A concert engagement in February 1874 led Luise to five cities in Holland. The tour began in Utrecht, followed by Arnhem, Rotterdam, The Hague and finally Amsterdam.

In the meantime, the Le Beau family had moved to Munich because Luise had a letter of recommendation from the pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow in order to be accepted as a student with Josef Gabriel Rheinberger . Ernst Melchior Sachs (1843–1917) became her teacher for counterpoint, harmony and form . In addition, she went through many of her works with Franz Lachner. In 1876 she became a private student of Joseph Rheinberger. A concert tour with the singer Aglaja Orgeni and the violinist Bartha Haft took her through various Bavarian cities in 1877, where she performed with her own works. From 1878 Luise Adolpha Le Beau also worked as a critic and wrote reviews for the Allgemeine Deutsche Musikzeitung in Berlin.

In the same year she founded the "private music course for music and theory for daughters of educated classes". Le Beau also dealt with other composers (Berlioz, Wagner, Chopin, Schumann) and increasingly cut himself off from Rheinberger, which ultimately led to the end of the teaching relationship in 1880. In the summer of 1882 she wrote the score of the choral work op.27 Ruth - Biblical Scenes for Solos, Choir and Orchestra . The publisher Christian Friedrich Kahnt from Leipzig printed this choral work, which was premiered on March 5, 1883 in Munich.

Luise Adolpha Le Beau, memoirs of a composer, Baden-Baden 1910, original cover

In the same year she met Franz Liszt in Weimar and her op. 28 quartet for piano, violin, viola and violoncello was premiered in the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. In 1884 she met the writer Luise Hitz , from whom she set some poems to music. In the same year she went on a trip to Salzburg and Vienna , where she made the acquaintance of Eduard Hanslick and Johannes Brahms . She also became a member of the Mozarteum in Salzburg. Le Beau's greatest productivity occurred in the Munich years up to 1885. For example, she won first prize for her cello sonata op. 17 in a composition competition. In 1885 the family moved to Wiesbaden . Here, too, some of Luise's works were performed. In addition to composing, she taught music theory and singing. The family moved again to Berlin in 1890 and Luise benefited from the good study opportunities in the Royal Library, to which she later entrusted her works for safekeeping. She engaged in intensive musicological studies: she researched her compositional predecessors and in 1890 published her essay "Composers of the last century" with a special focus on Haydn's contemporary Marianna von Martines . In Berlin she came into contact with Woldemar Bargiel , Joseph Joachim and Philipp Spitta .

The family moved one last time in 1893 and settled again in Baden-Baden, where on November 19 of the same year op. 40 Hadumoth for solos, choir and orchestra was premiered. Over the next few years he composed several works, including the symphony op. 41 for large orchestra , which was premiered in Baden-Baden in 1895. Her father Wilhelm died in 1896 as a result of a stroke and Luise from then on lived alone with her dependent, almost blind mother in Baden-Baden. In the summer of 1897 Luise Adolpha Le Beau finished her work on the score of the symphonic poem Hohenbaden , which was premiered on February 25, 1898 in a symphony concert in Baden-Baden. Her mother died in 1900.

The last major chamber music work by Luise Adolpha Le Beau, the String Quintet op. 54 for 2 violins, viola and 2 violoncellos , was performed in 1901, but not published. In 1902 she wrote her only opera, the fairy tale opera The Enchanted Caliph op. 55 (based on Wilhelm Hauff ), which she dedicated to her parents. Further compositions (piano pieces, songs, choirs from op. 56 to op. 65a) followed in the years to come. The piano music has an important part in the compositional work and runs like a red thread through the work of the composer and pianist: Fantasy piece op. 1/1, Concert-Etude op.2, original theme with variations Opus 3, sonata op 8, Eight Preludes op. 12, Improvisata op. 30, Ballade op. 47, Three old dances op. 48, Funeral march op. 53, Three piano pieces op. 57, Barcarole op. 59, Im Walde op. 63, Abendklänge op 64.

On a trip to Rome in 1902 she met the singer Alfredo de Giorgio . In the years 1906–1910 she also stayed in Italy again and again. In 1910 she wrote her autobiography Memoirs of a Composer . Her last years were also shaped by traveling, teaching, composing and performing, as well as writing music reviews for the Badener Badeblatt.

Luise Adolpha Le Beau died on July 17, 1927 at the age of 77 in Baden-Baden. She was buried next to her parents in the city cemetery. In memory of the musician, the city of Baden-Baden named its music library after Luise Adolpha Le Beau and on July 23, 2004 a memorial plaque was placed at Lichtentaler Straße 46.

literature

  • City of Baden-Baden - Cultural Office (ed.): Luise Adolpha Le Beau: A composer in Baden-Baden . Namos, Baden-Baden 2000, ISBN 978-3-7890-6913-0 .
  • Madeleine Stucki (Ed.): Louise Adolpha Le Beau: Complete Piano Works. 2 volumes. Mainz 2001
  • Ulrike B. Keil: Luise Adolpha Le Beau and her time. Investigations into their chamber music style between traditionalism and the “New German School” (= European university publications, series 35, volume 50). Frankfurt am Main [u. a.] 1996.
  • Ulrike Brigitte Keil (Ed.): Luise Adolpha Le Beau - Memoirs of a composer . Gaggenau 1999, ISBN 3-00-004321-7 . ( pdf of the original edition )
  • Eva Weissweiler : female composers from the Middle Ages to the present . Munich: dtv, 1999 ISBN 3-423-30726-9

Web links

Commons : Luise Adolpha Le Beau  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
personal data
SURNAME Le Beau, Luise Adolpha
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pianist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH April 25, 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Rastatt
DATE OF DEATH July 17, 1927
Place of death Baden-Baden