María Teresa Gertrudis de Jesús Carreño García (December 22,
1853 – June 12, 1917) was a Venezuelan pianist, soprano, composer, and
conductor. Over the course of her
54-year concert career, she became an internationally renowned virtuoso pianist
and was often referred to as the "Valkyrie of the Piano.” Carreño was an
early adopter of the works of one of her students and friend, American composer
and pianist, Edward MacDowell (1860–1908) and premiered several of his
compositions across the globe. She also frequently performed the works of
Norwegian composer and pianist, Edvard Grieg (1843–1907). Carreño composed approximately 75 works for
solo piano, voice and piano, choir and orchestra, and instrumental ensemble.
Several composers dedicated their compositions to Carreño, including Amy Beach
(Piano Concerto, op. 45) and Edward MacDowell (Piano Concerto No. 2).
Early Life and
Education
María Teresa Carreño García de Sena was born in Caracas,
Venezuela, on December 22, 1853, to Manuel Antonio Carreño (1812–1874) and
Clorinda García de Sena y Rodríguez del Toro (1816–1866). Her father was the
son of José Cayetano Carreño (1773–1836) and came from a musical family. He
gave her music lessons from an early age and oversaw her career until his death
in 1874. Her mother was a cousin of Maria Teresa Rodriguez del Toro y Alayza,
wife of South America's founding father Simón Bolívar, on whose honor she was named.
Before leaving Caracas she also studied with a German musician, Julio Hohene.
Career
In 1862 her family emigrated to New York City and Carreño
entered the musical world with a series of private and public concerts.[5]
During the first few weeks in New York City, she met American pianist and
composer, Louis Moreau Gottschalk who heard her perform and promoted her as an
artist. At the age of eight on November
25 she made her debut at Irving Hall performing a Rondo Brillant, Op. 98
(Johann Nepomuk Hummel), accompanied by a quintet (Mosenthal, Matzka, Bergner,
C. Preusser); Grande Fantaisie sur Moise, Op. 33 (Sigismond Thalberg); Nocturne
(Theodor Döhler), Jerusalem (Louis Moreau Gottschalk); and Variations on
"Home! Sweet Home!" Op. 72 (Thalberg) for an encore. This debut was followed by concerts
(1863–1865) across the northeastern and mid-Atlantic United States, including
stops in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland,
and Washington, D.C. During the fall of
1863 Carreño performed for Abraham Lincoln at the White House. Interspersed with her North American concerts
were concert performances in Cuba during the spring of 1863 and fall of 1865.
In the spring of 1866 Carreño and her family left the United
States for Paris, France where she made her debut on May 14 at the Salle Érard.
During her time in Paris, she met many
prominent musicians, including Gioachino Rossini, Georges Mathias (a pupil of
Frédéric Chopin who may have given her a few lessons), Charles Gounod, and
Franz Liszt. Between 1866 and 1872,
Carreño performed regularly in concerts across cities in the United Kingdom,
France, and Spain. While in Paris, she studied voice with Rossini, and later
during the 1870s with Signor Fontana and Russian soprano Herminia Rudersdorff
(1822–1882). Her preparation enabled her to step into the role of and appeared
as the Queen in Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots during a performance with the Colonel
Henry Mapleson troupe in Edinburgh, Scotland after the leading lady, Thérèse
Tiejens (1831–1877), became ill. In New
York, on February 25, 1876, she again performed in an operatic role, this time
as Zerlina, in Mozart's Don Giovanni.
In 1872 she returned to the United States with an artist
troupe (led by Max Strakosch) consisting of well-known musicians, including
American singer Annie Louise Cary, operatic soprano Carlotta Patti, French
violinist and composer Émile Sauret, baritone Signor Del Puente, and Italian
tenor Giovanni Matteo de Candia Mario. During 1873/1874 she appeared in
performances in England with the Philharmonic Society, and in M. Riviere's
promenade concerts, London Ballad Concerts, Hanover Square Rooms and the Monday Popular Concerts. While touring with the Max Strakosch troupe,
Carreño and Sauret became romantically involved and on July 13, 1873, they were
married in London, England. They had one child, Emilita (b. March 23, 1874) who
was left in the care of a family friend, Mrs. James Bischoff, while Carreño and
Sauret pursued musical opportunities in the United States. Emilita was
eventually adopted by the Bischoff family.
Between 1876 and 1889, Carreño resided and toured primarily
in the United States, sharing concert bills with famous operatic singers,
including Adelina Patti, Emma Abbott, Clara Louise Kellogg, Emma C. Thursby,
and Ilma De Murska, and musicians, including violinist August Wilhelmj and
Giovanni Tagliapietra. After Carreño's
marriage to Sauret dissolved, she became involved with Tagliapietra and entered
into a common-law marriage. They had three children, Louisa (March 1, 1878 –
May 16, 1881), Teresita (December 24, 1882 – 1951), and Giovanni (January 8,
1885 – 1965). Following in their mother's footsteps, Teresita pursued a career
as a concert pianist, and Giovanni as an opera singer. During these years she
appeared with the Theodore Thomas Orchestra and Damrosch Orchestra. Although
Carreño often appeared as a supporting artist during the 1870s into the early
1880s, she on occasion performed solo piano concerti, including Mendelssohn's
Piano Concerto no. 1, and Grieg's Piano Concerto, Op. 16. By 1883 Carreño began promoting and performing
the works of Edward MacDowell in the United States and later abroad. Some of
the most frequently performed works include his First Modern Suite, Op. 10,
Serenade, Op. 16, Second Modern Suite, Op. 14, "Erzählung" and
"Hexentanz" from 2 Fantasiestücke, Op. 17; Étude de concert, Op. 36;
Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 15; Piano Concerto No. 2 in D-minor, Op. 23
(dedicated to her).
At the invitation of General Joaquín Crespo, the president
of Venezuela, Carreño and Tagliapietra traveled to Caracas, Venezuela, arriving
in October 1885, with the intention of establishing an opera company and plans
for a music conservatory. Carreño gave several performances, including one on
October 27 at Teatro Guzmán Blanco in Caracas, which included the performance
of her composition, Himno a Bolívar, dedicated to Venezuela's founding father. Carreño and Tagliapietra returned to Venezuela
again in 1887 in order to open the season at Teatro Guzmán Blanco with their
new opera company. Unfortunately their efforts did not pay off largely due to
the political unrest, dissatisfied audiences, and abandoned musical posts. They returned to New York in August 1887 and
continued performing in the United States.
For several years, Carreño had planned to return to Europe
and establish herself as a virtuoso pianist. On November 18, 1889, she debuted
with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Gustav F. Kogel at the Singakademie.
On this occasion she performed Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto, Schumann's Zwölf
Symphonische Etüden, Op. 13, and Weber's Polonaise brillante (arr. Franz
Liszt). During the early years in the
United States, Carreño's concerts were managed by several different
individuals, however, as she established herself in Germany and abroad, she
chose to work primarily through the Hermann Wolff Concert Bureau and became
close friends with Hermann Wolff and his wife, Louise. Around 1890, Carreño
became acquainted with Scottish-born, German pianist and composer Eugen
d'Albert, also managed by Wolff. Their musical friendship turned romantic and
by late 1891 they moved into a home, which they named Villa Teresa in Coswig.
They were married on July 27, 1892. On
September 27, 1892, their first child, Eugenia was born, followed by Hertha on
September 26, 1894. During their marriage, the couple often appeared on the
same concert bill and Carreño began performing works by d'Albert, including his
Piano Concerto no. 2, Op. 12. D'Albert was a controlling individual in matters
related to child rearing, household management, and even Carreño's repertoire
choices, which resulted in the exclusion of MacDowell's music from her performances
during their marriage. Their marriage ended
in divorce in 1895. She would remarry
again in June 1902 to Arturo Tagliapietra, the brother of her second husband.
He had joined her in Berlin around 1897 and assisted her with her concert plans
and accounts.
Carreño at Piano in
1917
Following her success in Germany and other European states,
Carreño returned to the United States in 1897 to an eager audience. Performing
in Hartford, Connecticut, a critic for the Hartford Courant wrote: "Teresa
Carreno the piano virtuoso, made her first appearance to-day at the
Philharmonic Concert, Carnegie Hall, under the baton of Anton Seidl. Her
magnificent technique displayed to the highest degree the marvelous sonority of
the Knabe piano, upon which she played, and she received one of the greatest
ovations of the season." From this
point forward in her career, Carreño appeared in concerts as a featured artist,
solo or with orchestra. She performed under the baton of many prominent
conductors, including Edvard Grieg, Gustav Mahler, Theodore Thomas, Wilhelm
Gericke, Hans von Bülow, and Henry Wood. In his memoir, Henry Wood wrote that
"It is difficult to express adequately what all musicians felt about this
great woman who looked like a queen among pianists - and played like a goddess.
The instant she walked onto the platform her steady dignity held her audience
who watched with riveted attention while she arranged the long train she
habitually wore. Her masculine vigor of tone and touch and her marvellous
precision on executing octave passages carried everyone completely away."
Among the most frequently performed composers in her
repertoire were Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Grieg, MacDowell, Schumann,
Rubinstein, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Weber, and occasionally her own.
Carreño recorded over forty compositions for the reproducing piano between 1905
and 1908. These were released primarily by Welte-Mignon and reissued by other
piano roll manufacturers. Her daughter Teresita also recorded for player piano
in 1906 for Welte-Mignon. In addition to her performances, Carreño gave lessons
to students in many of the cities she visited. In the early 1900s, her students
traveled to her summer residence during the summer months to study with her for
weeks at a time. Amongst her students were her early biographers Marta
Milinowski, as well as Fanny Nicodé née Kinnel, Helen Wright, and Julia Gibansky-Kasanoff.
For the remainder of her career, Carreño performed in cities across Europe
(including Russia) with only a few concert seasons in North America during
1907–08, 1909–10, and 1916, as well as two visits to Australia and New Zealand
in 1907/1908 and 1910/1911, the latter which also included stops in South Africa.
Carreño and A. Tagliapietra returned to
New York City in September 1916 for a 1916–1917 concert season with
performances planned across the United States and Cuba. In 1916 she performed
for President Woodrow Wilson at the White House. During her trip to Havana,
Cuba in March 1917, however, she became ill and returned to New York where she
was diagnosed with diplopia. Her health declined rapidly and she died on June
12, 1917, in her apartment in New York City at the age of 63.
Compositions
Teresa Carreño composed approximately 75 works for piano,
voice and piano, choir and orchestra, chamber music, and several merengues,
incorporating the form as an interlude in some of her pieces (for example, in
her piece entitled Un Bal en Rêve). Her earliest compositions (in manuscript)
date back to ca. 1860. One of her first
pieces published the year after her debut in New York City was the
"Gottschalk Waltz" (1863), dedicated to Louis Moreau Gottschalk. The
majority of her works were composed before 1875 and were published by various
publishers in locations including Paris (Heugel, Brandus & S. Darfur),
London (Duff & Stewart), Madrid (Antonio Romero), New York (G. Schirmer,
Edward Schuberth), Boston (Oliver Ditson & Co.), Philadelphia (Theodore Presser),
Cincinnati (The John Church Company), Leipzig (Fr. Kistner & C. F. W.
Siegel) Sydney and Melbourne (Allan & Co.).
Only a handful of works were composed post-1880, including
two works for chorus, Himno a Bolívar (ca. 1883) and Himno al ilustre americano
(ca. 1886). The first piece was dedicated to General Joaquín Crespo and
premiered during her visit to Caracas in 1885. The second piece was written in
honor of Antonio Guzmán Blanco, president of Venezuela (1879–1884, 1886–1887).
Her composition Kleiner Walzer (Mi Teresita) (ca. 1885) composed for her
daughter Teresita was one of her most popular pieces during her lifetime and
she often performed it as an encore at her own concerts. During her Berlin
residency in the 1890s, Carreño composed two chamber works, Serenade for String
Orchestra (ca. 1895) and String Quartet in B-minor (1896). The latter which was
performed by the Klinger Quartet in the Leipzig Gewandhaus in 1896.
Legacy
In 1938 Carreño's ashes were repatriated to Caracas,
Venezuela. They were later exhumed and interred at the Panteón Nacional in
1977.
Vassar College acquired Teresa Carreño's papers in the early
1930s and officially purchased them in 1941. In 1957 a portion of the
(un-inventoried) collection was dispersed between Vassar and the National Library
in Caracas, Venezuela. These materials
are now housed in the Centro Documental Teatro Teresa Carreño. A finding aid is
available for the extant Teresa Carreño Papers at Vassar College in the
Archives & Special Collections Library.
The Teresa Carreño Cultural Complex in Caracas is named in
honor of Carreño. The center serves as the residence for the Venezuela Symphony
Orchestra. The complex also houses the Centro Documental Teatro Teresa Carreño
and the Sala de Exposición Teresa Carreño. The Centro Documental serves as the
main archive for Carreño in Venezuela. It houses primary source materials,
including correspondence, legal documents, concert programs, scores, reviews,
photographs, and other personal items. The Sala de Exposición exhibits
materials once owned by Carreño, including her concert dresses, Weber piano
(recovered through the efforts of Venezuelan pianist Rosario Marciano), and
other personal items. There is also a crater on Venus named after Carreño.
As of June 1, 2015 Andreina Gómez began directing a feature
film, Teresita y El Piano, about the life of Teresa Carreño.
In 2018, a Google Doodle was created to celebrate her 165th
Birthday.
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