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Luise Adolpha Le Beau

Composer and pianist Luise Adolpha Le Beau had a long career that included the creation of several works in larger forms. She also worked as an educator and music critic. Le Beau was born in Rastatt, then in the Grand Duchy of Baden, on April 25, 1850. Her father, Wilhelm Le Beau, was a military officer but also a musician and composer who began giving Luise piano lessons at age five and encouraged her efforts at composition. After finishing her education at a local girls' school, she began to pursue a career in music, taking lessons first from Wilhelm Kalliwoda in Karlsruhe. By 1868 she was good enough to perform Beethoven's Piano Concerto in E flat major, Op. 73, in Karlsruhe. She took some lessons from Clara Schumann in 1873, but the two women clashed. Le Beau went on tour in the Netherlands but then returned to Germany for more study. She applied to the city's Royal Music School and was admitted for lessons with Josef Rheinberger, although by regulation, she was segregated from male students. She also continued teaching, began touring, and wrote music reviews for the Allgemeine Deutsche Musik-Zeitung, but quit after she disagreed with changes made to her articles. The period after Le Beau's studies with Rheinberger was Le Beau's most productive as a composer, and, atypically for female composers, she wrote a number of works in larger forms. In 1882, her Cello Sonata, Op. 17, won first prize in an international contest. Her major works included the Piano Concerto, Op. 37, the opera Hadumoth, Op. 40, and a Symphony, Op. 41, premiered in Baden-Baden in 1895. During this period, Le Beau's works were played as far afield as Sydney, Australia, and Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey). Never prosperous, Le Beau continued to teach and write. She was nominated for a chair at the Royal School of Music in Berlin but was turned down due to her gender. In 1902, she wrote a second opera, The Enchanted Caliph, Op. 55. In 1910, Le Beau published a memoir, Lebenserinnerungen einer Komponistin ("Life Memories of a Female Composer"). Le Beau remained active in old age, teaching and writing in Baden-Baden. She died there on July 17, 1927. The ongoing rediscovery of music by women bypassed Le Beau for a time. By the early 2020s, some 20 of her compositions had been recorded, but most were keyboard and chamber works; her symphony and operas awaited rediscovery.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography

13 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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