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Donald Macleod explores the influence of Le Beau’s parents upon her musical beginnings

Luise Adolpha Le Beau was a German composer, concert pianist, teacher and music critic. Although her music was performed as far afield as Calcutta and Sydney, and despite the musical luminaries who influenced her career including the conductor Hans von Bülow, her story is one of continual struggle for recognition and respect. Le Beau’s parents were huge supporters of their daughter right from the start, but their frequent moving of home in Germany, including Baden-Baden, Munich and Berlin, tells another story. Le Beau frequently met opposition to her works and to performance opportunities, and would eventually move on with her parents to seek better prospects. Despite these set-backs, Le Beau forged her own path as a composer not only with works for her own instrument, the piano, but also with chamber music, opera, a symphony and many songs. She was determined to succeed, but after her death, without anyone to promote her works on her behalf, Le Beau soon fell into obscurity and was largely forgotten.

Luise Adolphe Le Beau was born in Rastatt in Germany in 1850, but the family early on moved to Karlsruhe. From a young age Luise began to study the violin and piano, and unusually for the time, her father also taught her other subjects such as geometry. Many considered that learning the violin was not suitable for a girl, but her musical talents started to flourish, and she was soon having piano lessons with the court conductor Wilhelm Kalliwoda. By 1867, under his guidance, Le Beau gave a public performance of Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto. Donald Macleod is also joined throughout the series by Dr Katy Hamilton, who in this programme discusses the significant support Le Beau’s parents gave her, to the extent that her mother would chaperone Le Beau on concert tours.

Piano Concerto in D minor, Op 37 (excerpt)
Katia Tchemberdji, piano
Berlin Chamber Symphony Orchestra
Jürgen Bruns, conductor

Fantasiestück, Op 1 No 1 (Drei Klavierstücke)
Ana-Marija Markovina, piano

Fünf Lieder, Op 7 (excerpt)
Helen Charlston, mezzo-soprano
Michael Pandya, piano

Piano Concerto in D minor, Op 37 (Allegro maestoso)
Katia Tchemberdji, piano
Berlin Chamber Symphony Orchestra
Jürgen Bruns, conductor

Piano Sonata, Op 8 (excerpt)
Ana-Marija Markovina, piano

Violin Sonata, Op 10
Bartek Nizioł, violin
Tatiana Korsunskaya, piano

Produced by Luke Whitlock