Mothers Who Were Composers And Concert Pianists

by Gail Smith

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Since we will celebrate Mother's Day in May, I'm reminded of two famous women who combined their careers with motherhood.

The two women are Clara (Wieck) Schumann, whose picture is on currency in Germany, and Teresa Carreno, who is pictured on a postage stamp. Both women have been honored in these awesome ways. As far as I know, these are the only women composers that are on the money or on a postage stamp anywhere in the world.

Clara Schumann married Robert Schumann on her 2lst birthday. She was the mother of five children. Teresa had four children. Both women gave concerts. Both women promoted new music. Clara performed her husband Robert Schumann's works. Teresa also performed her husband's piano music as well as the music composed by Edward MacDowell. Both women taught piano students and were child prodigies themselves. Another thing they had in common was that their piano teachers were their very own fathers.

It is interesting that Clara's father Frederic Wieck composed a whole book of exercises for her. Yes, Clara's father composed a book with FIVE HUNDRED exercises in it. You will be able to see some of the exercises that Clara's father wrote for her at the end of this article.

This month I want you to learn about Teresa Carreno. She was a composer, pianist, opera singer, wife and mother. The following is a bio written especially to celebrate her 150th birthday.

Teresa Carreno was a famous concert pianist just about her entire life. She was a child prodigy who dazzled America in the late nineteenth century. Teresa played the piano at the White House for President Abraham Lincoln when she was only ten years old. Her life story is filled with drama. She was a prima donna who tried to mix marriage and music. Teresa was married four times. Emile Sauret (June 1873); Giovanni Tagliapietra (1876); Eugene d'Albert (1892-95); and Arturo Tagliapietra (June 30, 1902). After one of her concerts a critic was quoted, "Frau Carreno, yesterday played for the first time the second concerto of her third husband in the fourth Philharmonic Concert."

Teresa Carreno's concert schedule took her around the globe. During her summer vacations, Carreno taught talented students who idolized her. There wasn't much time left after teaching and practicing for her concerts, but even so, she did compose some wonderful music. Her works include: a String Quartet; Petite danse for orchestra; 39 concert pieces for piano and a waltz, Mi Teresita, which became very popular. Carreno keep very busy. On the average, Carreno gave 70 concerts a year, traveling from one city to another. One year her agent booked 80 concerts in America. Teresa played Grieg's piano concerto and actually knew Grieg. She performed Edward MacDowell's Piano Concerto and yes, she not only knew him, she had been his piano teacher! The composer, pianist Amy Beach, dedicated the only piano concerto she composed to none other than Teresa Carreno. Everyone wanted Teresa to perform their works in her numerous concerts around the world. Teresa spoke five languages fluently. Her German debut was in Berlin on November 18, 1889. Carreno toured Australia in 1907.

Teresa Carreno was born in Caracas, Venezuela on December 22, 1853. Her father, Manuel Antonio Carreno, was an excellent pianist. Teresa began playing the piano when she was four years old. One day Teresa surprised her father by playing a song she heard performed the night before at a concert in her home. Her father was delighted and began teaching her. Manuel wrote 500 exercises that covered all the technical and rhythmical difficulties any pianist would encounter. Gradually she learned them and could play them all in rotation every three days in any key. Her father was the Minister of Finance in Venezuela. He had written a book, "El Carreno". It was a set of rules of politeness and etiquette, preceded by a short treatise on moral obligations. His philosophy was that only by using time wisely can we educate and distinguish ourselves realizing all the plans that can be useful to society. The Carreno family was driven from Venezuela by a revolution in 1862 and settled in New York. The family fortune had been left in Venezuela to a trusted friend who was administering the property for them. His sudden death became a catastrophe for the Carreno family. The dishonest son pretended to know nothing about the funds that had been placed in trust with his father, which also included the grandmother's small fortune. With the servants and children the Carreno household numbered fourteen. The father realized that they only had enough money to last a month. Teresa was always asking to give a concert, so her father decided that he would consent to have his daughter play in public for money. It was unbelievable that no one in the household of fourteen was capable of earning a living in this emergency except their little eight year old Teresa.

Teresa's first concert was a success and the momentum produced four more concerts soon after. In three weeks she gave all those concerts and then the manager planned a concert for her ninth birthday and filled the Academy of Music Hall with 3,000 people. Unfortunately, the manager never paid them a cent. The only thing that mattered to Teresa was that she learned a new piece to play for the concert. Teresa learned Gottchalk's "Last Hope" in a day. She also composed a new piece, a capriccio and performed it perfectly. A busy life began for Teresa from then on. Sometimes she would give two concerts a day in and around Boston. Teresa practiced new pieces for her repertoire and composed new songs to play as well. Teresa came up with the idea to give a matinee concert for children. Soon other cities called for concerts. Her career had begun!

Everything Teresa did became news. The newspaper printed these maxims that she had written when she was only seven years old:
1. Learn that you may teach.
2. Be not haughty, that you may be loved by others.
3. Take pity on the wicked, and endeavor not to be such.
4. Those children cannot be good who do not respect their parents, and they are, moreover, considered as ill-bred. Children ought always to bear this in mind.
5. God says that he does not love those who are stubborn or speak falsehood. Children should therefore be good, and live in God, who is our Divine Providence.
6. Children should always be good and docile, and never allow themselves to be told things more than once. How much, then, they will be liked!
7. Avoid envy.
8. Children should always imitate a good example.
9. God ordains that we should protect old age when in want.
10. Never get angry, although you may have cause to be so.
11. The fear of the Lord ought to be the rule of our life.

She did practice what she preached. Teresa imitated the book her father had written. She also was prophetic when she wrote her first maxim which was, "Learn that you may teach". Teresa became a wonderful teacher.

Teresa studied with Gottschalk who was the favorite concert pianist at the time. Later she would study with Mathias in Paris and then Anton Rubinstein.

The first concert appearance of Teresa in America was in New York City's Irving Hall. The concert was held on Tuesday, November 25th, 1862. She was just eight years old when overnight she became the talk of the town. Her last appearance with an orchestra would also be in New York (December 8, 1916). Her final concert however, was in Havana on March 21, 1917. Her career as a concert pianist spanned fifty-five years!

Carreno tried to combine being a wife, mother and a concert pianist. She was drawn to her first husband by music and pity. Music and loneliness had brought her to her second husband, Tagliapietra. Then music and true love brought her to d'Albert who was eleven years younger than Teresa. D'Albert was also a composer and concert pianist. Soon after they were married he left for America on a three month tour with thirty concerts to perform. Soon they had a baby girl named Eugenia. When the baby was three months old, Teresa appeared in concert with her husband conducting his new concerto as she performed on the piano. The critics applauded the performance but not the composition. Teresa wanted to give up playing for the spring season but her agent held her to her contracts. Her husband had a tour of three weeks in Russia and other engagements to conduct his works. Jealousy crept in and he preferred to go off with friends without her. She didn't like to share him with others. D'Albert and Teresa were close friends of Johannes Brahms. Once when d'Albert was dining with Brahms in Vienna, he asked him why he never married, Brahms said, "That is quite simple; because I have never found a wife like yours."

The couple would go their separate ways for concerts. They were unhappy apart but neither happy at home with the servants and all the children from their previous marriages. At the end of that year they decided to give concerts together on two pianos. Their debut was received with warm approval by the concert world. They were one of the first duo piano artists. Teresa was expecting another child, so the concert season came to an early end for her.

As time went on Teresa began giving concerts again. There wasn't enough time for them to practice together, so they each began giving separate concerts again. Teresa would often be away when her husband was home and vice versa. Then on October 17th Carreno writes in her diary, "The most unhappy day of my life. Had I not lived to see it and hear what my husband said to me!!! May God help me to bear my suffering! Only God knows what I suffer!!!" The unbelievable happened, in a fit of temper he left home after his philanderings had reached serious proportions. Teresa moved to Berlin with her four children. The divorce was granted on October 2, 1895.

After this divorce Teresa began composing music again, something she had not done since childhood. Teresa was determined to put her children first and redouble her efforts for their sakes. Her oldest son, Giovanni had a willful nature and no ambition while her oldest daughter, Teresita, was very nervous and sickly.

During the 1895-96 concert season, Teresa gave over seventy concerts. She went from Germany to Great Britain, Italy, France, Switzerland, Norway and Sweden. She was exhausted when she joined her children for the summer. Pupils who had arrived from far and near for lessons held their breath for fear that Carreno might cancel a lesson. After a little rest, Teresa also put her finishing touches on the string quartet she had composed during the past year. On September 29, 1896 it was performed in Leipzig.

With her children in expensive schools in Europe, she went on a tour to America with a contract guaranteed by the Knabe Piano Company. She had no sooner arrived home than her agent wanted to send her on another tour to America with a guarantee of eighty concerts.

Her daughter Teresita blossomed as a pianist and gave several concerts. Carreno was cautioned however, to take charge of her daughter and allow no tours until she attained greater proficiency and would not cast a shadow on her artist-mother's name.

Teresa appeared with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra on December 8, 1916. This was her last appearance with an orchestra in concert. She died in New York on June 12, 1917.

This piece is found in Mel Bay's Complete Book of Exercises for the Pianist