Terwo Carreno (rgs3-re77)

Teresa Carrefr.o, pianist, composer, singer and teacher, was an important musical figure in North and South America and in Europe. Bom in Venezuela, she spent most of her life in Europe and the United States. Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Anton Rubinstein, Gioachino Rossini, Franz Liszt and Johannes Brahms were some of her great admirers.

Musically there was little that she could not do. She was a fiery performer at the piano, possessing overwhelming physical strength and virtuosic technique, characteristics that earned her the title "The Walkure of the Piano." Her operatic performances also won critical acclaim, and she dared to compose in an era that was outwardly intolerant of women composers. Students clamored to study with her, and she was the cherished mentor of several outstandirg talents, the most famous being Edward MacDowell. A brilliant and charming conversationalist, Carreflo spoke five languages fluently. She was also a great beauty who possessed a tempestuous temperament. Her lifestyle was viewed as scandalous in the period in which she lived, for she married four times.

Although Teresa Carreflo is acclaimed as one of the great pianists of the turn of the century, she is not equally recognized as a composer. She was more typical of a Latin American than a European composer of the nineteenth century, as she did not write large scale works such as symphonies, sonatas or concertos. Instead, she wrote mostly short pieces for the piano; her one composition for large orchestra was a patriotic work composed for a specific event. Often she is not taken seriously as a composer because her relatively small output is primarily salon music.

Carrefro's compositions consist of about forty piano pieces, a string quartet, a Serenadefor String Orchestra, one song, and the Hymn to Boliaar, a work for chorus and orchestra composed in honor of the Bolivar centenary of 1883. Most of her compositions were written before her first marriage to Emile Sauret in 1873 when she was only twenty. At that time her pianistic career took off; she had numerous children -- and marriages -- which left her little time to compose. Her piano works, written later in her life, are in the salon style with which she felt so comfortable. The String Quartet in B minor and the Serenadefor String Orchestrq,both written in 1895 after her divorce from her third husband, Eugene d'Albert, are the exceptions.

The seven pieces by Teresa Carreflo in this edition reflect her many influences, and show the great variety of music that she wrote in the salon music genre. La Corbeille de Fleurs, containing hints of Chopin and Liszt, was written when she was between ten and twelve years of age and living in New York. FIer mentor, the virtuoso pianist Louis Moreau Gottschalk, performed this work many times on his recital tours. After the death of her mother in 1866 when she was but thirteen, she wrote several Elegies and Plainfes which were more introspective and technically less demanding. The lyrical Plainte, Op.77 has a songful melody in the right hand, and in its sweetly sad mood is reminiscent of many Chopin Nocturnes. Le Printemps, Op.25, Une Reauea Prague,Op.27, Venise,Op. 33 from Esquissesltaliennes, and Highland, Op. 38 were all composed between 1867 and 1873, when Carreflo was living in Paris and London. The TeresitaWaltz, of 1884 or 1BBS,was published in 1896 with no opus mrmber"

Le Printeffips, a brilliant work that Carrefro herself played in the salons in Paris, is organized like many of the waltzes by Johann Strauss, with a dramatic introduction, a series of five waltzes, and a brilliant conclusion. Une Reauea Prague, one of her most virtuosic pieces, was also frequently included on her recital programs. By all accounts Carreflo was a brilliant improviser, a talent reflected in this composition with its effortless modulations and unusual keys. The Esquissesltaliennest No. 1, entitled Venise,is a tranquil work depicting the gondoliers on the canals in Venice. Highland makes use of an important Latin American rhythm, the habanera. This rhythm was used often by Latin American composers in the nineteenth century and found its way into the compositions of various American and European composers as well. (The habanera formed the basis for the contradansa in the Caribbean in the late nineteenth century and the tango in Argentina in the early twentieth.) One of Teresa Carrefro's most charming pieces is her TeresitaWaltz, which was inspired by and dedicated to Teresita Carreflo Tagliapietra, her first daughter by her second marriage. The popular sounding melody is similar to the lyrical melodies found in the Spanish Zarzuela, which so influenced Latin American composers of the time. This piece achieved enormous popularity in Europe in the late 1800's.

The TeresitaWaltz was first published in Leipzi9by E. W. Fritsch, and the other six works in Paris by Heugel and Company. Although the French publisher did not include dates of publication, we can approximate the time of composition and publication from Carreflo's correspondence, her scrapbooks, and the biography written by Marta Milinowsky,u former student. It is these first editions, approved by Carreflo, that are used in the present publication" I have added some modern notation, some fingering, and some missing accidentals. In the Teresita Waltz I redistributed some of the notes to accommodate a hand smaller than Carrefro's large one. My fingering appears throughout the edition in italics to distinguish it from the composer's. Other suggestions I have made are either shown in brackets or indicated by dotted lines.

I obtained copies of the original scores courtesy of the Dickinson Music Llbrary of Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, where they form part of the Carreflo Collection. (For a detailed inventory of this special collection see Brian Mann's article listed below.) Special thanks to Sarah Canino, music librarian, who was so helpful and supportive of this project.

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SelectedBibliography

Albuquerque, Anne E. "Teresa Carreflo: Pianist, Teacher, and Composer." DMA diss., University of Cincinnati, 1988.

Guzman, Mario Milanca. "Claudio Arrau evoca a Teresa Carreflo." Latin American Musical Reaiew8 (Fall/winter 1987): 276-29.

. "Teresa Carreflo: Cronologia y Manuscritos." Reaista Musical Chilena a2 [uIy- December 19BB):90-135.

Mann, Brian. "The Carreflo Collection at Vassar College." Notes27 (lune 7997):1064-L083.

Milinowski, Marta. TeresaCarrefio: "by the Grqceof God." 7.940;reprint ed., New York: Da Capo Press, 1.977.

Plaza, Juan Bautista. TeresaCqrrefio. Caracas: Americana, \938.

Rodriguez-Peralta, Carmen. "Teresa Carreflo: Triumphant Artist in a Man's World of Music." Trr Portraits of Latin Antericnn Women Artists, edited by Marjorie Agosin. Forthcoming in the Secret Weaaers Series by White Pines Press, FaII, 1997.