Leopoldine Anne Marie Blahetka Born 16.11.1811 Guntramsdorf, Nr. Vienna, Austria - Died 17.1.1887 Boulogne, France
Her maternal grandfather was the Austrian composer Andreas Traeg.
Her first music lessons were with her mother and then for piano with Mrs Cibbini Kozeluch. She made her piano playing debut at an hotel in Vienna in 1818. Later she studied with Czerny, Payer, von Lannoy, Hoffmann, Kalkbrenner and Moscheles. From 1821 she began touring Europe , including a visit to England accompanied by her mother. She continued to tour for the next twenty years. She later studied composition with Simon Sechter which proved to be a major influence on her career as a composer.
Orchestral
Piano concerto Op.25 1835
Variations brillant for piano and orchestra Op.4 pub. by Hofmeister (piano solo version pub. by Cranz)
Variations brillant on 'God save Franz The Emperor' for piano and orchestra Op.28 pub. by Kahnt
Variations on a Hungarian Theme for piano and orchestra (also version for piano quartet) Op.18 pub. by Halsinger
Variations on a theme by de Gallenberg for piano and orchestra (also version for piano quartet) Op.29 pub. by Simrock
Variations for piano and orchestra 1823
'Souvenir d'Angleterre' for piano and orchestra (alternative version for piano quartet) Op.38 pub. by Hofmeister
Chamber
Piano quartet in A major Op.43 pub. by Chez Fr. Hofmeister
Piano quartet in E flat Op.44 pub. by Chez Fr. Hofmeister
Concertstuck for piano and string quartet ad lib Op.25 (also for solo piano)
'Souvenir d'Angleterre' piano quartet pub. by Chez Fr. Hofmeister
Piano trio Op.5
Piano solo with strings (variations sur le Seige de Corinthe) Op.20
Piano solo with strings Op.29
Variations for string quartet and piano Op.2
Variations for string quartet and piano Op.26 (also for solo piano) pub. by Toby Haslinger
Variations concertante for violin and piano Op.10
Violin Sonata Op.15
Grand polonaise for cello and piano Op.9 pub by Toby Haslinger
Variations for cello and piano Op.11
Variations for flute and piano in D Op.39 pub. by Chez Fr. Hofmeister
Fantaisie for flute and piano Op.40 pub. by Lemoine
Piano
Variations sur la cavatina favorite 'Cara deh attendini' Op.1
Variations et Rondeau brillante Polonaise sur la cavatina favorite 'A come Nascondere' Op.2 pub. by Haslinger
Variations sur un theme concertamtes du Ballet Oberon Op.3
Variations Op.6
Twelve German dances Op.8
Variations Brillante Op.14
Concertstuck for solo piano (also with string quartet ad lib) Op.25
Variations on The Fisherman's chorus from Auber's opera Masaniello Op.26
Variations sur un theme Tyrolien Op.27 pub. by Cranz
Fantasie and variations on Dutch folk songs Op.33 pub. by B Schott
Polonaise in D major Op.19 pub. by Cranz
Variations Op.20
Fantasy Op.30
Six Viennese waltzes Op.35 pub. by Joubert
Three elegant rondeaux Op.37 pub. by Chez Fr. Hofmeister
Fantasie sur des motifs du Chalet favorits Op.40
Six Valses a la Viennoise Op.42
Two Nocturnes Op.46 1840 pub. by Chez B Latte
Grand Duo in F sharp minor Op.47 1839 pub. by Chez Fr. Hofmeister
Caprice Op.48
Quadrille Op.50
Fantasie sur les Hugenots Op.54
Skaters Quadrille - from 'Le Prophet' Op.56
Caprice Elegante Op.59 1850 pub. by Chez H Lemoine & Fils
Fantasie sur la Romances de la Reine Hortense Op.61
Four Nocturnes Op.62 pub. by H Lemoine
Nocturne Op.63
Three Variations Brillante
Ecossaise
Melodie
Minuet
Three waltzes
Song
Six German songs Op.16;
16/1 Die Nebelbilder
16/2 Der Getrostete
16/3 Die Totenklage
16/4 Die Fernen Berge
16/5 Sehnsucht
16/6 Matrosenlied
'Daughter of Galconda' for voice and piano words by J.Mery
Fragment from Tennyson's 'Maud' for voice and piano Op.64 1855 pub. by Jullien & Co.
'How oft in the Moonshine' words by Von Mathisson (English by L Wray)
'Restless Love' words by Goethe Op.32 pub. by Wessel & Co.
Sacred
'Ave Maria' for voice and piano or organ Op.57 pub. by Lemoine
'Pater Noster' for four voices and piano or organ Op.58 pub. by Lemoine
Operetta
'Die Raeuber und die Saenger' (The Robber and the Singer) 1830
Austrian or French, would you say?
As far as I am aware, she always retained her Austrian nationality.
I notice that the scores of Op. 25 (presumably - though it is not clear - 2-piano scores) in BL and the BSB are catalogued as "Concert-Stück".
The BL score of the Op.25 is indeed titled Concertstuck and is for piano solo.
Thank you for that. I have amended the list accordingly
according to HMB (ok, I'm replying 2 years late, but have just been looking at this myself)- Op.25 is listed as being for piano with ad lib quartet or orchestra, while the Op.44 2nd piano quartet is listed as being in E-flat (though HMB is "erm, fallible, to be kind"), not B-flat (did you really mean B as in what the Germans call H-dur?...)
The Grand Duo, in F-sharp minor and dedicated to Clara Wieck (published in 1839, so a year before Clara and Robert married, btw), can now, I see, be downloaded from Munich/BSB.
There is a rather impressive performance of the Op.19 Polonaise on youtube. It has been described as Chopin on steroids. I had this in my feeble repertoire, but dropped it as it was on the far edge of my abilities.
The Op.25 has orchestral "hints" and can be played as a solo. Fine piece again.
Thal
I wonder if anyone can fill in the missing opus numbers which are:
7, 12, 13, 17, 21-24, 31, 34, 36, 41, 45, 51-3, 55, and 60.
According to the book by Eva Marx and Gerlinde Haas «210 österreichische Komponistinnen vom 16. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart» (2001), op. 7 is Nachtgesang (Kosegarten) for voice and piano; 13 = Variations sur un thème favorit (de Moise) for piano (publ. by Gombart & Comp., Stuttgart in 1844.
The same book says that the following op. numbers are lost: 17, 21, 24, 31, 36, 41, 45, 53, 60.
Turner's "Leopoldine Blahetka (1811-1887) : pianist and composer" (dissertation) may contain useful information too. (According to Worldcat (http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/70804776) this is in fact a thematic catalog of her music.)
I wonder where the orchestral scores are.
Not scores, but 16 parts, to Op.4 @ ÖNB (http://data.onb.ac.at/rec/AC09165548), which is a natural place to look BTW given that she is an Austrian composer. They give her birthyear as 1809, btw.
This (http://data.onb.ac.at/rec/AC09165549) may describe parts (or maybe just the piano part, but it does say "15 St."?) for her Op.14 variations.
BTW re Werkverzeich., there's not only the one I mentioned before, but also Rössl (1986): "Leopoldine Blahetka : eine Pianistin und Komponistin der Biedermeierzeit ; Biographie und Werkverzeichnis".
(According to Worldcat Op.63 is also "Thême original avec variations".) The Op.7, Nachtgesang ("Tiefe Feier Schauert um die Welt") to words by Kosegarten, about which many pixels have been spilled ;^) :) can be viewed here (http://digital.staatsbibliothek-berlin.de/werkansicht?PPN=PPN688942474).
There's a couple of enjoyable performances of her charming Variations for Flute & Piano, Op.39 on YT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kuJFSnfJQE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kuJFSnfJQE)
and
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE1L4RZWUmQ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE1L4RZWUmQ)
Her Variations for Cello and Piano op. 11 can be listened to on the website of the Archiv des Wiener Musikvereins (https://www.musikverein.at/audio/kostbarkeiten-aus-dem-archiv#!#article_58995) in a performance from May 2019.
This page is quite a treasure trove of recordings of unsung works by unsung composers: Blahetka, Randhartinger, Mayseder, Mandyczewski and von Neukomm to name just those that interest me. A fascinating find, thank you Thomas.
And one can download the music too, as I discovered. Quite a find. Many thanks.
Quote from: giles.enders on Thursday 26 July 2012, 11:33
As far as I am aware, she always retained her Austrian nationality.
Sorry to be a pedant here (and creating a side tangent; sorry, Alan)...
... but I think it is important to realize until the second third of the 19th century, a unified, formal concept of "nationality" did not really exist in the way it does today. Part of this was that your identity was determined by travel documents you brought with you, usually some letter of introduction hand-written by the political entity you lived at the time (not necessarily the one you were born in). In the beginning of the 19th century, half of Germany was still carrying papers (if they did so in the first place) issued during the Holy Roman Empire before 1806. There was also no unified standard for such papers (although a certain consensus), so such outdated papers were accepted here, rejected there, etc.
In general, however, it was less relevant to determining your nationality as it was to prove what
class you belonged to. This changed during the 19th century, but swapping nationalities was quite easy until some time into the 20th century. A case is Reznicek, who moved from Prague to Berlin in 1902 and just "became" German, with all the rights that entailed, fairly easily. Of course, being a nobleman helped tremendously.
This is also the reason why talking about "German" and "Polish" music pre-1918 can be a bit self-defeating. The Scharwenkas were ethnic Poles but cultural Germans; Stojowski was a Russian citizen but a cultural Pole; and Moszkowski was a Russian Pole but a cultural Jew. In the Austrian Empire things got even more complicated.