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Donald Macleod explores the period Le Beau has lessons with the celebrated composer Josef Rheinberger.

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 Adolpha Le Beau had had a series of piano lessons with the pianist and composer Clara Schumann. There had been a clash of personality, and these lessons had not gone well. On the advice of the conductor Hans von Bülow, Le Beau was then accepted for lessons with Josef Rheinbeger. To begin with these lessons went very well, with Rheinberger even dedicating one of his own works to Le Beau. However, this relationship turned sour, and soon Le Beau was seeking another tutor who came in the form of Franz Lachner. Lachner would teach Le Beau aspects of orchestration, which would impact upon the composition of her own orchestral music. Donald Macleod is joined by Dr Katy Hamilton, who discusses the relationship Le Beau had with Rheinberger, and the possible reasons for its deterioration.

Mazurka, Op 57 No 3 (Drei Klavierstücke)
Ana-Marija Markovina, piano

Polonaise, Op 26 No 3 (Drei Stücke)
Ulrich Koch, viola
Maria Bergmann, piano

Theme and Variations, Op 3
Ana-Marija Markovina, piano

Fünf Lieder, Op 11 (excerpt)
Helen Charlston, mezzo-soprano
Michael Pandya, piano

Piano Trio, Op 15
Bartek Nizioł, violin
Denis Severin, cello
Tatiana Korsunskaya, piano

Concert Overture in F major, Op 23
³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Geoffrey Patterson, conductor

Produced by Luke Whitlock