Luise Adolpha Le Beau (25 April 1850 in Rastatt, Grand Duchy of Baden – 17 July 1927 in Baden-Baden) was a German composer of classical music. She studied with noted musicians Clara Schumann and Franz Lachner, but her primary instructor was Josef Gabriel Rheinberger. Like many other 19th century female composers, Le Beau began her career in music as a pianist, and later earned her living teaching, critiquing, and performing music.
Early life
Luise Adolpha Le Beau was born Luise Caroline Marie Henriette Adolpha Le Beau on 25 April 1850 in Rastatt, Grand Duchy of Baden. She was the only daughter of military officer Wilhelm Le Beau and his wife Karoline (née Barack). After William Le Beau's Baden army retirement in 1856, both parents devoted themselves to the general education of their daughter. From her father William, a musician and composer, Le Beau received piano lessons beginning at the age of five. Le Beau composed her first piece at the age of eight. She studied languages from 1863 through 1866 as a guest at the local girls' school. At age sixteen, she completed her education with a degree from a private institution for girls, and from then on devoted herself to music.
Education
Following her confirmation on Easter of 1865, Le Beau began to take piano lessons from Hofkapellmeister William Kalliwoda in Karlsruhe. She also received singing lessons from Anton Haizinger. In 1868 she made her debut as a pianist, playing the E-flat major Concerto of Beethoven and the G minor Concerto by Felix Mendelssohn in Karlsruhe. In 1870, she met Franz Lachner and Anton Rubinstein. Le Beau applied for piano lessons with Clara Schumann in 1873 to be taken in Baden-Baden. Her studies with Schumann lasted for one summer, a total of twelve lessons, due to Schumann's teaching methods and personal differences between the two musicians. A concert engagement in February 1874 took Le Beau to five cities of The Netherlands. The tour began in Utrecht and led through Arnhem and Rotterdam to The Hague and, finally, to Amsterdam. Le Beau recounted in her memoir that her health was "unstable and unsuitable for touring."
Career
Munich
With a letter of recommendation from the pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow, the Le Beau family decided to relocate to Munich to facilitate Luise studying under composer Josef Gabriel Rheinberger in 1876. Due to the regulations put in place by the Royal Music School, Le Beau was tutored separately from the male students. Rheinberger and Le Beau developed a close relationship, and Rheinberger dedicated his "Toccata for piano" op. 104 to Le Beau. While at the Royal Music School, Le Beau's teacher for counterpoint, harmony, and form was Ernst Melchior Sachse, and Franz Lachner offered critiques of many of her works.
The years following the relocation to Munich through 1885 became Le Beau's most productive period. In 1877, she undertook a concert tour with singer Aglaia Orgeni and violinist Bartha Haft. They went to several Bavarian towns, where Luise performed her original compositions. Le Beau also worked as a critic, writing reviews for "Allgemeine Deutsche Musik-Zeitung" in Berlin beginning in 1878. Le Beau eventually stopped critiquing music when her editor consistently amended and shortened her articles. In 1878, she also founded her "private music course for daughters of the educated classes." These lessons were aimed at preparing women for job opportunities as piano teachers.
Le Beau focused more on other composers (including Berlioz, Wagner, Chopin, Schumann) and gradually cut herself off from Rheinberger, which lead to the termination of the teaching relationship in 1880. In the summer of 1882, she wrote the score of "Op.27, Ruth - Biblical Scenes for Soloists, Chorus, and Orchestra." Christian Friedrich Kahnt from Leipzig published the piece, and it was premiered on 5 March 1883 in Munich. Also during 1882, she won the first prize for her "Cello Sonata op.17" in an international composition contest. In the same year, Le Beau met Franz Liszt in Weimar. She was quite disappointed by her encounter with Liszt as it did not assist her with acquiring contacts, nor did her piano skills develop any further. Le Beau's "Quartet Op.28 for Piano, Violin, Viola and Cello" was premiered at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. In 1884, she met the writer Luise Hitz and set some of her poems to music. Throughout the same year, she travelled to Salzburg and Vienna, where she made the acquaintance of Eduard Hanslick and Johannes Brahms.