Teresa Carreño - Piano Music (Clara Rodriguez)

Information

Composer: Teresa Carreño

1. Le printemps, Op. 25
2. Plainte, Elegía No. 1, Op. 17
3. Ballade, Op. 15
4. Intermezzo, Op. 34
5. La corbeille de fleurs, Valse, Op. 9
6. Mazurka de salon, Op. 30
7. Un bal en rêve, Op. 26
8. Partie, Elegía No. 2, Op. 18
9. La fausse note, Op. 39
10. Un rêve en mer, Op. 28
11. Kleiner Waltzer
12. Le sommeil de l'enfant, Op. 35
13. Vals gayo
14. Venise, Op. 33
15. Une revue à Prague, Op. 27

Clara Rodriguez, piano
Date: 2009
Label: Nimbus Alliance

https://www.wyastone.co.uk/carre-o-piano-music.html

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Review

Premiere performances of high-class salon music by a Venezuelan Valkyrie

Teresa Carreño (1853- 1917), nicknamed “The Valkyrie of the Piano”, had much in common with Martha Argerich: South American (Carreño hailed from Venezuela), charismatic, much married (Argerich has had three husbands, Carreño had four), and hailed as one of the greatest pianists of the day. But Argerich, as far as I know, does not compose.

Carreño turns out to be rather good at it, a natural tunesmith of lyrical grace and, frequently, originality. If you can take a whole disc of Moszkowski or Gottschalk, whose protégé Carreño was, you will certainly enjoy this high-class salon music in (mainly) world premiere recordings. Though these two composers play a part in her music (Vals gayo has a Gottschalkian Latin-American lilt, Une revue á Prague uses some configurations at the top of the keyboard borrowed from Louis Moreau, while her Intermezzo is a close relation of Moszkowski’s La jongleuse), Carreño is very much her own woman: try the extended Ballade (7'22"), the two touching Elegies, Un rêve en mer and Le sommeil de l’enfant. The first subject of Un bal en rêve seems to be a prescient version of “Happy birthday to you”, while Kleiner Waltzer (tr 11), her once-popular and most celebrated composition, was recorded by one of her husbands, Eugen d’Albert (Carreño herself made a piano roll of it).

Such music needs an empathetic spirit to show it to its best advantage and Clara Rodriguez, Venezuelan herself, provides it with performances of alluring vivacity allied to that most essential of requisites in this type of repertoire – charm. Highly recommended.

-- Jeremy Nicholas, Gramophone

More reviews:
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2009/July09/Carreno_NI6103.htm
http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2009/Nov09/Carreno_NI6103.htm
http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/n/nim06104a.php
https://www.allmusic.com/album/clara-rodriguez-plays-the-music-of-teresa-carre%C3%B1o-mw0001403767
https://www.amazon.com/Clara-Rodriguez-Plays-Teresa-Carre%C3%B1o/dp/B001URCWXK

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Teresa Carreño (December 22, 1853 – June 12, 1917) was a Venezuelan pianist, singer, composer, and conductor. Over the course of her 54-year concert career, she became an internationally renowned virtuoso pianist and was often referred to as the "Valkyrie of the Piano". Carreño was an early adopter of the works of American composer and pianist, Edward MacDowell (1860–1908) and premiered several of his compositions. She also frequently performed the works of Edvard Grieg (1843–1907). Carreño composed approximately 75 works for solo piano, voice and piano, choir and orchestra, and instrumental ensemble.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teresa_Carre%C3%B1o

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Clara Rodríguez (Born 1970) is a Venezuelan pianist and Professor at the Royal College of Music in London. Rodríguez studied under Juan Jose Landaeta at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Caracas and a scholarship from the Venezuelan Ministry of Culture enabled her to enroll at the RCM in London when she was 17. Her teachers included Phyllis Sellick, Guiomar Narváez, Niel Immelman, and Paul Badura-Skoda. Rodríguez's repertoire includes both the classical repertoire and contemporary Latin American and Spanish piano. The Venezuelan composer Federico Ruiz dedicated many compositions to her.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Rodr%C3%ADguez

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