Three Famous Female Pianists of the Past

Fanny Davies, Anna Mehlig and Clotilde Kleeberg

Sep 25, 2008

These three women who excelled at the piano in the past helped to pave the way for other women to commit to concert careers. It was not always easy, but they persevered.

The societal climate of the time really frowned upon women who performed in public, especially those who played musical instruments. Singers were always well received, and many made superb careers, but it was different for instrumentalists. So the fact that these women followed through says something about their talent, as an untalented amateur would not have been tolerated on the concert stage.

Fanny Davies

Born on June 27,1861, on the island of Guernsey, Fanny's family removed to Birmingham, England, when she was still a child. Her aunt, a Miss Woodhill, started her on piano lessons and at the age of three she was playing little duets with her teacher. At the age of seven Fanny played for the first time in public when she performed at a charity bazaar in Birmingham. She was acclaimed a prodigy by those who heard her.

Davies went to Leipzig to study with Oscar Paul (1836-1898), Salomon Jadassohn (1831-1902) and Karl Heinrich Reinecke (1850-1906) at the Conservatory. But after only one year she was accepted as a pupil by Clara Schumann (1819-1896) at Frankfurt-am-Main. Here she remained for two years, also studying composition with Bernard Scholz (1835-1916).

Davies performed extensively throughout Europe and made many appearances in front of royalty, notably England's Queen Victoria. After a brilliant career Fanny Davies died in 1934.

Anna Mehlig

Another woman who caused a stir was Anna Mehlig, who was born in Stuttgart, Germany, on June 11, 1846. After early training with Siegmund Lebert (1822-1884) and Dionys Pruckner (1834-1896), she studied for a year with Franz Liszt at Weimar and in 1866 travelled to England to perform a piano concerto by Hummel at a Philharmonic concert.

She was asked to play at the Philharmonic concerts and at the Crystal Palace for several years, toured America in 1869-70 and performed throughout Germany and in London to enthusiastic audiences. She was living in London where she met and married a businessman named Falk and moved to Antwerp, Belgium. She died in 1928.

Clotilde Kleeberg

Kleeberg was born at Paris, France, on June 27, 1886...the third of the women pianists chronicled here to have been born in June. She was given her early musical education with a Mme.Retig at the Paris Conservatoire, and later with Louise Aglae Massart (1827-1887), a renowned pianist, composer and teacher. At the age of eleven she walked off with with a medal for industry and the highest marks in the Conservatoire's examinations.

Her 'clever execution and poetic playing' brought her to the attention of Jules Etienne Pasdeloup, the eminent French conductor who gave her the opportunity of a public perfomance. Charles Lamoureux, a fine violinist and conductor, also sponsored a public performance.

At the age of twelve she was performing the Third Piano Concerto by Beethoven, and some Chopin compositions at the Concerts Populaire. She later toured Germany and appeared in concerts featuring the music of Bach, Mendelssohn,Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann.

In 1900 she moved to Brussels where she married the sculptor Charles Samuel. She died there in 1909.

Source

Celebrated Pianist of the Past and Present A. Ehrlich, Theodore Presser, Philadelphia, 1894

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