Teresa Carreño, so well known in Europe and America, is a native of Venezuela, being born at Caracas in 1853. Her career has been as varied as it is successful, and her studies, as well as her triumphs, were witnessed by many countries. Her father, at one time Minister of Finance, was himself a musician, and when only fourteen composed a mass that was given in the cathedral. A skilful violinist, he understood the piano also, and gave his daughter lessons from her seventh year on. Driven from the country by civil war, he determined to have Teresa turn her musical talents to account.
As an eight-year-old prodigy, she met with an enthusiastic reception in New York, where she aroused the interest and became the pupil of Louis Gottschalk. At twelve she was taken to Paris, where she absorbed the traditions of Chopin from his pupils. There, too, she played for Liszt, who grew deeply interested in her, and wished her for a pupil. As her father's affairs did not permit this, the great teacher left her with the excellent advice to give her own individuality free play, and not become a mere imitator of some other performer. This she certainly followed, for her strong and fiery style of playing has carried away countless audiences, and in later years her combination of poetic feeling with impassioned power placed her in the front rank of the world's pianists.
Soon after this meeting, she began to devote herself to singing, with such rapid progress that she became able to appear with such an artist as Tietjens. For many years she made this her chief work, but at last her innate love for the piano brought her back to it. In 1885 she was forced to exert her talents in still another direction,—that of conducting. Being given the task of creating a national opera company in Caracas, she engaged her artists in America and Italy, and took them to her native city only to find the revolutionists in the most bitter and active opposition against all government enterprises. Her undertaking was no exception, and her leader, being terrorized by physical threats, gave up his post with a feigned excuse of sickness. Rather than let the matter drop, Carreño herself took the baton, and carried the season to a successful close.
TERESA CARREÑO
Her compositions have given her high rank in still another field. The best work is perhaps a string quartette, which met with a warm welcome at the Leipsic Gewandhaus concerts. This, with an unpublished serenade for strings, gives proof of her ability in fairly large forms. Her hymn for the Bolivar centennial has become the national song of Venezuela. Her set of little waltzes, written for her daughter, Teresita, show the most delicious grace, while her Venezuelan Dances are full of interest. Among her other works, all for piano, are waltzes, fantasies, caprices, études, a ballade, a scherzo, a reverie and barcarolle, and a song without words. Her long career as pianist has made her so familiar in that light that few think of her as a composer, but her creative work as well as her ability as a performer must win her respect throughout the musical world.