Le Beau, Luise Adolpha

Composer, Pianist

born: 25.04.1850 in Rastatt

died: 17.07.1927 in Baden-Baden

Le Beau received lessons in piano, violin and singing as a child. She attended a private girls' institute, from which she graduated at the age of 16. She then wrote her first compositions; she also worked as a music reviewer and pianist. In 1873, she was a piano student of Clara Schumann for a short time. Le Beau studied composition in Munich with Joseph Rheinberger, who had accepted her as a private pupil because of her violin sonata op. 10. Several of her works were successfully performed by the Munich Tonkünstlerverein. In 1885, the family moved to Wiesbaden, where they were neighbors of Wilhelm Bogler and Kaspar Kögler at Schützenhofstraße 3.

In 1886, she presented her piano quartet at the "Verein der Künstler und Kunstfreunde" and took part in a Schumann evening. In February 1887, she played her Fantasie for piano and orchestra with the theater orchestra under Franz Mannstaedt. In November 1888, she gave a concert of her own and other works in aid of the memorial to Kaiser Wilhelm I. Her oratorio "Ruth - Biblical Scenes for Soloists, Choir and Orchestra", premiered in 1883, was performed by the Cäcilienverein in her presence in 1889. The work, which became part of the international oratorio repertoire for several decades, was also very well received in Wiesbaden. Le Beau composed choruses and a piano concerto here and began composing her oratorio "Das Hirtenmädchen Hadumoth". She also taught music theory and singing. In 1890, the family moved to Berlin and in 1893 to Baden-Baden. It was here that "Hadumoth" was premiered in 1894, her symphony in 1895 and the symphonic poem "Hohenbaden" in 1898.

In 1910, she published her autobiography "Lebenserinnerungen einer Komponistin". She bequeathed her estate to the state libraries in Berlin and Munich and the Badische Landesbibliothek.