Carreño: Kleiner Waltzer (Mi Teresita)

Tudor presents Vol. 2 in its series of recordings made on the famous Welte-Mignon Piano. These ‘rolls’ from the famous Hotel Waldhaus Sils-Maria in the Swiss Alps, feature performances by Vladimir von Pachmann, Theodor Lescheitsky, Raoul Pugno and Arthur Friedheim, playing music by Chopin, Liszt, Mozart and Glinka. There is also a performance of Camille Saint-Saens playing his own Rhapsodie d’Auvergne.

Teresa Carreño came from a distinguished Venezuelan family, proudly connected to Simon Bolivar. At the age of eight Teresa gave her debut recital inNew York, going on to perform in all major halls of the USA and Europe. She was showered with praise from music critics and won the admiration of the greatest musicians of the time, including Rossini, Liszt, Grieg, Gounod and Rubinstein. One of her earliest compositions was also written at the age of eight and was dedicated to her mentor Louis Moreau Gottschalk. She composed up to 70 works for the piano most of which were written and published in Paris when she was only a teenager.

Clara Rodriguez was born in Venezuela and after winning a scholarship from the Venezuelan Arts Council trained in London at the Royal College of Music under Phyllis Sellick. Clara Rodriguez’s career as a concert pianist has taken her to perform in the most prestigious halls in Europe, South America, Asia and the North of Africa. Her discography includes the piano music of Moisés Moleiro; Federico Ruiz; Teresa Carreño; Federic Chopin; Ernesto Lecuona and Popular Venezuelan Songs and Dances.

“The Venezuelan Teresa Carreño (born in Caracas 1853; died in New York 1917) was, with Clara Schumann, the most celebrated female pianist of the 19th century. Most of these works are self-evidently morceaux for the salon, but superior specimens of the genre, requiring a pianism above the ordinary and showing a complete technical command. Clara Rodriguez is a sympathetic and enthusiastic interpreter; her touch is sure and agile. She invests all this highly agreeable music with vibrant life. This recording is superb” Pianist Magazine, Selected Discs, London

“A scorching repertoire from a really romantic pianist, Clara Rodriguez” Irving Wardle, The Times, London