Department of Music Lecture: "Teresa Carreño and the Legitimization of Powerhouse Pianism"

Alexander Stefaniak, Associate Professor of Musicology, Washington University in St. Louis

 Title
"Teresa Carreño and the Legitimization of Powerhouse Pianism"

Abstract

Between the 1860s and 1910s, Venezuelan-American Teresa Carreño established herself as an electrifying pianist on the international stage. Her trademark was an approach to virtuosity—associated with Liszt but increasingly standard to concert pianism—that emphasized extraordinary physical and sonic power. In this paper, I argue that Carreño illuminates a generation of female pianists who seized upon this “modern” style of virtuosity, turning it into a vehicle for achieving professional prestige and expanding the modes of piano performance available to women; crucially, they did so in ways that the classical music establishment regarded as respectable, not transgressive. I explore Carreño’s performances and public persona through numerous programs, writings, and piano rolls. They allow us to trace how she developed performances that her contemporaries regarded as simultaneously thrilling and culturally elevating. Her contemporaries saw powerhouse virtuosity as one facet of thrilling performances that included frenetic pacing, feminine beauty, and exoticism. And yet, she and admiring listeners gave her performances a frame of unassailable legitimacy within the classical music world. Not only did Carreño ally herself with longstanding classical-music ideals and canons; she also participated in a contemporary discourse assuring audiences that even the most seemingly muscular virtuosity was no mere feat of strength but required the inner qualities that classical piano culture prized.

Biography
Alexander Stefaniak explores how virtuoso pianists embodied, shaped, and capitalized upon the ideals and aspirations of nineteenth-century musical culture. His work integrates methodologies that range from archival research to music analysis, and topics that include performance practices, concert programming, gender, canon formation, and musical aesthetics. Stefaniak is the author of two monographs: Becoming Clara Schumann: Performance Strategies and Aesthetics in the Culture of the Musical Canon (Indiana University Press 2021), and Schumann’s Virtuosity: Criticism, Composition, and Performance in Nineteenth-Century Germany (Indiana University Press, 2016).  His work has also appeared in edited volumes and scholarly journals, including the Journal of the American Musicological Society, Music & Letters, and Journal of Musicology.