Anna Caroline Oury

Anna Caroline Oury

Anna Caroline Oury, (née de Belleville), also known as Ninette de Belleville, Ninette von Belleville, or Ninette de Belleville-Oury, (24 June 1808 – 22 July 1880) was a German pianist and composer of French ancestry.

Life and career

Anna Caroline de Belleville, often referred to as 'Ninette', was born in Landshut, Bavaria, Germany. She was the daughter of a French aristocrat who was the director of the national Court Opera in Mannheim.[1] She studied with Carl Czerny in Vienna between 1816 to 1820, where she met Beethoven and heard him improvise.[2] In 1829 she traveled to Warsaw where Chopin heard her play impressively enough for him to write about it in a letter, praising her "excellent" playing for its lightness and elegance.[3] Twelve years later, in 1841, Chopin dedicated his Waltz in F minor, Op. Posth. 70, No. 2, to Mme. Oury, though it went unpublished until 1855.

In July 1831 she made her London debut in Her Majesty's Theatre with Niccolò Paganini and in October she married Antonio James Oury (1800–1883), a violinist at the King's Theatre in London and the two toured as a duo.[4][5][6] They performed in Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Austria and Russia between 1831 to 1839 before settling in England, excepting a concert tour of Italy in 1846-7. Working with her husband, she helped to create the Brighton Musical Union in 1847, a club for chamber music modeled after the London Musical Union.[7] The remainder of Anna Caroline Oury's career was spent focusing on composition until her retirement in 1866, writing approximately 180 works for piano in this time.[8] Oury died in Munich in 1880 at the age of 72.

Works

Oury published more than 200 works, including a number of transcriptions. Selected works include:

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Persons Related to Chopin". Retrieved 16 October 2010.
  2. ↑ Fuller-Maitland, J.A. and Andrew Lamb Oury, Anna Caroline, Grove Music Online.
  3. ↑ Golberg, Halina (2008) Music in Chopin's Warsaw, New York: Oxford University Press, 281.
  4. ↑ Comini, Alessandra (2008). The Changing Image of Beethoven: A Study in Mythmaking (Digitized online by GoogleBooks).
  5. ↑ Thomas, Joseph (1908). "Universal pronouncing dictionary of biography and mythology, Volume" (Digitized online by GoogleBooks).
  6. ↑ Fuller-Maitland, J.A. and Andrew Lamb Oury, Anna Caroline, Grove Music.
  7. ↑ Bashford, Christina Oury, Antonio James, Grove Music.
  8. ↑ Fuller-Maitland, J.A. and Andrew Lamb Oury, Anna Caroline, Grove Music.
  9. ↑ Ebel, Otto (1902). "Women composers:a biographical handbook of women's work in music" (DIGITIZED ONLINE BY GOOGLEBOOKS). Retrieved 16 October 2010.