Thérèse Wartel

Atala Thérèse Annette Wartel, née Adrien (2 July 1814 – 6 November 1865), was a French pianist, music educator, composer and critic.^[1]

Therese Wartel

Biography

Born in Paris, Thérèse Wartel was the daughter of the opera singer Martin-Joseph Adrien or Andrien (1767–1822) and the Baroness Gabrielle Constance de Philippy de Bucelly d'Estrées (1782–1854). She was also the sister of the piano virtuoso Rosine-Charlotte DelSarte who was the wife of the renowned French music and movement teacher Francois DelSarte (1811–1871).^[2]

She studied music at the Conservatoire, became an accompanist, and from 1831–38 taught as a professor at the Conservatoire.^[3] In 1838, she was the first female soloist ever admitted to the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire.^[4]

In 1833, she married the tenor Pierre-François Wartel (1806–1882) ^[5] and had a son, Émile,^[6] who performed for many years at the Théâtre-Lyrique and later established a vocal school of his own.^[7]

She died in Paris aged 51.

Works

Wartel composed caprices, fantasies, études, ballads and romances. Selected compositions include:

• Lessons on the Pianoforte Sonatas of Beethoven
• Souvenirs of the Huguenots, fantaisie, Leipzig
• Caprice
• Andante, autograph, 1843
• Six Études de salon pour piano, Op. 10, Paris (1850)
• Andante, Op. 11 (1851)

Wartel also published a number of articles and letters on musical subjects, e.g.

• "Künstler-Portraits aus der Londoner musikalischen Saison 1859", in: Süddeutsche Musik-Zeitung, 17 October 1859, P. 165.
• Leçons écrites sur les sonates pour piano seul de L. van Beethoven, Paris 1865.