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Therese Jansen Bartolozzi

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Therese Jansen Bartolozzi
Born1770
Aachen in Germany
Died1843
London
OccupationPianist

Therese Jansen Bartolozzi (ca. 1770 – 1843) was a pianist whose career flourished in London around the end of the 18th century. She was the dedicatee of piano works by a number of famous composers.

Early years

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Therese Jansen is believed to have been born in Aachen in the Holy Roman Empire some time around 1770.[1] Her father was a successful dancing master, who moved to London with his family.[2] The family business of teaching dance to well-off customers was quite successful and was continued for some time by Therese and her younger brother Louis Jansen (1774–1840).[3] According to an anonymous biography of Jansen's daughter (see below), the business made over 2000 pounds per year.[4]

Both Therese and Louis studied with the famous pianist Muzio Clementi.[5] Therese particularly excelled, and by her young adulthood, she had become an outstanding performer. By 1791 she probably had a strong reputation, as Johann Peter Salomon gave her and her family free tickets to the first series of the famous concerts which Joseph Haydn gave in London under his auspices.[6]

Career

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Not long after, works were being dedicated to her by composers: Clementi, Haydn, and J. L. Dussek (see below).[7] She was listed by a contemporary encyclopedist as one of Clementi's three most distinguished pupils, along with John Field and Johann Baptist Cramer.[8]

Little evidence survives to document her career as a performer. Salwey mentions a performance of a Haydn sonata before the Anacreontic Society prior to 1791 and two other performances in 1806.[9] It is possible that Jansen's fame developed primarily from performances in private homes.[10]

Therese Jansen was married on 16 May 1795 to Gaetano Bartolozzi (1757–1821), a son of the noted artist and engraver Francesco Bartolozzi.[11] One of the witnesses at the ceremony was their friend Haydn.[12] Gaetano Bartolozzi was primarily an art dealer who also branched out into the sale of other goods as well; his work often took him to Venice.[13] Bartolozzi was successful in his business and had purchased an estate about fifty miles from Venice.[14] Like Therese, he was musical and was a fine violinist and violist.[15]

Following two miscarriages,[16] Therese gave birth to a daughter Elizabetta Lucia, who grew up to be a famous actress and theatre manager, performing under her married name of Lucia Elizabeth Vestris, or Madame Vestris. Therese and Gaetano also had a second daughter Josephine.[17]

In 1798, Bartolozzi closed up his art business, auctioning off his stock at Christie's, and the family left for Europe: first Paris, then Vienna, and finally Venice. While in Vienna, they probably renewed their acquaintance with Haydn;[18] they were among the subscribers to the first edition of The Creation, which Haydn published himself in 1800.[19] Arriving in Venice, the Bartolozzis found that their property had been looted by French forces during the recent invasion of the area.[20]

Needing to start over financially, they returned to London, where Bartolozzi began giving lessons in drawing.[21] He died in 1821.[22] Therese Bartolozzi separated from her husband there. She supported herself and her two daughters by teaching piano.[23][24]

Therese Jansen Bartolozzi died in London in 1843.[25]

Works dedicated to Therese Jansen

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Notes

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  1. ^ New Grove, cited below
  2. ^ New Grove
  3. ^ Strunk (1934, 194)
  4. ^ Strunk (1934, 194)
  5. ^ New Grove
  6. ^ This is known from the diary of Charlotte Papendieck; see Robbins Landon (1976, 52)
  7. ^ New Grove
  8. ^ Strunk (1934, 194)
  9. ^ Salwey (2004, 280)
  10. ^ The New Grove, contradicting Salwey, states that "Therese is not known to have played in public."
  11. ^ New Grove
  12. ^ New Grove
  13. ^ Strunk (1934)
  14. ^ Strunk (1934, 196)
  15. ^ Robbins Landon (1976, 441)
  16. ^ Strunk (1934)
  17. ^ New Grove
  18. ^ New Grove
  19. ^ New Grove
  20. ^ New Grove
  21. ^ Strunk (1934, 197)
  22. ^ Bryan, Michael (1886). Robert Edmund Graves (ed.). Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical. Vol. I: A-K. London: George Bell and Sons. p. 90.
  23. ^ de Val (2009)
  24. ^ "Madame Vestris". The Limerick Chronicle, 6 December. 1826.
  25. ^ New Grove. A death notice in the Gentleman's Magazine (1843, 175: 216) gives the location of her death as Pimlico (a district of London) and the date as 29 June.
  26. ^ Robbins Landon (1976, 417)

References

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  • de Val, Dorothy (2009) "Jansen, Therese," in David Wyn Jones, Oxford Composer Companions: Haydn, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Fisher, Stephen C. (2010) "Jansen [Janson, Jansson; Bartolozzi], Therese", in The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, online edition, Oxford University Press.
  • Robbins Landon, H. C. (1976) Haydn in England: 1791–1795, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
  • Salwey, Nicholas (2004) "Women pianists in eighteenth century London", In Susan Wollenberg and Simon McVeigh, Concert life in eighteenth-century Britain. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN 0-7546-3868-5, pp. 273–290.
  • Strunk, Oliver (1934) "Notes on a Haydn autograph", Musical Quarterly 20: 192–205.
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