Marie Jaëll

Marie Jaëll was a French pianist, composer, and pedagogue. Marie Jaëll composed pieces for piano, concertos, quartets, and others, She dedicated her cello concerto to Jules Delsart, and was the first pianist to perform all the piano sonatas of Beethoven in Paris. She did scientific studies of hand techniques in piano playing and attempted to replace traditional drilling with systematic piano methods. Her students included Albert Schweitzer, who studied with her while also studying organ with Charles-Marie Widor in 1898–99. She died in Paris.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article on Marie Jaëll.

From the period sources

Marie Jaëll, born Marie Trautmann in Steinseltz, Alsatia, in 1846, was recognized as a fine pianist and composer (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900). She studied at the Paris Conservatoire, becoming a pupil of H. Herz in 1861 and winning the first piano prize there. In 1866, she married the noted pianist Alfred Jaëll, and subsequently accompanied him on his extensive concert tours across Europe (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900, 1905). Her playing was celebrated for its “extraordinary, not to say marvellous, powers of execution,” as evidenced by a remarkable evening performance in the Salle Pleyel where she brilliantly played four piano concertos by Saint-Saëns (Famous Composers and Their Works, 1891). This feat, which lasted from nine to half-past eleven, required “the most subtle artistic feeling and exceptional muscular force,” and was considered by those present to be unforgettable. Jaëll’s compositions include a piano concerto, four-hand waltzes, Valses melancoliques, Valses mignonnes, and other characteristic piano pieces (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900, 1905). She also authored a method titled “Le Toucher,” which was “favorably noticed in Paris” (A Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 1900). Her dedication to works of “large calibre” was noted by the Dictionary of Music (1908).