A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Blahetka, Leopoldine

BLAHETKA, Leopoldine, born Nov. 15, 1811 (not 1809), at Guntramsdorf, Baden, Austria; an able performer on the piano and physharmonika; daughter of J. L. Blahetka and Babette Traeg. At five years of age she was so good a player that by Beethoven's advice she was placed under Jos. Czerny for education as a musician. She afterwards had instruction from Kalkbrenner and Moscheles. Her progress was so rapid that she was able to undertake concert tours in company with her mother, from which she obtained much reputation, though they exposed her to many calumnious attacks. In 1832 she published as op. 25 a concert-piece for piano and orchestra which deserves notice. In 1830 a romantic piece of hers, 'Die Räuber und die Sänger,' was produced at the Kärnthnerthor theatre, Vienna, with applause. A few years later she made another tour in France, and in 1840 settled in Boulogne, where she still resides (1876). A few words in Schumann's Gesammelte Schriftin, ii. 45, testify to her excellence as a player.

[ F. G. ]