Oihana Aristizabal Puga & Lineke Lever

La Lecture

How was a Dutch girl discovered by Liszt and how did she subsequently acquire a role as a pianist in the artistic circles of 19th century Paris? Cellist Oihana Aristizabal Puga and pianist Lineke Lever will play a musical biography of Suzanne Manet-Leenhoff on ‘La Lecture’.

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About the album

Suzanne Manet-Leenhoff (Delft, October 30th 1829 – Paris, March 8th 1906) was a Dutch pianist and singer, and the wife of the famous French painter Édouard Manet. Suzanne grew up in Zaltbommel, in an artistic family. Her father, Carolus Antonius Leenhoff, was the city carilloneur of Zaltbommel as well as a composer and cellist. One of Suzanne’s brothers was the then highly successful sculptor Ferdinand Leenhoff, and her brother- in-law was artist Joseph Mezzara.

At the end of the 1840s, Suzanne Leenhoff left with her mother, brothers, and sisters for Paris, where her grandmother lived. According to various sources, pianist/composer Franz Liszt advised Suzanne to study the piano in Paris. He probably heard her play in 1842 when he travelled through the Netherlands on a concert tour. Back then, he was on his way to The Hague by boat and sailed across the Waal river to Zaltbommel. Hearing the sounds of the carillon, on which Carolus Leenhoff played, he set foot ashore. By ear, he walked in the direction of the Gasthuistoren and met Carolus and then Suzanne. Impressed by her piano performance, he suggested she continue her musical studies in Paris.

Once in Paris, Suzanne taught piano lessons at home, among others to the younger brothers of Édouard Manet. Around 1849, she got into a relationship with the painter. In 1852, Suzanne became mother to a son, Léon. The father was violinist Gustave- Adolphe Koëlla.

Suzanne and Édouard married in Zaltbommel on October 28th 1863. They lived together with Léon, and later moved to Manet’s mother in Paris, where the two women organized a weekly music salon. Many befriended artists such as Offenbach, Baudelaire, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Zola, and Verlaine came there regularly. The composer Chabrier even dedicated an Impromptu to her and De Banville and Mallarmé dedicated poems to her. Suzanne was a gifted interpreter of composers such as Schumann and Wagner. When the poet Baudelaire suffered a stroke in 1866 and ended up in a Paris hospital, she offered him a distraction by playing Wagner.

Édouard Manet was a key figure in the transition from realism to impressionism. He also made several different paintings of Suzanne. She was his great muse, which is why she appears in so many of his paintings, including La Lecture, Madame Manet au piano, Madame Manet dans la serre, and Portrait de madame Édouard Manet sur un canapé bleu. Édoard also often painted his godson Léon. The painting Le fifre (The flute player) is one of the most famous paintings in which Léon is portrayed.

Édouard passed away in 1883 from the effects of syphilis. Suzanne passed away in 1906. They were both buried at the Cimetière de Passy in Paris.

Opera-vocalist, composer and art collector Jean-Baptiste Fauré collected no less than 68 paintings by Édouard. Conversely, Édouard portrayed him a number of times in the opera role of Hamlet.

Tracklist click to play/pause

  • Théodore de Banville (read by Ann Demeester)

    À Madame Édouard Manet

    0:23 Play button Pause button 0:23
  • Franz Liszt (arr. Mark Skalmer)

    Liebestraum, S541 No. 3 in A flat major

    5:19 Play button Pause button 5:19
  • Johannes Leonardus Nierstrasz Jr. (read by Ab Nieuwdorp)

    't Ontslapen kind aan zijn vader

    3:26 Play button Pause button 3:26
  • Carolus Leenhoff (arr. Willem van Merwijk)

    't Ontslapen kind aan zijn vader

    1:18 Play button Pause button 1:18
  • Gustave-Adolphe Koëlla (arr. Willem van Merwijk)

    Teurer Herr Jesu

    3:16 Play button Pause button 3:16
  • Richard Wagner

    Wesendonck Lieder, WWV 91

    1. I. Der Engel
      3:26 Play button Pause button 3:26
    2. II. Stehe still!
      4:21 Play button Pause button 4:21
    3. III. Im Treibhaus
      5:06 Play button Pause button 5:06
    4. IV. Schmerzen
      2:20 Play button Pause button 2:20
    5. V. Träume
      5:54 Play button Pause button 5:54
  • Jacques Offenbach

    Les Larmes de Jacqueline, Op. 76 No. 2

    6:21 Play button Pause button 6:21
  • Jean-Baptiste Fauré (arr. Gaston Borch)

    Les Rameaux

    3:16 Play button Pause button 3:16
  • Ann Demeester

    La Musique

    0:45 Play button Pause button 0:45

More information

Label TRPTK
Genre(s) Classical – Romantic (1830-1920)
Artist(s) Lineke Lever
Oihana Aristizabal Puga
Composer(s) Fauré, Jean-Baptiste
Koëlla, Gustave-Adolphe
Leenhoff, Carolus
Liszt, Franz
Offenbach, Jacques
Wagner, Richard
Recording location(s) Bij Andreas, Naarden (NL)
Recording date(s) December 2019
Cat. No.

TTK 0052

Release date

March 6th, 2020

Additional links

Download Booklet(PDF)

"The recording is very intimate, you have the feeling of being close to the musicians. La Lecture invites you to go in search: for paintings and the original music."

NTB

"Thus, with their beautifully illustrative performance, they create a special form of aptly musically illustrated artistic family story as a new development in this context."

Jan de Kruijff, Musicalifeiten

"And so one gem follows after the other in frankly exemplary performances by two musicians who - quite rightly! - believe in this music with heart and soul and constantly radiate it. [...] Brendon Heinst provided the exquisite recording."

Aart van der Wal, Opus Klassiek

SKU: TTK 0052 DL Category:
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