Nannette Streicheraus classic

Anna-Maria called Nannette Streicher (* 2 January 1769 in Augsburg; † 16 January 1833 in Vienna) was a German-Austrian piano maker, composer, music teacher and writer.

Life

Nannette was the sixth child of the organ and piano maker Johann Andreas Stein in Augsburg (1728-1792) and his wife Maria Regina Stein, née Burkhart. From an early age, she received piano lessons from her father, who was completely under the influence of his friend Ignaz von Beecke. Nannette Stein made her debut in April 1776 at the age of seven with a piano concerto in Augsburg’s Patrician parlour and was presented with a medal in recognition of her great admiration.

In Augsburg, Nannette Stein repeatedly performed as a pianist in concerts, sometimes together with her friend, the court pianist of Oettingen-Wallerstein, Anna von Schaden. In 1787, she sang “a few smaller arias” in a concert. She later had to give up singing for health reasons. Her father had taught her piano making at a very early age, so that she was able to run the workshop independently after his death on 29 February 1792.

In 1794, she married the musician and Friedrich Schiller’s friend Johann Andreas Streicher (1761-1833) and moved to Vienna with him in the same year. Here she continued to run her father’s business, initially together with her younger brother Matthäus Andreas Stein (1776-1842), and from 1802 under her own name (Nannette Streicher née Stein). With the support of her husband – and from 1824/25 with her son Johann Baptist (1796-1871) as a partner – she succeeded in developing the business into one of the most important piano manufacturing companies in the royal seat.

Johann Baptist Streicher became the sole owner of the factory in 1833, which developed numerous patents under his management and gained a worldwide reputation. Johann Baptist’s son Emil sold the company to the Stingl brothers in 1896. The Streicher couple’s friends and customers included Ludwig van Beethoven and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

However, Nannette and Andreas Streicher were not just piano makers. They also made an important contribution to Viennese musical life by organising concerts, initially in their home and from 1812 onwards in their piano salon, which could accommodate around 300 listeners and offered young artists welcome opportunities to perform.

Nannette Streicher herself enjoyed playing in private for music lovers and visitors, sometimes together with her daughter Sophie (1797-1840), who was also a talented pianist. She was in contact with many of Vienna’s great musical personalities; her friendship with Beethoven is documented in over sixty small letters in which he asked her for advice and help in household and educational matters after he had been given guardianship of his nephew Karl. Entries in the composer’s conversation books prove how close the contact between Beethoven and the Streicher family was.

The Streicher couple were among the founders of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna.

Nannette Streicher died on 16 January 1833 and, according to the Damen Conversations Lexikon, was buried in the Sankt Marx cemetery. After its closure, she was reburied together with her husband Johann Andreas Streicher in a grave of honour in Vienna’s Central Cemetery (Group 32A No. 30). Streichergasse in Landstrasse is named after her son Johann Baptist Streicher. The composer Theodor Streicher was her great-grandson.

Source Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nannette_Streicher