Piano pupil of Schenker's between 1906 and 1916, and wife of newspaper proprietor Carl Colbert.

Career

Apparently born Caroline Huber, but known by Antonie Wolff and other names, she married journalist and newspaper proprietor and editor Carl Colbert in 1887. Before her marriage, she was already known as a pianist. There are many reports of her involvement in chamber concerts and as an accompanist in the Musikverein Building, the Ehrbach Recital Hall, and many other venues, accompanying singers from the Vienna Opera House in Lieder recitals and professional instrumentalists. Her caliber may be gathered from reports that she played the Dvořák Piano Quintet in A major with the Rosé Quartet (Wiener Sonn- und Montags-Zeitung, November 20, 1899) and the Brahms Piano Quintet in F minor (Neue freie Presse, November 8, 1908). Socially progressive, she played popular concerts for the Vienna Adult Education Association (Volksbildungsverein) and for charitable organizations. During World War I she was active on committees for the assistance of impoverished women and children (Frauenhilfsaktion).

Toni Colbert and Schenker

Toni Colbert first asked Schenker for lessons on December 5, 1906 (diary), and may have studied with him first in the 1906/07 season (diary, June 28). She may well have taken further lessons in the 1907/08, 1908/09, 1909/10, and 1910/11 seasons (though there are no lessonbooks to substantiate this), for on May 30, 1911 Schenker declined to give her further lessons, recording in his diary that he had intended to prepare a special program for her in view of her "advancing age," but that although her letters spoke glowingly of her love of music she was obsessed with money. In September 1912 he turned her down again, but after further correspondence he accepted her on strict stated conditions, and she recommenced lessons on October 4, 1912, continuing through to mid-June 1916 (lessonbooks 1912/13, 1913/14, 1914/15, 1915/16), taking only one lesson per week--an arrangement of which Schenker sharply disapproved and which was probably the primary cause of the previous difficulties. She appears to have been somewhat unreliable in attendance and dilatory in payment of fees. Between 1912 and 1916 she worked with him on chamber works such as the Beethoven “Archduke” Trio, Op. 97 and the Brahms D minor Violin Sonata, Op. 108, and among solo works the Beethoven Piano Sonata in E major, Op. 109, Brahms Variations on a Theme of Handel, Op. 24, and a group of Chopin Etudes specifically noted as “for public performance.”

Correspondence

Unusually for a pupil, there survive twelve items in all: eight letters, one calling card and one invitation from Toni and Carl Colbert to Schenker (OJ 9/30, [A], [C], [1]–[6], [6b], [7]: 1912–20), and two letters from Schenker to Toni (OC 1B/15 and 13, 1912, 1916), as well as many references to others in Schenker’s diaries.