The Friedrich Wieck and Clara Schumann Tradition
Piano Traditions Through Their Genealogy Trees
© 2021, by Daniel Pereira
Doctor of Musical Arts | www.daniel-pereira.com
Arrau, Claudio
Chilean-American (Chillán, February 6, 1903 — Mürzzuschlag, Austria, June 9, 1991)
Recognized as one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century, Arrau lost his father when he was only one year old. A child prodigy, he gave his first piano recital at the age of five in Santiago de Chile. With the financial support of the Chilean government, he moved to Berlin to study at the Stern Conservatory, where he also taught. In 1927 he won the Grand Prix International des Pianists of Geneva, and in 1935 he accomplished a phenomenal feat when he performed J.S. Bach´s entire output for keyboard in 12 recitals in Berlin. After living a year in Chile and founding a music school there in 1940, Arrau and his family settled in New York. He left a substantial discography including complete cycles of works.
[See the Claudio Arrau Tradition]
Berger, Wilhelm
German (Boston, August 9, 1861 — Jena, January 15, 1911)
Wilhelm Berger was a pianist, conductor and composer. He was born in America, but his family moved to Germany when he was a year old. He studied in Bremen with Wilhelm Kallmeyer and in Berlin with Ernst Rudorff. In 1888, he was appointed professor at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory. Berger composed Variationen op. 61, for two pianos, Sonata op. 76, and collections of Klavierstücke, intermezzos, caprices and études.
Perez de Brambilla, Marie
French (Nice, November 30, 1841 — 1931)
A student of Anton Rubinstein, Clara Schumann and Theodore Ritter, who was a Liszt´s pupil, she was professor at the Marseille Conservatory.
Bülow, Hans Guido Freiherr von
German (Dresden, Germany, January 8, 1830 — Cairo, Egypt, February 12, 1894)
One of the most important piano heirs of Liszt´s tradition, he concertized in Europe and America achieving important feats as the premiere of Tchaikovsky´s First Piano Concerto in Boston in 1875, being the first pianist ever to perform the complete Beethoven sonatas in a single cycle or giving the first performance of Liszt´s Sonata in B minor. He was a superb pianist with an excellent memory and precision. He was also a professional conductor and gave the premieres of Tristan und Isolde and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg. He held the positions of Hofkapellmeister in Munich and in Hanover, Hofmusikdirektor in Meiningen and principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic from 1887 to 1892. He composed a number of piano pieces and made some piano transcriptions of orchestral works by Wagner, Glück and Weber. He was married to Liszt´s daughter Cosima until she left him for Richard Wagner.
[See the Hans von Bülow Tradition]
Ciampi, Marcel
French (Paris, May 29, 1891 — Paris, September 2, 1980)
Premier Prix at the Paris Conservatory, he played in trio with Maurice Hayot and André Hekking, and appeared often with Casals, Enescu and Thibaud. His Debussy recordings are noteworthy, and he played once for the French composer.
Cliffe, Frederic
English (Lowmoor, May 2, 1857 — London, November 19, 1931)
Frederic Cliffe was a pianist, organist, composer and teacher. He studied at the National Training School of Music with Franklin Taylor. At the age of 16, he was appointed organist to the Bradford Festival Choral Society. Later, he held positions as organist of the Bach Choir in London and the Leeds Festival. In 1883, he started teaching at the Royal College of Music and had John Ireland and Arthur Benjamin among his pupils. He also taught at the Royal Academy of Music. Cliffe concertized extensively as pianist and accompanist.
Cutner, Solomon
English (London, August 9, 1902 — London, February 22, 1988)
Solomon Cutner, known professionally as Solomon, was a pianist. He studied with Mathilde Verne in London and with Lazare-Lévy and Marcel Dupré in Paris. At the age of 8, he made his debut performing Tchaikovsky´s First Piano Concerto. He performed in trio with Francescatti and Fournier. He was the dedicate and premiered Bliss´s Piano Concerto. In 1965, Solomon suffered a paraplegic stroke which impeded him to appear again in public.
Davies, Fanny
British (Guernsey, June 27, 1861 — September 1, 1834)
Fanny Davies was a pianist. She studied in Birmingham, at the Leipzig Conservatory with Carl Reinecke and Oscar Paul, and with Clara Schumann in Frankfurt. She was one of the first pianists to introduce the works of Debussy and Scriabin in London and also the first to perform a recital at Westminster Abbey. Edward Elgar dedicated her his Concert allegro op. 46 which she premiered. In the 1920s, she recorded Schumann´s Piano concerto in a minor.
Eibenschütz, Ilona
Hungarian (Budapest, May 8, 1873 — London, May 21, 1967)
Ilona Eibenschütz was a pianist. She studied with Hans Schmitt at the Vienna Music Academy and with Clara Schumann for four years and played for Anton Rubinstein and Franz Liszt. After her marriage in 1902, she retired from the concert stage. A year after, she made her only recordings with the music of Brahms and Scarlatti.
Elorduy, Ernesto
Mexican (Mexico City, December 11, 1853 — Mexico City, January 6, 1913)
Ernesto Elorduy was a pianist and composer. For a period of 20 years, he lived in Europe, where he studied with Clara Schumann and briefly with Anton Rubinstein. He worked as a Mexican consul in Marseilles, Santander and Barcelona. In 1891, he returned to Mexico, where he taught at the Conservatory from 1901 to 1906. Elorduy wrote about 100 piano miniatures including A orillas del Elba, Serenata árabe, Danzas habaneras, mazurkas, berceuses and songs without words.
Fischer, Edwin
Swiss (Basle, October 6, 1886 — Zürich, January 24, 1960)
Pianist and conductor, he was recognized as an expressive and scholarly interpreter, and for recording the first-ever complete Well-tempered clavier in the 1930s. His interpretations of Bach and Mozart were especially praised. He edited the Mozart´s sonatas and keyboard works by J.S. Bach. Fischer composed songs and small piano pieces as well as cadenzas for some Mozart and Beethoven piano concertos.
Friedberg, Carl
German (Bingen, September 18, 1872 — Merano, September 9, 1955)
Carl Friedberg was a pianist and teacher. He studied with James Jacob Kwast and shortly with Clara Schumann at the Hoch Konservatorium in Frankfurt, where he also taught between 1893 and 1904. He played his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic under Gustav Mahler. He was also a teacher at the Cologne Conservatory and at the New York Institute of Musical Art. Among his students were Malcolm Frager, Bruce Hungerford and William Masselos. Friedberg was in close terms with Johannes Brahms, for whom he performed in private. He appeared with Fritz Kreisler and formed a trio with Daniel Karpilowsky and Felix Salmond. He made only one commercial recording in 1953 with the music of Brahms and Schumann and a few private recordings issued by the International Piano Archives at Maryland. Friedberg edited the complete Beethoven sonatas for Schott in 1922. His pupil Julia Smith published a biography titled Master Pianist: The Career and Teaching of Carl Friedberg in 1963.
Grieg, Edvard Hagerup
Norwegian (Bergen, June 15, 1843 — Bergen, September 4, 1907)
Edvard Grieg was a composer and pianist. He received his first piano lessons from his mother. He studied at the Leipzig Conservatory with Ignaz Moscheles and Carl Reinecke. Grieg met Liszt and Tchaikovsky. In the Spring of 1903, he made nine 78-rpm gramophone recordings of a few piano pieces of his own in Paris. His piano compositions include the Piano concerto in A minor, a collection of Lyric pieces and Sonata op. 7. During his life, he suffered from poor health especially due to his lungs and heart. Glenn Gould was a distant cousin of Edvard Grieg.
Heidsieck, Éric
French (Reims, August 21, 1936)
Premier Prix in 1954 at the Paris Conservatory, he enjoyed a successful career performing with major orchestras an appearing at the most important concert halls all over the world. His rendering of Beethoven´s 32 sonatas is one of his most noteworthy recordings. He also made recordings of Mozart concertos, for which he published cadenzas, and most of the piano works of Fauré. He frequently appeared in concert with Paul Tortelier.
Hutcheson, Ernest
American (Melbourne, July 20, 1871 — New York, February 9, 1951)
Ernest Hutcheson was a pianist of Australian birth. He studied with Max Vogrich in Australia, with Carl Reinecke at the Leipzig Conservatory, and with Bernhard Stavenhagen. In 1900, he was appointed head of the piano department of the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. In 1912, he became part of the faculty at the Juilliard School. Hutcheson published The Elements of Piano Technique and The Literature of the Piano.
Joyce, Eileen
Australian (Zeehan, Tasmania, January 1, 1908 — Limpsfield, Surrey, March 25, 1991)
Eileen Joyce was a pianist. She was a musically precocious child admired by Percy Grainger and Wilhelm Backhaus upon whose recommendation she went to study at the Leipzig Conservatory. She also studied in London. Joyce gave the first performance in Britain of Prokofiev´s Third Piano Concerto under Sir Henry Wood. She was known for changing the color of her dresses during the performances, according to her theory of associating colors and composers. Joyce recorded a number of solo pieces and the concertos of Ireland and Shostakovich. The film Wherever she goes, released in 1951, poorly portrays the aspects of her life.
Krause, Martin
German (Lobstädt, near Leipzig, June 17, 1853 — Plattling, Bavaria, August 2, 1918)
One of the most important heirs of Liszt´s piano tradition, he was one of the founders of the Lisztverein in Leipzig in 1885 and a champion of the music and pianism of the Hungarian composer. He concertized for a time until he suffered a nervous breakdown. His interpretations of Beethoven were admired. He became a renowned teacher in Dresden, Munich and Berlin, where he taught Claudio Arrau.
[See the Martin Krause Tradition]
Lachmund, Carl
American (Booneville, United States, March 27, 1853 — New York, February 20, 1928)
Of German descent, he studied in Cologne, Berlin and Weimar. He compiled in several personal diaries a detailed account of Liszt´s masterclasses, comments and ideas about his fellow peers. These diaries were consolidated in Living with Liszt, a book published posthumously and edited by Alan Walker. He founded the Lachmund Piano Conservatory in New York and the Women´s String Orchestra, one of the first of its type. The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts holds Lachmund´s extensive memorabilia and materials about Liszt.
Lara, Adelina de
English (Carlisle, January 23, 1872 — Woking, November 25, 1961)
Adelina de Lara was a pianist. She was a child prodigy and frequently performed recitals as a kid. She studied with Fanny Davis and Clara Schumann and became a close friend of Brahms. Among her students was Eileen Joyce. De Lara made a number of recordings of works by Robert Schumann in the 1950s and many others for the BBC. She composed two piano concertos and published her memoirs, Finale, in 1955.
Last, Joan Mary
English (Littlehampton, Sussex, January 12, 1908 — October 9, 2002)
Joan Mary Last was a pianist, composer and teacher. She studied with Mathilde Verne. Her concert career came to an abrupt end due to a serious hand injury. She taught at the Royal Academy of Music for 22 years. Last published 120 albums of piano pieces including The First Concert and London Today besides pedagogical books such as The Young Pianist and Freedom in Piano Technique.
Loriod, Yvonne
French (Houilles, Seine-et-Oise, January 20, 1924 — Saint-Denis, near Paris, May 17, 2010)
Winner of six Premier Prix at the Paris Conservatory, she was Oliver Messiaen´s second wife, with whom she premiered Visions de l´amen for two pianos in 1943. Since then, she premiered and recorded all of Messiaen´s works featuring the piano. She also introduced Boulez´s second book of Structures and recorded the Barraqué´s Sonata and Boulez´s Second Sonata at a time when this kind of compositions were rarely performed. François Monceaux filmed a documentary on Loriod which was released in 2011.
Lympany, Dame Moura
English (Saltash, August 18, 1916 — Menton, France, March 28, 2005)
Dame Moura Lympany was a pianist. She was born as Mary Gertrude Johnstone. She studied in Liège and at the Royal Academy of Music in London with Coviello. Subsequently, she became a pupil of Paul Weingarten, Mathilde Verne, Edward Steuermann and Tobias Matthay. She won second prize at the 1938 Ysaye Competition, after Giles and before Flier and Michelangeli. Lympany made the first complete recording of the Rachmaninov Preludes in 1945 and also recorded concertos by Khachaturian, Saint-Saëns and Rawsthorne. Her concerto repertoire consisted of about 60 works. In 1969, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. After her death, her archive was deposited at the International Piano Archives at Maryland.
Milchmeyer, Johann Peter
German (1750 — 1813)
Johann Peter Milchmeyer was a pedagogue and a keyboard and harp player. He published The True Art of Plying the Pianoforte in 1797, which was probably the first pedagogical method specifically written for the piano and became widely popular at the time. Milchmeyer served as court musician in Dresden. Among his students was Friedrich Wieck.
Ney, Elly
German (Düsseldorf, September 27, 1882 — Tutzing, March 31, 1968)
Elly Ney was a pianist. She studied with Isidor Seiss in Cologne and with Leschetizky and Sauer in Vienna. She taught at the Cologne Conservatory and gave masterclasses at the Mozarteum in Salzburg for three years. Ney married Dutch conductor Willem van Hoogstraten whith whom she recorded the concertos 3, 4 and 5 by Beethoven. She formed a trio with Max Stross and Ludwig Hoelscher. During the Third Reich, Ney was involved in some controversy after she joined the Nazi Party in 1937.
Ousset, Cécile
French (Tarbes, January 23, 1936)
She gave her first public recital at the age of five and entered the Paris Conservatory when she was only 10. She has appeared with many orchestras in Europe and in the United States, also concertizing in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Japan and South Africa. Her recordings include monumental works such as Brahms´s Second Concerto, Liszt´s B minor Sonata, Rachmaninov´s Third Concerto and Ravel´s Gaspard de la nuit. In 2006, she retired from the concert stage due to back problems. Her BBC appearances include the performance of the complete Debussy Preludes.
Palmgren, Selim
Finnish (Björneborg, now Pori, February 16, 1878 — Helsinki, December 16, 1951)
Active as a pianist, conductor and composer, he led the Helsinki University Chorus and the Turku Musical Society orchestra. He toured in Europe and the USA, frequently accompanied by his first wife, the singer Maikki Järnefelt. He taught composition at the Eastman School and harmony and composition at the Sibelius Academy. He composed five piano concertos and the 24 Preludes among other works.
Plaidy, Louis
German (Hubertusburg, Saxony, November 28, 1810 — Grimma, Saxony, March 3, 1874)
He was a famous pedagogue and, after Mendelssohn´s invitation, he became a teacher at the Leipzig Conservatory. Although he initially toured as a concert violinist, he gradually became interested in piano and his technical aspects. He published numerous books of technical studies such as Technische Studien: für das Pianofortespiel.
[See the Louis Plaidy Tradition]
Reichel, Friedrich
German (Oderwitz, Saxony, 1833 — Dresden, 1889)
Friedrich Reichel was a composer. He learned the violin, flute and horn among many other instruments. He studied the piano with Friedrich Wieck. Reichel taught in Poland and in Dresden.
Renard, Rosita [Rosa Amelia Renard Artigas]
Chilean (Santiago, February 8, 1894 — Santiago, May 24, 1949)
The daughter of a Catalan immigrant, she was admired for her interpretations of Mozart, Chopin and Liszt, and her career in Europe was halted and remained undeveloped for the outbreak of World War I. Subsequently, she lived in Germany and in the USA, and taught at the DKG Institute of Musical Art in Rochester, New York. In 1930, she returned to Chile where she taught at the Santiago Conservatory. She played once at Carnegie Hall in 1949, which was recorded. Due to an incurable sleeping disease contracted after a mosquito bite, she refrained from performing again in public and died shortly after. Samuel Claro published her biography in Spanish in 1993. She married Czech singer Otto Stern and her younger sister, Blanca Renard, was also a world class pianist.
Ritter, Théodore
French (April 5, 1840 — April 6, 1886)
Son of composer Eugène Prévost, his real name was Toussaint Prévost and initiated his career as baritone under the name of Félix. He toured in Canada and in the United States. He married singer Alice Desgranges and his niece Gabrielle Ritter-Ciampi also became a famous singer. As composer, he wrote numerous piano pieces and transcriptions such as Berlioz´s L´enfance du Christ and Roméo et Juliette.
Rubinstein, Anton
Russian (Vikhvatintsï, Ukraine, November 16 or 28, 1829 — Peterhof, now Petrodvoret, November 8 or 20, 1894)
Pianist, conductor, composer and teacher, he was a colossus of the piano and regarded an equal to Liszt. He had a tremendous impact on Russian´s musical life and education that lasts until today, establishing the pedagogical and interpretative principles of what came to be known as the Russian School of pianism. His early piano instruction came from his mother and, subsequently, Alexander Villoing taught the child prodigy and took him on an extended concert tour all over Europe, meeting Chopin, Liszt, Mendelssohn and Meyerbeer. In 1848, the Gran Duchess Yelena Pavlina took interest in the young pianist, offering him lodging quarters in one of her palaces, having him perform for the tsar´s family and, years after, envisioning and planning together a revolution in the musical education in Russia. As a result, they founded the Russian Musical Society in 1859 and the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in 1862. He embarked on several extended concert tours including one in the USA with Wieniawski in which they played over 215 recitals in a period of about 8 months. His repertoire was humongous, as the seven historical recitals he gave in Europe and Russia between 1885 and 1886, encompassing all the history of the piano literature. His piano output is extensive, including five piano concertos, four piano sonatas, Tarantella, Six Preludes, Suite and the famous Melody in F op. 3 no. 1.
[See the Anton Rubinstein Tradition]
Rudorff, Ernst
German (Berlin, January 18, 1840 — Berlin, December 31, 1916)
Pianist, conductor, composer and teacher, he was born into a cultural and intellectual family. His mother was a friend of Mendelssohn and his father a law professor. Besides music, he studied theology and history. He taught at the Cologne Conservatory and at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik and succeeded Bruch as conductor of the Stern Choral Society. He was a close friend of Clara Schumann, who also taught him for a short period. He produced a number of piano compositions including the Fantasie op. 14, Romanzen op. 48 and the Impromptu op. 51. He was a member of the editorial committee of Denkmäler Deutscher Tonkunst.
Samaroff [née Hickenlooper], Olga
American (San Antonio, United States, August 8, 1882 — New York, May 17, 1948)
She was the first American woman to obtain a scholarship to study at the Paris Conservatory, and also studied in Berlin. She was an influential teacher with positions at the Philadelphia Conservatory and Juilliard School, counting among her pupils numerous world-class pianists. Her successful career was interrupted due to an arm injury. She published The Layman´s Music Book and was married to Leopold Stokowski between 1911 and 1923.
[See the Olga Samaroff Tradition]
Samuel, Harold
English (London, May 23, 1879 — London, January 15, 1937)
Harold Samuel was a pianist. He studied at the Royal College of Music with Dannreuther. He became an expert in performing Bach on the piano and memorized all his keyboard works. He taught at the RCM.
Schumann [née Wieck], Clara
German (Leipzig, September 13, 1819 — Frankfurt, May 20, 1896)
One of the greatest and most influential concert pianists of all time and admired by Paganini, Chopin and Liszt, she was Robert Schumann´s wife and contributed to promote her husband´s music by performing and editing it. Her father and teacher was Friedrich Wieck, who not only taught her the piano but supervised her career and general education until her late teens. Her mother Marianne came from a family of musicians and was an accomplished singer and pianist herself. Clara concertized all over Europe, travelling to the British Isles over 19 times, not only performing but acting as her own manager. She was regarded as a piano equal to Liszt, Thalberg and Anton Rubinstein and was known in Europe as the “Queen of the Piano”, with a career lasting for about 60 years. She was one of the pioneers in performing from memory, without assisting artists, a with a detailed attention to the music text, designing shorter concert programs in order to keep the audience´s attention. Her compositions include a Piano Concerto in F, Variations on a Theme by Robert Schumann, Impromptus, Trois Romances and Souvenir de Vienne. She edited the works of Robert Schumann and arranged works of Brahms and Sterndale Bennett for piano. Composer and conductor Woldemar Bargiel was Clara´s half-brother.
[See the Schumann/Wieck Tradition]
Schumann, Robert
German (Zwickau, Saxony, June 8, 1810 — Endenich, July 29, 1856)
Robert Schumann was a pianist, composer and music critic. His teenage nickname and sometimes pseudonym Skülander likely created the false claim that Alexander was his middle name. His father was a lexicographer, translator, bookseller and publisher, and the Schumann´s household was always infused with literature. Poet and writer Jean Paul Richter exerted a profound influence on Schumann´s live and aesthetics. His first music and piano lessons were under Johann Gottfried Kuntsch. Further studies in piano followed with Friedrich Wieck, whose daughter Clara he would marry in 1840 after a court dispute to win over her father´s opposition. Due to his family´s pressure, Schumann began to study Law at the University of Leipzig. An injury in one of the fingers of his right hand forced him to focus on composition and abandon the idea of a concert career as a pianist. He lived in Leipzig, Heidelberg, Düsseldorf, Dresden and Vienna. In 1834, he co-founded and was the editor of the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik. Schumann always suffered from a nervous condition which worsened over the years and produced depression and exhaustion. He contemplated suicide on several occasions. In 1854, he was taken to a private asylum in Endenich, near Bonn where he was to remain until he died. Schumann wrote numerous piano masterpieces including Papillons, Arabeske, Fantasiestücke, Carnaval, Symphonic études, Kreisleriana, Humoreske, Novelletten, Nachstücke, Album for the young, Sonatas and the Piano concerto in A minor.
Seiss, Isidor
German (Dresden, December 23, 1840 — September 25, 1905)
Isidor Seiss was a pianist, composer, conductor and teacher. He studied with Friedrich Wieck. He taught for many years at the Cologne Conservatory since 1871. Among his students were Elly Ney, Carl Lachmund and Willem Mengelberg. Seiss composed a number of pedagogical works for the piano. He suffered from an increasing blindness which prevented him from teaching during the last years of his life. Seiss committed suicide at the age of 64.
Silva, Óscar da
Portuguese (Oporto, April 21, 1870 — Leça da Palmeira, March 6, 1958)
Óscar da Silva was a composer, pianist and teacher. He studied in Oporto, Lisbon and, after 1892, in Germany, where his teachers were Julius Ruthardt and Carl Reinecke at the Leipzig Conservatory and Clara Schumann in Frankfurt. He concertized in Europe, USA, Africa and Brazil, and mainly performed his own works. Da Silva lived in Brazil for 24 years and returned to Portugal in 1951. He taught at the Oporto Conservatory. He composed numerous collections of piano pieces such as Prelúdios, Queixumes, Saudades, Imagens, Dolorosas and bagatelles.
Stavenhagen, Bernhard
German (Greiz, November 24, 1862 — Geneva, December 25, 1914)
Pianist, conductor and composer and one of Liszt´s favorite pupils at the end of his life. Stavenhagen performed Liszt´s First Piano Concerto at his debut concert in London, with Liszt in the audience. He concertized in Europe, Russia and North America with great acclaim. He held positions for the Grand Duke of Weimar, for the Hofoper and as Kapellmeister at the court in Munich. He produced a few piano roll recordings and composed piano works including the Concerto in B minor op. 4.
[See the Bernhard Stavenhagen Tradition]
Sternberg, Constantin
Russian (St. Petersburg, July 9, 1852 — Philadelphia, March 31, 1924)
Court pianist in Mecklenburg, he concertized in Europe, Russia, Egypt, Asia Minor and in the United States. He was director of the College of Music at the Atlanta Female Academy and organized a Wagner Festival in Atlanta in 1888. He edited music for Schirmer and published articles on Musical Quarterly. He premiered Xaver Scharwenka´s Second Piano Concerto in the USA.
Taylor, Franklin
English (Birmingham, February 5, 1843 — London, March 19, 1919)
Franklin Taylor was a pianist, organist and teacher. He studied piano with Charles Flavell and then at the Leipzig Conservatory with Louis Plaidy and Ignaz Moscheles. He also worked in Paris with Clara Schumann. In 1876, he was appointed professor at the National Training School of Music, later merged into the Royal College of Music. Taylor was president of Beringer´s Academy for the Higher Development of Pianoforte Playing and was director of the Philharmonic Society. He published a number of articles in the Grove´s Dictionary and published books on piano including Technique and Expression in Pianoforte Playing and Primer of Pianoforte Playing as well as a series of Progressive Studies for the Pianoforte.
Vallier, John
English (London, October 1, 1920 — June 11, 1991)
John Vallier was a pianist and composer. His mother was the pianist Adela Verne, a pupil of Leschetizky, and his father Jean Vallier, a well-known opera bass. He studied with his aunt Mathilde Verne, with Walter Kerschbaumer and with Edwin Fischer. Vallier taught at the London College of Music. As composer, he produced numerous miniatures including Toccatina, Witches´ Ride and also the Piano Concerto in a minor. He was diagnosed with lung cancer and died the age of 71.
Verne [née Wurm], Mathilde
English (Southampton, May 25, 1865 — London, June 4, 1936)
Mathilde Verne was a pianist and teacher of German ancestry. She changed her name in 1893 after the death of her father. She studied with Clara Schumann in Frankfurt and taught at the Royal College of Music in London for a short period. Her students included her sister Adela Verne, her nephew John Vallier, Solomon, Moura Lympany, Harold Samuel and Lady Bowes-Lyon, the future Queen Elizabeth.
Vogrich, Max Wilhelm Carl
Austrian (Hermannstadt, Transylvania, now Romania, January 24, 1852 — New York, June 10, 1916)
Max Vogrich was a pianist and composer and a child prodigy. He studied in Leipzig with Carl Reinecke and Ignaz Moscheles. He concertized in Europe, South America, Australia and the United States. His works include piano concertos, Passpied, Staccato caprice and Valse brillante.
Wenzel, Ernst Ferdinand
German (Eibau, January 25, 1808 — Bad Kösen, August 16, 1880)
Ernst Wenzel was a pianist and teacher. He studied with Friedrich Wieck and taught at the Leipzig Conservatory. Among his students were Leoš Janáček and Edvard Grieg.
Wieck, Friedrich Alwin Feodor
German (Leipzig, August 27, 1821 — Dresden, October 21, 1885)
Alwin Wieck was a violinist and pianist. His sister was Clara Schumann, who taught him the piano. He lived in Saint Petersburg for a few years and, in 1861, returned to Germany where he taught. He composed a few works including the Impromptu op. 4.
Wieck, Friedrich
German (Pretzsch, near Torgau, August 18, 1785 — Loschwitz, near Dresden, October 6, 1873)
An important teacher and education specialist, his daughter was the famous pianist Clara Wieck, whom he trained and who married Robert Schumann. He pursued theological studies, but his interest in education and music became more profound after his collaboration with piano teacher Adolph Bargiel. He was mainly focused on elementary piano instruction, based on playing without notation during the first steps of the learning process. He also taught Italian vocal technique and was involved in instrument sales and a music lending library business. His pedagogical work Klavier und Gesang summarizes his teaching principles.
[See the Schuman/Wieck Tradition]
Wieck, Marie
German (Leipzig, January 17, 1832 — November 2, 1916)
Marie Wieck was a pianist, singer, teacher and composer. She was half-sister of Clara Schumann, with whom she performed in public. She was appointed court pianist for the chamber concerts of the Prince of Hohenzollern. Wieck composed several piano pieces such as the Études.
© 2021, by Daniel Pereira