Historical interpretations of Friderick Chopin works

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Emil von Sauer - biography

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Emil von Sauer, a German pianist and composer, he was born on 8 October, 1862 in Hamburg, and died on 27 April, 1942 in Vienna. At the age of five he began his musical education under his mother, Julia Gordon Sauer, a pupil of Ludwig Deppe, who was the author of a new method of mastering piano technique. He later became Deppe's pupil himself but as he was not making much progress his parents decided that he should be a lawyer. However, at the age of fourteen he chose music. The decision was made after hearing a recital of Anton Rubinstein, whose playing totally captivated the boy. Soon he performed for the great pianist and Rubinstein recommended him to his brother, Nikolay, a professor at the Conservatoire in Moscow. He was his student from 1879 to 1881. Later, from 1884 to 1885, he mastered his piano playing as a pupil of Franz Liszt's master class in Weimar. He made his debut in 1882 in Hamburg, and next gave concerts in Germany, Spain and Italy. His world's career began in January 1885 with the concert in Berlin, where he played the Beethoven Piano concerto in E flat major and the Henselt Piano concerto in F minor. After these performances he was dubbed “the second Tausig”. In November 1894 he successfully performed in England, where untill March 1895 he gave 48 concerts. From 1896 he toured in Russia, and he played in the USA in 1898-1899 and 1908. In 1937, in February and October, and in May 1939 he gave concerts at the Warsaw Philharmonic Hall. He was perceived as an excellent performer of classical music, particularly of such Romantic composers as Chopin, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. He also played piano concertos and other pieces by Franz Xaver Scharwenka. His interpreting style combined sensitivity with temperament and poetic inspiration. The mastery of his playing featured precision in brilliant performance of embellishments, beautiful sound and elegance. He remained technically fluent until the end of his life. In 1923 he made his first record, which included Liszt's , the piece was played in 1937 in Warsaw. He recorded for such companies as Regal, German Vox, Odeon, Pathé and Columbia. Across the world he was also recognized as an active pedagogue. From 1901 to 1907, and again from 1915 to 1921, and from 1931 Emil von Sauer was a professor at the Meisterschule für Klavierspiel in Vienna. Moreover he conducted concerto courses and was a private tutor. In 1917 he received a knighthood for his services to music. He was a vice-chairman of the third Frederick Chopin International Piano Competition in 1937, and one of the juries of the International Music Competitions in Vienna in 1933 and 1936. He co-operated with the Peters Publishing House editing works by Scarlatti, Liszt, Chopin and Brahms, as well as pedagogical pieces by Kullak, Löschhorn, and Pisna. His own compositions include inter alia: piano concertos (in E minor and C minor), sonatas (in D major and E flat major), Etudes de concert, Suite moderne, numerous piano transcriptions and songs. He is the author of the memoir Meine Welt and Bilder aus dem Geheimfach meiner Kunst und meines Lebens (1901). His pupils included Webster Aitken, Jorge Bolet, Edward Goll, Monique de La Bruchollerie, Lubka Kolessa, Ozan Marsh, Angelica Morales, Elly Ney, Dario Raucea, Marie Aimée Varro; among Polish Stefan Askenase, Maryla Jonas, Helena Morsztyn, Leopold Münzer, Zygmunt Dygat.

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