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German pianist
- Wilhelm Kempff (born Nov. 25, 1895, Jüterbog, Ger.—died May 23, 1991, Positano, Italy) German pianist who specialized in the 19th-century German Classical and Romantic repertoire—especially the sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven—and in the music of Frédéric Chopin.
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May 25, 1991 · Wilhelm Kempff, a German pianist esteemed for his lucid, searching interpretations of Romantic repertory, died on Thursday at his home in Positano, Italy. He was 95 years old. Mr. Kempf had...
Wilhelm Kempff (born Nov. 25, 1895, Jüterbog, Ger.—died May 23, 1991, Positano, Italy) German pianist who specialized in the 19th-century German Classical and Romantic repertoire—especially the sonatas of Ludwig van Beethoven—and in the music of Frédéric Chopin.
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Kempff was born in Jüterbog, Brandenburg, in 1895.[1] He grew up in nearby Potsdam where his father was a royal music director and organist at St. Nicolai Church. His grandfather was also an organist and his brother Georg became director of church music at the University of Erlangen. Kempff studied music at first at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik ...
In 1917, Kempff made his first major recital, consisting of predominantly major works, including Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata and Brahms Variations on a theme of Paganini.[1] Kempff toured very widely in Europe and much of the rest of the world. Between 1936 and 1979 he performed ten times in Japan (a small Japanese island was named Kenpu-san i...
As a performer he stressed lyricism, charm, and spontaneity in music, particularly effective in intimate pieces or passages. He always strove for a singing, lyrical quality, occasionally slipping into a slight degree of affectation in his phrasing. He avoided extreme tempos and display for its own sake. He left recordings of most of his repertory, ...
In 1924–1929 Wilhelm Kempff took over the direction of the Stuttgart College of Music as a successor of Max Pauer. In 1931 he was co-founder of the Summer courses at Marmorpalais Potsdam. In 1957 Wilhelm Kempff founded “Fondazione Orfeo” (today: Kempff Kulturstiftung) in the south-italian city Positano and held his first Beethoven interpretation ma...
A lesser-known activity of Kempff was composing. He composed for almost every genre and used his own cadenzas for Beethoven's Piano Concertos 1-4. His student Idil Biret has recorded a CD of his piano works. His second symphony premiered in 1929 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus by Wilhelm Furtwängler. He also prepared a number of Bach transcriptions, incl...
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1, 12, 19, and 20 (DG LP 138 935; released 1965; recipient of Grand Prix du Disque)
His recording career spanned 60 years, all of it for DG save for an important period in the 1950s, in the early years of the LP, when he made records for Decca at its West Hampstead studios in London. My information is that his first 78 was of Beethoven’s Ecossaises and one of the Op 33 Bagatelles.
Wilhelm Kempff. Wilhelm Walter Friedrich Kempff (1895–1991) was an archetypal German musician, born into a family of church organists and cantors. The most spiritual Austro–German tradition, from J.S. Bach and Mozart to Beethoven and Schubert, was central to his sensibility, as was the improvisational facility and registral sensitivity of ...
Wilhelm Walter Friedrich Kempff (25 November 1895 – 23 May 1991) was a German pianist and composer. Although his repertoire included Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms, Kempff was particularly well known for his interpretations of the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert, recording the complete sonatas of both composers.
After the end of the war he once again presented concerts worldwide. His annual Beethoven interpretation courses in the southern Italian city Positano were famous. Wilhelm Kempff died 1991 in Positano. Photo: © C. Bechstein Archiv. Wilhelm Kempff, one of the great pianists of the 20th century, liked to play on C. Bechstein grand pianos.