{"id":1388,"date":"2024-04-02T18:24:53","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T01:24:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beethovenscholar.com\/?p=1388"},"modified":"2024-05-06T16:03:26","modified_gmt":"2024-05-06T23:03:26","slug":"beethoveniana-the-famous-pianist-egon-petri-on-beethoven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beethovenscholar.com\/index.php\/2024\/04\/02\/beethoveniana-the-famous-pianist-egon-petri-on-beethoven\/","title":{"rendered":"The Famous Pianist Egon Petri on Beethoven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Alfred Kanwischer’s Egon Petri, Musician to the World, Interviews and Commentary,<\/em> published by Cuvillier Verlag G\u00f6ttingen, 2019 (154 pp., can be ordered online<\/a> for $37.40)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until performers breath life into them through their imaginations, knowledge, technique, and sensitivities, all the notes on a page of music lie unborn. One of the greatest performers and teachers of the last century who was ever ready to pass on his insights was the German-born Egon Petri.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2019 the pianist Alfred Kanwischer\u2014one of the finest professors of piano we ever had at San Jos\u00e9 State University\u2014published his reminiscences of his teacher Petri (1881-1962) based on weekly interviews made during his teacher’s last year of life. As Alfred, also a Beethoven and Bach scholar, writes in his introduction, “Egon Petri’s story, his performing and teaching art, are as relevant as ever, an invaluable link from the past to the future. His remarks, mottos, and maxims by no means encompass his artistry and instruction, but they do represent his modes of thinking\u2014arresting, penetrating, sensible, time-independent. He was not only a great twentieth-century virtuoso, but also a great teacher” [p. 11].<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The book relies on the tapes made in 1961-62 and the almost two hundred pages of exact transcriptions made painstakingly by Alfred’s wife Heidi in 1962-63, as well as Alfred’s recollections of information from personal conversations as well as materials taken from private lessons and masterclasses. Unfortunately, the tapes themselves no longer survive. It would have been wonderful to hear Petri’s voice as he answered Alfred’s questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of Petri’s performances are accessible on YouTube. Even better, numerous original copies of his sound recordings are for sale on eBay for reasonable prices. The sound quality on those records is much superior to any CD, and I recommend them as first access, in part because Petri, as you can read below, was famous for his sense of color at the piano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As I read through Alfred’s study, I marked all of the pages that contain significant Beethoven content, and I realized it would be useful to gather a number of them together here. (Unfortunately, the book does not contain a name index, but Alfred and I have added five indexes below.) Because Alfred intermixes Petri’s quotes with his own words and to make the sections easier to understand, everything is directly from the book except for those occasions when I added introductions to material. My introductions are in italics and marked by “WM.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Letter from the twenty-two-year old Egon Petri to a member of the distinguished Bernoulli family of Basel from September 4, 1903 detailing his suggestions for the repertory for a forthcoming orchestral concert (the Brahms Concerto in D Minor or the Liszt Concerto in A Major). As solo numbers he would like to play 2 Choralvorspiele in the Bach-Busoni arrangements and a nocturne and polonaise by Chopin). As solo numbers in the chamber music set, he would most like to play Beethoven’s “Appassionata” Sonata, Opus 57; the Sonata in E Major, Opus 109; and the Variations in C Minor, WoO 63 or 80 (or the Handel Variations, ?WoO 45). (From the collection of William Meredith)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Petri’s Beethoven Reminiscences Through his home years … Egon also played the piano for his father’s chamber music sessions, on the Bl\u00fcthner grand piano at home, or sometimes elsewhere. “I once played the Kreutzer Sonata [Opus 47] with my father in a private home in Weisenberg in Bremen,” he recalled. “I was very young and enthusiastic and we came down to the theme in the middle, and I just went to town, and I played it and enjoyed it very much. Suddenly, my father put down his violin and said, ‘Please give me a trombone!’ I was playing so loud I was just killing him, So, one learns.” [p. 29; Kanwischer wrote me that he had “always assumed it was the first movt., already possibly from bar 61+. If not there, by bars 122+. Or, possibly all the octave stuff in the development, bars 210+.” (Letter of November 1, 2023)]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a performance not by Petri but with a score, see:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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