Bach, Mozart, Schubert & Schumann: Works for Piano

Featuring

Wilhelm Kempff
Johann Sebastian Bach
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Franz Schubert
Robert Schumann

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Performer Biography

At age nine, Wilhelm Kempff won two scholarships to Berlin's Hochschule für ausübende Tonkunst, where he studied piano with Heinrich Barth and composition with Robert Kahn, a friend and disciple of Brahms.

Recording & Production

Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft (DGG), which recorded some of these pieces, was originally a subsidiary of British Gramophone Co Ltd but was seized by Germany during World War I.

Performer Biography

Wilhelm Kempff, the pianist on this album, was once described in The New York Times as a "famous German pianist" after his arrival in Buenos Aires on the Graf Zeppelin.

Recording & Production

Early recordings by Wilhelm Kempff, including some on this album, were made using acoustic horns before the advent of microphone technology in 1926.

Recording & Production

This album compiles Wilhelm Kempff's complete Polydor recordings made between 1927 and 1936.

Performer Biography

Wilhelm Kempff's grandfather and father both served as Kantors to the Church of St Nikolaus in Jüterbog, and he often played organ services from the age of ten.

Interpretation

Wilhelm Kempff's interpretation of Mozart's Piano Sonata in A major, K331, is considered "modern" due to his use of separated two-note slurs, a technique accepted by many contemporary pianists.