iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Wilhelm Kempff

Kempff redirects here. For the article about the Bolivian park, see Noel Kempff Mercado National Park.


Wilhelm Kempff (November 25, 1895 – May 23, 1991) was a renowned German pianist. He was also a composer.

Early life

Wilhelm Kempff was born in Jüterbog near Berlin and 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 first in Potsdam and then in Berlin.

Pianist

Kempff toured very widely in Europe and much of the rest of the world. Between 1936 and 1979 he performed ten times in Japan and a small Japanese island was named Kempu-san in his honor. Kempff made his first London appearance in 1951 and in New York in 1964. He gave his last public performance in Paris in 1981 and died in Positano, Italy at the age of 95.

Wilhelm Kempff recorded over a period of some sixty years. He is celebrated today for his recordings of Schumann, Brahms, Schubert, Mozart, Bach, Liszt, Chopin and particularly, of Beethoven.

He was among the first to record the complete sonatas of Franz Schubert, long before these works became popular. He also recorded two renowned sets of the complete Beethoven sonatas (and one early, almost complete set on shellac 1926-1945), one in mono (1951-1956) and the other in stereo (1964-1965).

One anecdote may illustrate Kempff's ability as an interpreter of Beethoven. During a stay in Finland, his friend the composer Jean Sibelius asked him to play the Hammerklavier of Beethoven and, after Kempff finished, Sibelius told him, "You did not play that as a pianist but rather as a human being."

Kempff also played chamber music with Yehudi Menuhin and Pierre Fournier, among others. Particularly famous are the recordings of the complete Beethoven sonatas for violin and piano with Menuhin.

Teaching

In 1957 Kempff began to give an annual Beethoven interpretation course in his villa in Positano. Six years after his death, friend and former student John O'Conor took over the course.

Composition

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 second symphony was premiered in 1929 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus by Wilhelm Furtwängler. He also prepared a number of Bach transcriptions, including the Siciliano from the Flute Sonata in E, that have been recorded by Kempff and others.

External links

State Party  Bolivia
Type Natural
Criteria ix, x
Reference 967
Region Latin America and the Caribbean

Inscription History
Inscription 2000  (24th Session)
..... Click the link for more information.
November 25 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 1034 - Máel Coluim mac Cináeda, King of Scots dies.

..... Click the link for more information.
18th century - 19th century - 20th century
1860s  1870s  1880s  - 1890s -  1900s  1910s  1920s
1892 1893 1894 - 1895 - 1896 1897 1898

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.
May 23 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 1430 - Joan of Arc is captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne.

..... Click the link for more information.
19th century - 20th century - 21st century
1960s  1970s  1980s  - 1990s -  2000s  2010s  2020s
1988 1989 1990 - 1991 - 1992 1993 1994

Year 1991 (MCMXCI
..... Click the link for more information.
Anthem
"Das Lied der Deutschen" (third stanza)
also called "Einigkeit und Recht und Freiheit"
..... Click the link for more information.
For other meanings see Pianist (disambiguation).


A pianist is a person who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with a smaller ensemble, or accompany one or more singers or solo instrumentalists.
..... Click the link for more information.
composer is a person who writes music. The term refers particularly to someone who writes music in some type of musical notation, thus allowing others to perform the music. This distinguishes the composer from a musician who improvises or plays a musical instrument.
..... Click the link for more information.
Jueterbog.
Jüterbog (2002 pop. 13,604) is a city in north-eastern Germany, located in the Teltow-Fläming district of Brandenburg, on the Nuthe, 39 mi. southwest of Berlin, at the junction of the main lines of railway from Berlin to Dresden and Leipzig.
..... Click the link for more information.
Berlin

Flag Coat of arms

Details
Location of Berlin within Germany / EU

Coordinates
Time zone CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2)
Administration
Country
..... Click the link for more information.
Potsdam
Sanssouci, former summer palace of Frederick the Great
Coat of arms Location

..... Click the link for more information.
An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ.

Classical and church organists

The majority of organists, amateur and professional, are principally involved in church music.
..... Click the link for more information.
Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen Nuremberg (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (German), FAU (abbr.)), founded in 1742, is Bavaria's second largest state university with eleven faculties and 265 chairs.
..... Click the link for more information.
Europe is one of the seven traditional continents of the Earth. Physically and geologically, Europe is the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, west of Asia. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Sea,
..... Click the link for more information.
Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism.
If you are prevented from editing this page, and you wish to make a change, please discuss changes on the talk page, request unprotection, log in, or .
..... Click the link for more information.
London
Canary Wharf is the centre of London's modern office towers
London shown within England
Coordinates:
Sovereign state United Kingdom
Constituent country England
..... Click the link for more information.
State of New York

Flag of New York Seal
Nickname(s): The Empire State
Motto(s): Excelsior!

Official language(s) None

Capital Albany
Largest city New York City

..... Click the link for more information.
Ville de Paris

City flag City coat of arms

Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur
(Latin: "Tossed by the waves, she does not sink")

The Eiffel Tower in Paris, as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro.
..... Click the link for more information.
Country Italy
Region Campania
Province Salerno (SA)
Mayor Domenico Marrone

Area km
Population
 - Total (as of 2001)
 - Density /km
Time zone CET, UTC+1

..... Click the link for more information.
Anthem
Il Canto degli Italiani
(also known as Fratelli d'Italia)


..... Click the link for more information.
Robert Alexander Schumann (June 8, 1810 – July 29, 1856) was a German composer and pianist and the husband of Clara Schumann. He was one of the most famous Romantic composers of the nineteenth century, as well as a famous music critic.
..... Click the link for more information.
Johannes Brahms (May 7, 1833 – April 3, 1897) was a German composer of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, he eventually settled in Vienna, Austria.

Life


..... Click the link for more information.
Franz Peter Schubert (January 31, 1797 – November 19, 1828) was an Austrian composer. He wrote some 600 Lieder, eight completed symphonies, the famous "Unfinished Symphony", liturgical music, operas, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music.
..... Click the link for more information.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (IPA: [ˈvɔlfgaŋ amaˈdeus ˈmoːtsart], baptized Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart
..... Click the link for more information.
Johann Sebastian Bach (pronounced [ˈjoːhan zəˈbastjan bax]) (21 March 1685 O.S. – 28 July 1750 N.S.
..... Click the link for more information.
Franz Liszt (Hungarian: Liszt Ferenc; pronounced /lɪst/, in English: list) (October 22 1811 – July 31 1886) was a Hungarian [1] virtuoso pianist and composer of the Romantic period.
..... Click the link for more information.
Frédéric Chopin (Polish: Fryderyk (Franciszek) Chopin, sometimes Szopen; French: Frédéric (François) Chopin; English surname pronunciation: IPA: /ʃoʊˈpæn/; March 1, 1810,[1]
..... Click the link for more information.
Ludwig van Beethoven (English IPA: /ˈlʊdvɪg væn ˈbeɪtoʊvən/; German IPA:
..... Click the link for more information.
A piano sonata is a sonata written for unaccompanied piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, occasionally just in one or two. The first movement is usually composed in sonata form.
..... Click the link for more information.
Monaural (often shortened to mono) sound reproduction is single-channel. Typically there is only one microphone, one loudspeaker, or, in the case of headphones or multiple loudspeakers, they are fed from a common signal path, and in the case of multiple microphones, mixed
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter