Wilhelm Kempff was a German pianist and composer. He studied in Berlin and Potsdam. He toured widely throughout contintental Europe and much of the rest of the world, but did not make his first London appearance until 1951, and did not play in New York until 1964. He gave his last public performance in Paris in 1981 and died in Positano, Italy at the age of 95.
Considered one of the greatest pianists of 20th century, Wilhelm Kempff is celebrated today for his recordings of Schumann, J. Brahms, Schubert, Mozart, J.S. Bach, F. Liszt, Chopin and particularly, of L.v. Beethoven. He recorded over a period of some sixty years. Kempff was among the first to record the complete sonatas of F. Schubert long before these works became popular. He 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 Y. Menuhin. 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.
A lesser known activity of Wilhelm Kempff was composing. He composed for almost every genre. 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, which has been recorded by the pianist Idil Biret.
Recordings
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Kempff, Wilhelm (1895 - 1991)
Composers
- _Various
- _Chamber Music
- _Popular (Piano)
- _Piano Society Member/Composers
- Albéniz, Isaac (1860 - 1909)
- Alkan, Charles-Valentin (1813-1888)
- Alwyn, William (1905-1985)
- Bach, Johann Sebastian (1685 - 1750)
- Bach, Carl Philipp Emanual ( 1714 - 1788 )
- Bach, Johann Christian (1735-1782)
- Balakirev, Mily Alexeyevich (1837-1910)
- Barber, Samuel ( 1910 - 1981)
- Bartók, Bela (1881-1945)
- Beethoven, Ludwig van (1770 - 1827)
- Berg, Alban (1885-1935)
- Bernstein, Leonard (1918-1990)
- Bizet, Georges (1838 - 1875)
- Blancafort, Manuel (1897-1987)
- Bolcom, William
- Bortkiewicz, Sergei (1877-1952)
- Bowen, York (1884 1961)
- Bowles, Paul (1910 - 1999)
- Brahms, Johannes (1833 - 1897)
- Burgmuller, Friedrich
- Busoni, Ferrucio
- Buxtehude, Dietrich (1637 - 1707)
- Byrd, William (1543 - 1623)
- Caby, Robert
- Carter, Elliott (1908-2012)
- Catoire, Georges (1861-1926)
- Cavazzoni, Girolamo (1525 after 1577)
- Cervantes, Ignacio (1847 - 1905)
- Chopin, Frédéric (1810 - 1849)
- Clementi, Muzio (1752 - 1832)
- Copland, Aaron (1900 - 1990)
- Couperin, François ( 1668 1733 )
- Cui, Cesar (1835 - 1918)
- Czerny, Carl (1791 1857)
- Corelli, Arcangelo
- Debussy, Claude Achille (1862 - 1918)
- Dienel, Otto (1839-1905)
- Dohnányi, Ernst von
- Duckworth, William (1943)
- Dukas, Paul ( 1865 - 1935 )
- Dussek, Johann Ladislaus (1760 - 1812)
- Dutilleux, Henri (1916)
- Dvorak, Antonin (1841 - 1904)
- Elgar, Edward (1857 - 1934)
- Eller, Heino
- Espla, Oscar (1886 - 1976)
- Evans, Bill ( 1929 1980 )
- Falla, Manuel de (1876 - 1946)
- Fauré, Gabriel (1845 - 1924)
- Fernandez, Oscar L. (1897 - 1948)
- Field, John
- Franck, César (1822 - 1890)
- Frescobaldi, Girolamo (1583 - 1643)
- Galuppi, Baldassare (1706 - 1785)
- Gerhart, Ned (1959)
- Gershwin, George (1898 - 1937)
- Gibbons, Orlando (1583 - 1625)
- Ginastera, Alberto ( 1916 - 1983 )
- Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich (1804 - 1857)
- Godowsky, Leopold (1870 - 1938)
- Gottschalk, Louis Moreau (1829 - 1869)
- Grainger, Percy (1882 - 1961)
- Granados, Enrique (1867 - 1916)
- Grieg, Edvard (1843 - 1907)
- Griffes, Charles Tomlinson (1884 - 1920)
- Grovlez, Gabriel ( 1879 - 1944 )
- Guarnieri, Mozart Camargo (1907 - 1993)
- Halffter, Ernesto (1905 - 1989)
- Halffter, Rodolfo (1900 - 1987)
- Hamelin, Marc-André (1961)
- Handel, Georg Friedrich (1685 - 1759)
- Haydn, Franz Joseph (1732-1809)
- Hess, Myra (1890 - 1965)
- Hindemith, Paul (1895 - 1963)
- Honegger, Artur ( 1892 - 1955 )
- Ireland, John (1879 -1962)
- Janáček, Leo ( 1854 - 1928 )
- Joplin, Scott (1868-1917)
- Kabalevsky, Dimitri (1904-1987)
- Kapustin, Nikolai ( 1937 )
- Kazhlayev, Murad (1931)
- Kempff, Wilhelm (1895 - 1991)
- Ketèlbey, Albert W. ( 1875 1959 )
- Khachaturian, Aram (1903 - 1978)
- Koch, Erland von
- Kodály, Zoltán (1882-1967)
- Korngold, Erich Wolfgang (1897 - 1957)
- Kosenko, Viktor (1896-1938)
- Kuhlau, Friedrich (1786 1832)
- Lecuona y Casado, Ernesto (1895-1963)
- Lejsek, Vlastimil (1927)
- Liadov, Anatoly (1855 - 1914)
- Liapounov, Sergei (1859 - 1924)
- Liszt, Franz (1811 - 1886)
- Lutoslawski, Witold ( 1913 - 1994 )
- MacDowell, Edward (1860 - 1908)
- Madetoja, Leevi
- Magnard, Alberic (1865-1914)
- Martinu, Bohuslav ( 1890 -1959 )
- Mayerl, Billy (1902 - 1959)
- Medtner, Nikolai (1880-1951)
- Mendelssohn, Felix (1809-1847)
- Molenaar, Peter (Psalms for organ)
- Messiaen, Olivier (1908-1992)
- Meyn, Till
- Miguez, Leopoldo (1850 - 1902)
- Moeran, Ernst John (1894-1950)
- Mompou, Federico (1893 - 1987)
- Moszkowski, Moritz (1854 - 1925)
- Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus (1756 - 1791)
- Muczynski, Robert ( 1929 )
- Mussorgsky, Modest (1839 1881)
- Nazareth, Ernesto (1863 - 1934)
- Nepomuceno, Alberto ( 1864 - 1920 )
- Nielsen, Carl ( 1865 - 1931 )
- Nin-Culmell, Joaquin (1908-2004)
- Ornstein, Leo ( 1893 - 2002 )
- Oswald, Henrique (1852 - 1931)
- Pachelbel, Johann (1653 - 1706)
- Paderewski, Ignacy Jan (1860 - 1941)
- Palmgren, Selim (1878 - 1951)
- Pann, Carter (b.1972)
- Peterson-Berger, Olof Wilhelm (1867 - 1942)
- Piazzolla, Astor (1921)
- Ponce, Manuel M. (1882 - 1948)
- Poulenc, Francis ( 1899-1963 )
- Prokofiev, Sergei (1891-1953)
- Rachmaninov, Sergei (1873 - 1943)
- Rameau, Jean-Philippe (1683 - 1764)
- Rangström, Ture (1884-1947)
- Ravel, Maurice (1875 - 1937)
- Rebikov, Vladimir (1866-1920)
- Respighi, Ottorino (1879 - 1936)
- Rimsky-Korsakov, Nikolay (1844 - 1908)
- Rodrigo, Joaquín (1901 - 1999)
- Rozsa, Miklos (1907 - 1995)
- Rubbra, Edmund (1901-1986)
- Rubinstein, Anton (1829 - 1894)
- Saint-Saëns, Camille (1835-1921)
- Satie, Erik (1866 - 1925)
- Scarlatti, Domenico (1685-1757)
- Scharwenka, Xaver ( 1850 - 1924 )
- Schoenberg, Arnold (1874 - 1951)
- Schubert, Franz (1797-1828)
- Schumann, Robert (1810-1856)
- Schumann, Clara (1819 - 1896)
- Scott, James (1885 - 1938)
- Scriabin, Alexander (1871 - 1915)
- Shostakovich, Dimitri (1906 - 1975)
- Sibelius, Jean (1865-1957)
- Siloti, Alexander (1863 - 1945)
- Sinding, Christian (1856 1941)
- Smetana, Bedrich (1824 - 1884)
- Soler, Padre Antonio (1729 - 1783)
- Sousa, John Philip (1854 - 1932)
- Stanchinsky, Alexei (1888 - 1914)
- Stenhammar, Wilhelm (1871 - 1927)
- Stevenson, Ronald (1928 - 2015)
- Strauss, Richard (1864 - 1949)
- Stravinsky, Igor (1882 - 1971)
- Suk, Josef (1874 - 1935)
- Szymanowski, Karol (1882 - 1937)
- Tajcevic, Marko (1900 - 1984)
- Takemitsu, Toru (1930 - 1996)
- Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilich (1840-93)
- Tcherepnin, Alexander (1899 - 1977)
- Telemann, Georg Philipp (1681 - 1767)
- Turina, Joaquin (1882 - 1949)
- Tveitt, Geirr ( 1908 - 1981 )
- Ullmann, Viktor (1898 - 1944)
- Williams, Ralph Vaughan (1872-1958)
- Villa-Lobos, Heitor (1887-1959)
- Vladigerov, Pancho (1899 - 1978)
- Walther, Johann Gottfried (1684 - 1748)
- Wagner, Richard ( 1813 - 1883 )
- Warlock, Peter (1894-1930)
- Weber, Carl Maria von (1786 - 1826)
- Webern, Anton (1883 - 1945)
- Yevlakhov, Orest (1912-1973)
- Zipoli, Domenico (1688 - 1726)
- Published:
- Jan 5, 2016
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