Pianists Ernst and Max Pauer
Famous Father and Son Concert Pianists of the Nineteenth Century
Oct 5, 2008
The nineteenth century produced a number of celebrated concert pianists and other instrumentalists, and one of the foremost was Ernst Pauer, who was born in Vienna on December 1, 1826.
The son of a Lutheran Superintendant-General, young Ernst received his early musical education from a teacher named Dirzka, Simon Sechter (1788-1867) and then studied with Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1791-1844), the son of the great Austrian composer. From 1845 to the following year he was instructed by Franz Lachner (1803-1890) and in 1847 was appointed musical director in Mayence, where he stayed for four years.
Early Compositions: Operas from Ernst Pauer
While in Mayence he wrote three operas,"The Red Mask," "Don Riego," and "The Bride," which were only performed in Mannheim. He was appearing regularly in public but his real celebrity as a pianist occurred after recitals in London in 1851. He was greeted enthusiastically by the English audiences and settled in London as a piano teacher.In 1861 he began a series of historic recitals accompanied by analytical program notes. In 1866 he was made pianist to the Austrian Court.
Pauer had married a Miss Andrea, a singer from Frankfort, Germany, in the 1850's, and they settled in London, where their son max would be born in 1866.
Ernst Pauer, in his later life, was made Professor of Piano at the London Conservatory of Music, and published a remarkable number of works on classical music, including "Alte Meister," "Alte Klaviermusik," "Primer of the Piano," "Volksausgabe der Klassiker von Bach bis Schumann," and "Elements of the beautiful in Music". He also composed several works, including a symphony and a piano quartet. He died at Darmstadt in 1905.
Max Pauer
Ernst's son Max was born in London on October 31,1866, and received his early piano training from his father. Later Ernst sent the young Max to Vincenz Lachner in Carlsruhe, where he studied composition.
Max stayed there from 1881 until 1885, and gave his first public performances during this time...traveling through Holland, Germany and England.
In 1887 he was made professor of the piano at the Cologne Conservatory, and in 1897 moved to the Stuttgart Conservatory where he became director in 1908, succeeding De Lange. Max Pauer enjoyed both a career on the concert stage and the life of a distinguished piano teacher. He was invited to go to the conservatories of Prague and Moscow to teach, but he turned down those offers.
In 1893 Max Pauer was appointed Court Pianist at Darmstadt and in 1898 was made a professor. Pauer edited a number of works including a new edition of Lebert and Stark's Piano Method in 1904, and made arrangements of Haydn and Mozart Symphonies. He died in 1945.
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