Pianists Eugen d'Albert and Walter Bache

Forgotten Pianists Who Were Famous in Their Time

Sep 17, 2008

In the world of classical music there are so many fine artists alive today that those who have come before are often forgotten. Here are two who deserve to be remembered.

Eugen ( born Eugene Francis Charles) d'Albert was a very handsome and charismatic pianist who thrilled audiences far and wide, and women often became faint when they attended his concerts. Born in Glasgow, Scotland, on April 10, 1864, d'Albert's father was a musician of French heritage and his mother was German.

His father was his first teacher after which he enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music, London, where he studied with Ernst Pauer (1826-1905). In 1880 he met the famous conductor Hans Richter who arranged for Eugen to go to Vienna with him. In 1881 Richter sent d'Albert to Franz Liszt who took a fatherly interest in the him, and through Liszt's influence Eugen performed in Vienna, Weimar and Berlin that same year.

D'Albert as Composer

Eugen d'Albert made rapid strides as a concert performer and at one time was appointed Court Pianist for the Grand Duke of Weimar. He began to turn his hand to composition with the result being an output of operas, two piano concertos, chamber music and editions of piano classics. He succeeded Joseph Joachim as Director of the Berlin Hochschule fur Musik in 1907.

The great Polish pianist Arthur Rubinstein said of d'Albert's playing ,"I heard Eugen d'Albert play Beethoven's Fourth Concerto with a nobility and tenderness which has remained in my mind as the model performance of this work."

D'Albert was married six times, his second wife being the famous pianist Teresa Carreno. Eugen d'Albert, who, although born in Glasgow never learned to speak fluent English, died in Riga, Latvia, in 1932 and is buried in the cemetery overlooking Lake Lugano in Morcote, Switzerland.

Walter Bache

Bache was a fine English pianist who became famous as a disciple of Franz Liszt. Born in Birmingham on June 19, 1842, he received the finest musical education under the supervision of Ignaz Moscheles (1794-1870), and Louis Plaidy. He enrolled at the Leipzig Conservatory from 1858 to 1861 where he also studied under Moritz Hauptmann and Ernest Friedrich Richter.

In 1862 Bache travelled to Rome where Franz Liszt was living and became the great pianist's student for three years. Bache removed to London in 1865 and enjoyed great fame as a pianist, teacher and conductor. He earned a fine reputation in England for his championing of new works, mostly those of Liszt.

Walter Bache was the recipient of musical instruction from some of the finest musicians teaching at the time, and his reputation was that of a man who wished nothing more than to bring to the fore the true interpretations of great works. He was also said to have been a most unselfish man, amiable and humble. Bache died at the early age of forty-six on March 26,1888, In London.

Source

Celebrated Pianists of the Past and Present by A.Ehrlich, Theodore Presser, Philadelphia, 1894

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