Else Cross

Else Cross (actually born Else Krams and married Else Gross * 17th December 1902 in Czernowitz , capital of the then to Austria-Hungary and now in parts to Romania and the Ukraine belonging Bukovina ; † 31 October 1987 in London ) was an Austro -English pianist and piano teacher .

Life

Else Cross was born in Chernivtsi in 1902 as the daughter of the Jewish authorized signatory David Osias Krams. She attended a girls' high school in her hometown and showed her talent for music at an early age. She took her first piano lessons at the local conservatory with Aglaia Klug, a well-known Czernowitz music teacher of the time. Even then, the young girl gave concerts in her home region. Later, around 1929, she went to Vienna, where she began studying and in 1931 her cousin, the lawyer Dr. Leonhard Gross, who had been her neighbor in Czernowitz.

First, Else Gross studied piano with Ella Kerndl at the Vienna Academy. She soon intensified her training with piano lessons with Eduard Steuermann and additional practical and theoretical lessons with Anton Webern . Webern deepened her knowledge of harmony and imparted her empathy and techniques with regard to the analysis and interpretation of pieces of music. She enrolled in musicology at the University of Vienna and studied with Robert Lach , Egon Wellesz , Alfred Orel and Robert Haas . Her dissertation on The German Lyric Piano Piece from Mendelssohn to Reger was submitted in 1934. However , there was no longer any promotion .

Gross worked as a pianist and piano teacher in Vienna from 1933 and was associated with the Viennese intellectual circles around Frank Wedekind , Arnold Schönberg and Sigmund Freud . Concert guest performances have taken her to Paris, Zurich, Milan, Rome, London and Bucharest, among others. With Hitler's annexation of Austria personal security disappeared and Else Gross fled to England with her mother and husband in 1938.

In 1941 she was targeted by the editors of the Lexikons der Juden in der Musik . The University of Vienna reported that the student who left years ago was of “German ethnicity” and had no denomination, but that her husband was Jewish. This had meanwhile entered the British Army , while Else Cross - as the family name was spelled in the meantime - learned to assert himself alone in the new foreign environment. A feeling of home gave her the reunion with Viennese friends such as Egon Wellesz and Karl Franz Rankl . She also made friends with emigrated representatives of the Schönberg / Webern direction such as Erwin Stein and Leopold Spinner . As part of her resumed concert activities , she was involved in several world premieres and premieres of works by the Vienna School in England . She often appeared as a duo accompanied by a violinist . Piano concerts were also possible again in German-speaking countries after the war . For example, she played in Hamburg, Salzburg and Vienna. She also gave samples of her skills on British and Austrian radio; the BBC tapes are completely lost and only one recording exists on ORF .

Cross undertook her return to teaching at various colleges . It was not until 1962 that she was offered a professorship in piano at the London Royal Academy of Music . She worked there for over 20 years until she retired in 1982. In addition, she gave private lessons for music college graduates aspiring to perfection and adult education courses for the less experienced on the side and beyond retirement . She also wrote essays on music subjects. Else Cross also donated a Brahm Prize and an interpretation prize for contemporary piano music.

Else Cross died on October 31, 1987 at her home in London.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Rosemary Rapaport: Else Cross. An Appreciation by Rosemary Rapaport . In: Royal Academy of Music Magazine . Winter 1989, 1989, pp. 10 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Primavera Driessen Gruber : Else, geb. Krams Cross (large). In: orpheustrust.at. July 17, 2015, accessed May 29, 2017 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Hedwig Langhaus-Brenner: pianist Else Gross in London . In: The Voice . Journal of the Bukovinians in Israel. No. 409 , March 1984, Chernivtsi in a new home, p. 4 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Hedwig Langhaus-Brenner: In Memoriam Else Gross . In: The Voice . Journal of the Bukovinians in Israel. No. 454 , December 1987, pp. 6 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Regina Busch: Else Cross . In: International Schoenberg Society (ed.): Messages from Schoenberg research . No. 3/4 , December 1989, p. 11 f .
↑ Eva Weissweiler : Eliminated! The Lexicon of the Jews in Music and its Murderous Consequences . with the collaboration of Lilli Weissweiler. Dittrich-Verlag, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-920862-25-2 , p. 74 .

Web links

Biography on the website of the Vienna Orpheus Trust

personal data
SURNAME	Cross, Else
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Krams, Else (maiden name); Gross, Else (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Austrian-English pianist and piano teacher
DATE OF BIRTH	December 17, 1902
PLACE OF BIRTH	Chernivtsi , Austria-Hungary
DATE OF DEATH	October 31, 1987
Place of death	London , UK

[Rapaport-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Rosemary Rapaport: Else Cross. An Appreciation by Rosemary Rapaport . In: Royal Academy of Music Magazine . Winter 1989, 1989, pp. 10 .

[ot-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k Primavera Driessen Gruber : Else, geb. Krams Cross (large). In: orpheustrust.at. July 17, 2015, accessed May 29, 2017 .

[Pianistin-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Hedwig Langhaus-Brenner: pianist Else Gross in London . In: The Voice . Journal of the Bukovinians in Israel. No. 409 , March 1984, Chernivtsi in a new home, p. 4 .

[Memoriam-4] Hedwig Langhaus-Brenner: In Memoriam Else Gross . In: The Voice . Journal of the Bukovinians in Israel. No. 454 , December 1987, pp. 6 .

[Busch-5] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Regina Busch: Else Cross . In: International Schoenberg Society (ed.): Messages from Schoenberg research . No. 3/4 , December 1989, p. 11 f .

[6] Eva Weissweiler : Eliminated! The Lexicon of the Jews in Music and its Murderous Consequences . with the collaboration of Lilli Weissweiler. Dittrich-Verlag, Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-920862-25-2 , p. 74 .