Jozef Hofmann

Józef Kazimierz Hofmann (mostly also Josef Hofmann ; born January 20, 1876 in Podgórze near Kraków , † February 16, 1957 in Los Angeles , USA ) was a Polish inventor , composer and pianist .

Life

Hofmann's father Kazimierz Hofmann was a well-known composer, conductor and pianist, his mother Matylda Pindelska was a singer. Józef Hofmann's extraordinary talent was shown early on, so that he was already performing in Warsaw at the age of 8 . He made his US debut at the age of 10 and gave 52 concerts in the 70 days that followed. After the New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children intervened, the patron Alfred Corning Clark, son of the co-founder of the Singer sewing machine factory Edward Clark , donated US $ 50,000 on the condition that Hofmann would not perform again before his 18th birthday . Hofmann was then able to study with Moritz Moszkowski in Berlin and with Anton Rubinstein , whose only private student he was, in Dresden , as well as with Eugen d'Albert . From 1894 to 1926 Hofmann traveled all over the world as a pianist. In 1924 he became a US citizen and began to teach at the newly established Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia , of which he was also director from 1927 to 1938. He produced some famous students, the most famous being Shura Cherkassky . In 1946 he gave his last solo recital at Carnegie Hall . He died in Los Angeles in 1957 after a few years of alcoholism.

Hofmann is considered one of the best pianists in history. His technique was unlimited, his taste absolutely stylish. Sergei Rachmaninoff , who valued Hofmann's pianistic ability higher than his own, dedicated his 3rd Piano Concerto to him in 1909 , although Hofmann never played it because it seemed informal to him. Hofmann played with some romantic liberties, but still far more sober than the generation of Liszt and Thalberg students before him. From today's perspective, the improvised modulation before the beginning of a work in a concert seems particularly unusual .

Józef Hofmann's Golden Jubilee Concert 1937 at the Metropolitan Opera

In 1913 he recorded 23 pieces for Welte-Mignon , including his own composition Barcarole in F sharp minor . Sound recordings were never Hofmann's business, as was the case with many of his contemporaries. Without an audience, he became sober and impatient. He also disapproved of the fact that only one version of a work is recorded, but that he never played a work in the same way twice. Private concert recordings are legendary, especially the 50th stage anniversary (Golden Jubilee) in 1937.

In 1946 he gave his last concert at Carnegie Hall, where he performed a total of 151 times, and in 1948 he retired to Los Angeles, where he continued to work on his discoveries and inventions, gradually falling into oblivion.

Hofmann composed a number of works up to 1916, in addition to a symphony, two piano concertos, of which he did not even publish the first, numerous piano pieces and, probably the best known, thanks to the recordings with the composer at the piano Cromaticon for piano and orchestra . Some of these works appeared under the pseudonym Michel Dvorsky (Dvorsky is Hofmann's Polish translation). He wrote many articles about correct piano playing and was concerned with optimizing the mechanics of pianos, among other things. a. he had Steinway & Sons build a piano with narrower keys for his small hands. In addition, he was interested in general technical matters and registered over 70 patents, including the first windshield wiper, pneumatic shock absorbers, with which he was also commercially successful from 1905 to 1928, a crude oil-based boiler, a house that rotated according to the position of the sun, a gas pressure spring for cars and airplanes, various inventions for sound recording (e.g. BUS patent number 1614984), as well as improvements to the mechanics of pianos (US patent number 2263088), which were used by the Steinway Company, among others.

Works

Character sketches op.40 for piano 2-hdg., Leipzig 1908 (Reprint Frankfurt am Main of No. 4, Kaleidoskop, 2010, ISBN 979-0-01-035910-6 )
Piano playing. With piano questions answered, Philadelphia 1920 (Reprint New York 1976 ISBN 0-486-23362-6 )

literature

Alain Pâris : Lexicon of Performers of Classical Music in the 20th Century. dtv / Bärenreiter, Munich / Kassel 1992, p. 331, ISBN 3-423-03291-X .
Harold C. Schonberg : The Great Pianists. New York 1987²; German: The great pianists. Munich 1965.
Peter Hollfelder : The great manual of piano music. Wilhelmshaven 1996, p. 750.

Web links

Commons : Józef Hofmann - collection of images, videos and audio files

Works by and about Józef Hofmann in the catalog of the German National Library
Josef Hofmann : Website in memory of Josef Hofmann (compositions, inventions and discography, English)
Portrait and picture of the grave (English)
Director Jozef Hofman in 1929 in the school newspaper "Overtones" of the Curtis Institute of Music

Individual evidence

^ Schonberg, Harold: The Great Pianists, New York 1987, p. 379, translated: "Many connoisseurs consider him the most flawless pianist of the century and probably the greatest"
↑ Schonberg, p.389: "Those who heard his Carnegie Hall performances of Liszt's Don Juan in the mid-1930s have memories of technical feats that not even an amazing craftsman like Simon Barere could later manage."
↑ Schonberg, p. 389: "The quintessential aristocratic game"
↑ Peter Hollfelder: The great manual of piano music. Wilhelmshaven 1996, p. 750.
^ Chad Randl, Revolving Architecture: A History of Buildings That Rotate, Swivel, and Pivot . Princeton Architectural Press, New York 2008, ISBN 978-1-56898-681-4 , pp. 76 (English). Ruthann D. Moyer: A Stolen Childhood. The Life and Times of David Earl Moyer: 1895-1987 . Xlibris Corporation, Philadelphia 2008, ISBN 978-1-4363-4178-3 , pp. 54 (English, full text in Google Book Search [accessed July 24, 2020]). Paul Krzywicki: From Paderewski to Penderecki. The Polish Musician in Philadelphia . Lulu Publishing Services, Raleigh 2016, ISBN 978-1-4834-4267-9 , pp. 11 (English, full text in Google Book Search [accessed July 24, 2020]).

personal data
SURNAME	Hofmann, Józef
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Hofmann, Józef Kazimierz; Hofmann, Josef Casimir; Hofmann, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Polish-American pianist
DATE OF BIRTH	January 20, 1876
PLACE OF BIRTH	Podgórze near Krakow
DATE OF DEATH	February 16, 1957
Place of death	los Angeles

[1] Schonberg, Harold: The Great Pianists, New York 1987, p. 379, translated: "Many connoisseurs consider him the most flawless pianist of the century and probably the greatest"

[2] Schonberg, p.389: "Those who heard his Carnegie Hall performances of Liszt's Don Juan in the mid-1930s have memories of technical feats that not even an amazing craftsman like Simon Barere could later manage."

[3] Schonberg, p. 389: "The quintessential aristocratic game"

[4] Peter Hollfelder: The great manual of piano music. Wilhelmshaven 1996, p. 750.

[5] Chad Randl, Revolving Architecture: A History of Buildings That Rotate, Swivel, and Pivot . Princeton Architectural Press, New York 2008, ISBN 978-1-56898-681-4 , pp. 76 (English). Ruthann D. Moyer: A Stolen Childhood. The Life and Times of David Earl Moyer: 1895-1987 . Xlibris Corporation, Philadelphia 2008, ISBN 978-1-4363-4178-3 , pp. 54 (English, full text in Google Book Search [accessed July 24, 2020]). Paul Krzywicki: From Paderewski to Penderecki. The Polish Musician in Philadelphia . Lulu Publishing Services, Raleigh 2016, ISBN 978-1-4834-4267-9 , pp. 11 (English, full text in Google Book Search [accessed July 24, 2020]).