Sigfridgrundis

Sigfridgrundis

Sigfrid Grundis (born June 14, 1900 in Leipzig ; † February 12, 1953 there ) was a German pianist and piano teacher. He was internationally known, especially as an interpreter of Franz Liszt .

Life

After attending school, he completed an apprenticeship as a harmonium maker . At the same time he began to be interested in the piano and got his first piano lessons at the age of 14. In addition to his work as an apprentice, he practiced the piano 8 hours a day. At the age of 18 he presented himself to Joseph Pembaur at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig and was accepted by him as a student. Here he took his soloist examination in 1921. When Pembaur moved to Munich the same year at the “State Academy for Tonkunst - Hochschule für Musik”, he was followed by Grundis. Here he made his master class exam in 1922.

After that, in 1923, he was a university professor there himself and gave his first concerts. In his first piano recital he played all of Frédéric Chopin's etudes , a program that even today few pianists dare to do. At the age of almost 30 he made the first shellac recordings for the best labels of the time Odeon and “Gloria” (Carl Lindström AG) in Berlin SO36 . In the same year he was appointed professor. He stayed in Munich until 1931. Then he took up a piano professorship at the Leipzig “Kon”.

The 1930s were the most successful for Sigfrid Grundis as a piano virtuoso - mainly on Blüthner grand pianos. He was also highly regarded internationally through his concert tours throughout Europe. In 1935 he was appointed court pianist by Prince Wilhelm von Hohenzollern. At the Concours Eugène YsaŸe (today's Concours Musical Reine Elisabeth ) in Brussels in 1938, which Emil Gilels won, Grundis was a member of the jury. He received the title of "Officier de L'Ordre de la Couronne ".

Sigfrid Grundis was not obliged to serve in the war in 1939 because of a heart disease. He joined the NSDAP in connection with proof that the name Grundis was not Jewish. In 1947 he was suspended from service because of his membership in the NSDAP (in what was then the Eastern Zone). When he was then advised to join the KPD (before the founding of the GDR), he categorically refused. After his rehabilitation in 1947 until his death, he held a professorship at the State University for Music and Theater in Halle / Saale, which was founded in 1947 . There he taught the piano master class.

Sigfridgrundis' grave in the south cemetery in Leipzig

He also taught at the "Hochschule für Musik Leipzig". One of his students there at the time was Kurt Masur , along with other prominent future artists from 1946–1948 . The well-known pianist and piano teacher Bernhard Böttner (1924–2013) was also a student of Grundis. Sigfrid Grundis had already signed a new contract for a professorship in Munich, but then died suddenly and unexpectedly after an operation on February 12, 1953 in Leipzig.

In the entrance area of ​​the Villa Lehmann in Halle, the former seat of the State University for Theater and Music , which existed until 1955 , there is a memorial plaque that commemorates the work of the great Liszt player Grundis.

literature

• Otto Weinreich, Günther Wille (ed.): Selected writings: On musicology, 1909–1960 - concert reviews, 1923–1933 and 1945–1952 . John Benjamin Publishing Company, Amsterdam 1975, ISBN 978-90-6032-060-0 , pages 163 & 164.
• Fred Hamel: Musica . 7. Vol. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1953, page 167.
• Konstanze Musketa : Music history of the city of Halle: Guide through the exhibition of the Handel House . Handel House, 1998, page 84.
• Thomas Schinköth: Leipzig, the city of music in the Nazi state . Kamprad, Altenburg 1997, ISBN 978-3-930550-04-3 , page 439.

Web links

• Recordings by Sigfridgrundis in the catalog of the German National Library

Remarks

1. ^ Gustav A. Alink: International piano competitions. Book 3: The results. 's-Gravenhage 1990. p. 366
2. ↑ Burgstrasse 46.