Wilhelm Kempff

Wilhelm Kempff was born in Jüterbog, Brandenburg, in November 1895, the son of an organist at the Nikolaikirche in Potsdam. He studied at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik under Heinrich Barth (piano) and Robert Kahn (composition), and made his concert début in 1916. He emerged through the 1920s as one of the leading German pianists of his generation, and his career across the next sixty years placed him among the central interpreters of the classical Austro-German keyboard repertoire.

His core repertoire was Beethoven (whose 32 piano sonatas he recorded twice in complete cycles, in mono in 1951–56 and in stereo in 1964–65 — the latter remaining one of the central reference cycles of the LP era), Schubert (the impromptus, late sonatas and *Wanderer-Fantasie*), Schumann (the *Carnaval*, *Davidsbündlertänze* and *Symphonic Etudes*), and Brahms. His Bach playing — particularly his transcriptions of the chorale preludes for piano, made in his own performing editions — became widely admired. He was an unusually long-lived recitalist, continuing to give programmes into his eighties. He also composed: two operas, four symphonies, two piano concertos, chamber music, and substantial keyboard pieces.

Kempff died in Positano, southern Italy, in May 1991. The Casa Orfeo at Positano, which he founded as a summer interpretation course, continues. Music Preserved’s archive includes a range of his recorded Beethoven and Schubert work.