Stamped verso: COPYRIGHT FREDK HOLLYER, 8 PEMBROKE SQUARE
Historical recordings provide an invaluable opportunity to hear the artistry of performers trained in the 19th century tradition of composers whose music we still revere today. While some composers actually recorded their own works themselves – notably those active in the 20th century, like Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Poulenc, Gerswhin – the technology developed too late to hear the greats like Chopin and Liszt performing, although the students of Liszt made many recordings and grand-students of Chopin have set down dozens of hours of performances. When it comes to Brahms, the composer made two cylinder recordings at the keyboard which have unfortunately deteriorated so severely that one can get a glimpse of the spirit with which he played more than specific details. But fortunately there are recordings of those who knew him from which we can learn about how his music was performed in his lifetime. The great Carl Friedberg was a marvellous exponent of his tradition (he will be the subject of a future blog post), but among the most fascinating pianists to record – albeit far too little (indeed, much less than Friedberg) – is the brilliant Hungarian-born virtuoso Ilona Eibenschütz. Born on May 8, 1873 (not 1871 or ’72 as has generally been written), Eibenschütz as a prodigy had played for Liszt, who was very impressed and interested in her future. Because he was too old to take her on as a pupil, the famed pianist-composer suggested she go to Vienna. Ilona would become the youngest student at the Vienna Conservatoire, at the same time that Fritz Kreisler was a pupil there (the two became friends and the stars of the institution). At the age of 9, she played Mozart’s D Minor Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic, still so small in stature that a contraption had to be connected to the pedals so that the diminutive child could pedal effectively. When asked if she liked the piano, Ilona reportedly said “It’s quite nice, but couldn’t I have a Bösendorfer?” Her discerning taste won her the Vienna-based Bösendorfer’s loyalty, and in the future the master piano maker would provide Eibenschütz with pianos for her concerts. After a few years in Vienna it was decided that Ilona should study with a great pianist, but Liszt being too old and Anton Rubinstein, who wished to teach her, traveled too much to teach with the consistency she required, Clara Schumann was chosen as her mentor. Frau Schumann could clearly see the young Ilona’s talent but did not immediately agree to teach her: she noted that as she had already had great success, she was concerned that the young girl would not “be willing to submit to my teaching, as I should want you to alter in some important respects.” Ilona reportedly promised to do exactly as she was told if she were accepted. And so Eibenschütz spent five years with Clara Schumann, and while the fiery young Ilona of course benefitted greatly from her training with her stern teacher, her staunch individuality and bold pianism did not lend itself particularly well to all of her teacher’s more traditional preferences (she would insist on seeing the dresses her pupils planned to wear at their concerts). Clara would admonish her for playing too quickly and for not focusing on details, writing in CAPITAL LETTERS to emphasize how Ilona needed to be more diligent. For example: “I have told you so often of my fear that because of the ease with which you learn you are tempted not to practice CONSCIENTIOUSLY ENOUGH. I COULD PROVE THIS TO YOU IN EVERY PIECE WHICH YOU PLAYED YESTERDAY and would like to go through them all once more with you.” Prior to an 1891 performance in London, Frau Schumann warned her, “You must heed this very carefully: BE PRECISE AND METICULOUS with everything even to the smallest detail.” Ilona sketchThe year after these admonitions, Eibenschütz was deemed by Frau Schumann ready to make her mature debut recital in Vienna at the age of 19, at which the central works were Beethoven’s Sonata Op.111 and Schumann’s Etudes symphoniques. Her playing in a wide range of repertoire would be celebrated over the course of the next decade: her Beethoven Fourth Concerto with Richter shortly before her marriage – one of her final performances in Vienna – was so well received that the audience insisted that the slow movement be repeated, and when Frederic Lamond met her after a 30-year break, he apparently rushed towards her arms open saying ‘The F Minor! The F Minor!’ in remembrance of her glowing reading of Chopin’s Second Concerto decades earlier. Despite seeming destined for a remarkable career, Eibenschütz retired from the concert platform shortly after her 1902 marriage to Carl Derenberg at the age of 30 and moved to London. She would give the occasional performance – she played publicly with the Rose Quartet in 1913 and at private events with fellow Clara Schumann pupil Adelina de Lara – but by and large her performing career had come to an end. She made a handful of commercial discs in 1903, about half of which were published, and in them we can hear her bold, vivacious, tempestuous playing, with rapid tempi, dazzling finger work, and rhythmic vitality.
Lawrence Alma-Tadema also painted her portrait in 1910.