1943 owing to partial paralysis of his left hand. He never returned to Europe and died in
Sydney in 1948.
Arthur de Greef (1862-1940) was a Belgian pianist and was a Liszt pupil from the late
1870’s to the 1880s. He had a thirty year friendship with Grieg who regarded him as the
best interpreter of his compositions. De Greef stands out among Liszt’s pupils, and
indeed from almost everyone of his generation, for his modern approach to interpretation.
His playing was objective and prefigured the approach taken by Artur Rubinstein of great
delicacy but a certain cool straightforwardness. De Greef made a disc in 1929 of Grieg’s
‘Wedding Day at Troldhaugen’ as did the composer himself in 1903. In that disc de
Greef used arpeggiata in the middle section, as he also did in his disc the Chopin G flat
major waltz. De Greef made a disc of the Liszt A major piano concerto and Emil von
Sauer made discs of both Liszt concertos but otherwise no Liszt pupil recorded the Liszt
concertos. De Greef also made a disc of the Grieg piano concerto and of the Saint-Saëns
no. 2 for both of which he was a celebrated performer and received the approbation of
their respective composers. He made a roll of the Liszt Polonaise no. 2 in E major in
which he gives a powerful performance. It contains a number of changes, perhaps
authorised by Liszt himself, bearing in mind that de Greef was a Liszt pupil and the
polonaise was a very popular piece in Liszt’s day.
Edvard Grieg (1843-1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He showed his
piano concerto to Liszt who played it at sight. In 1903 Grieg made a disc of his Wedding
Day at Troldhaugen but, since it contains only the reprise, the extent, if any, of his
mannerisms in the middle section is unknown. In 1903 he also made discs of
Remembrances, To Spring, Papillon, and his Sonata in E minor. In 1906 he again
recorded Papillon, this time on roll. There is a fair amount of rubato in his playing but
not many mannerisms.
Alfred Grünfeld (1852-1924) was an Austrian pianist and was the first pianist of
significance, excluding Brahms, to make recordings, which he started to do in 1899 with
cylinder recordings, and later with discs and rolls. He was the foremost pianist in Vienna
in the late 1800s and early 1900s and toured Europe, Russia and America. From extant
concert programmes it appears that he performed major works by Bach, Beethoven,
Chopin, Schumann, Brahms and Grieg and was a pianist of intellect and virtuosic ability.
His 1909 disc recording of the Wagner/Liszt Liebestod shows the nineteenth century
approach to Wagner at his most intense. Grünfeld’s playing here, as in pieces by Chopin,
Schumann, Brahms and Grieg, gives ample evidence of the performing practice and
mannerisms used by pianists born in the nineteenth century. His approach to the Chopin
of the mazurkas and waltzes conveys a distinct Viennese lilt. Grünfeld persomally knew
Brahms, Leschetizky and Johann Strauss II. He was a prolific composer of short
character pieces and effective transcriptions include waltzes by Strauss.
Josef Hofmann (1876-1957) was a Polish/American pianist. He was one of the greatest
piano prodigies in musical history and is sometimes described as the ‘first modern
pianist’. He was a pupil of Moritz Moszkowski and Anton Rubinstein. Hofmann’s disc
and rolls show the virtuosity and perfection of his playing. The absence of mannersisms