Adorno

The Danube Metropolis 89

facile answers, but always hit the nail on the head.’ In this way Adorno
learned from Berg everything about composition that was of import-
ance to him. Berg’s ‘musical strength was that of intellectual imagina-
tion and an acutely deliberate command of the possibilities, as well as a
strong original inventiveness.’^22 During the lessons the two would often
practise playing four-handed, which both of them loved. Joint exercises
in composition could also take on an element of parody, as when
they produced a perfect piece of mock-Webern ‘consisting of a single
quarter-note rest under a quintuplet bracket and garnished with every
conceivable symbol and performance notation’.^23
In addition to studying composition with Berg, Adorno continued
studying the piano as he had done at the Hoch Conservatory. His teacher
was Eduard Steuermann, a native Pole whom Berg had recommended.
He too belonged to the Schoenberg circle; indeed, he was regarded
as the specialist in interpretation in works of the Schoenberg school.
The mutual sympathy between teacher and pupil soon developed into
a friendship that lasted a lifetime, extending beyond the emigration of
both men to the United States, and ending only with Steuermann’s
death in November 1964. In Adorno’s judgement, Steuermann did not
simply ‘possess an open-minded receptiveness to radically modern music.
It was more than that; it was flesh of his flesh, the corporeal refutation
of the separation of contemporary composition and traditional music-
making.’^24 Adorno’s obituary continues:

His music-making was at its best, its most spontaneous, in a small

circle, at night if possible, in situations in which his aversion from

musical life and official musical culture found no encouragement.

Even then it was not easy to persuade him to play.... But once he

had sat down to the piano, he forgot everything else and would

not stop playing.... His playing technique was vigorous and highly

virtuosic; but he never revelled in virtuosity for its own sake. He

sacrificed a facility that had cost him no effort in favour of expres-

sion and structure, and despised any mere playing for effect.^25

At the time, Adorno had not yet met Steuermann’s sister Salomé, or
Salka, who had trained as an actress in Max Reinhardt’s Deutsches
Theater in Berlin, and had then appeared at the Neue Wiener Bühne
and the Munich Kammerspiele. In 1918 she had married Berthold Viertel,
the writer and director, who as a young man belonged to the circle
around Karl Kraus and Peter Altenberg. However, through Steuermann,
Adorno became a close friend of both Salka and Berthold Viertel,
although not until the emigration years in California. But more of that
in due course.
During his six-month stay in Vienna, Adorno sought contact with
other people in musical circles, in addition to Steuermann. The violinist
Rudolf Kolisch played an important role because Adorno and he made