Edith Picht-Axenfeld (

Freiburg im Breisgau Freiburg im Breisgau (; abbreviated as Freiburg i. Br. or Freiburg i. B.; Low Alemannic: ''Friburg im Brisgau''), commonly referred to as Freiburg, is an independent city in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. With a population of about 230,000 (as o ...

, 1 January 1914 –

Hinterzarten Hinterzarten is a resort village in the Black Forest (German: ''Schwarzwald''), located in the southwest of the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Although Hinterzarten is mostly famous for its ski jumping, it has many other tourist attractions ...

, 19 April 2001) was a German pianist and harpsichordist.

Career

She started her concert career in 1935, and took part two years later in the

III International Chopin Piano Competition The III International Chopin Piano Competition ( pl, III Międzynarodowy Konkurs Pianistyczny im. Fryderyka Chopina) was held from 21 February to 13 March 1937 in Warsaw. It was the last competition before the outbreak of World War II, and the ...

, when she was awarded the sixth prize; this launched her career. After the Second World War, Picht-Axenfeld performed at an intercontinental level, was active as a chamber musician and recorded for labels such as

Deutsche Grammophon Deutsche Grammophon (; DGG) is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of ...

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

and

Erato In Greek mythology, Erato (; grc, Ἐρατώ) is one of the Greek Muses, which were inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. The name would mean "desired" or "lovely", if derived from the same root as Eros, as Apollonius o ...

RCA The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Com ...

released an LP with Chopin's ''

Études Études is French for "studies". It is used as a name for several music or dance works, including: * ''Études'' (Chopin), three sets of studies for the piano by Frédéric Chopin, composed between 1829 and 1839 * ''Études'' (Debussy), a set of 1 ...

'' op. 10 and op. 25 with Picht-Axenfeld. Picht-Axenfeld married the professor for philosophy Georg Picht in 1936. They had seven children, among them Robert Picht.

Influence as a teacher

She taught at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in

from 1947 to 1979. Many pianists, and also composers like Manfred Stahnke, explicitly mention her as an important influence.

Recordings

Her 1968 recording of the ''

Goldberg Variations The ''Goldberg Variations'', BWV 988, is a musical composition for keyboard by Johann Sebastian Bach, consisting of an aria and a set of 30 variations. First published in 1741, it is named after Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, who may also have ...

'' is often considered as a point of reference and there obviously is still a fan base that has uploaded many full albums to YouTube.

References

External links

* * German classical pianists 1914 births 2001 deaths Prize-winners of the International Chopin Piano Competition Academic staff of the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century German musicians German women pianists Women classical pianists 20th-century women pianists {{classical-pianist-stub