Grete Scherzer plays Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, Debussy

Read below:
Austrian pianist Grete Scherzer in a series of recordings made for the Parlophone label in the 1950s. These are not her complete recordings for the label, but a selection of offerings that I could track down in 78rpm transfers. Many thanks to Tom Jardine, who assisted with declicking and noise reduction on a couple of the noisier transfers.
Scherzer was born in Wolfsberg, Austria in 1933. She started at the piano at the age of three and gave her first public recital at six, after which she began training at the Klagenfurt Conservatoire. She played a Mozart concerto with the Klagenfurt Symphony orchestra at age 9 and also made broadcasts from Graz, after which a scholarship took her to the State Music Academy, Vienna. She then appeared soloist with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra at the age of 14 and also began giving broadcasts throughout Austria. The 16-year-old won the 1949 International Schubert Competition in Geneva - the youngest ever winner - as well as the Vienna Music Critics’ Competition in 1950. She made her London début that year and was later invited to play at The Royal Festival Hall during the Festival of Britain. When she married architect and anthroposophist Rex Raab in 1957, she retired from public performance and little information about her is available from after that period.
Thomas Deschamps has produced for the February 2024 edition of the French magazine Classica a tribute page along with a CD featuring a number of Parlophone recordings: a couple of shorter works from this video are included there (in more pristine transfers) as well as others, plus more significant offerings in the form of Schumann's 𝘍𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘢𝘴𝘪𝘦 and Ravel's 𝘎𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘥 𝘥𝘦 𝘭𝘢 𝘯𝘶𝘪𝘵 (both set down in 1953). That disc - wholeheartedly recommended! - can be ordered here:
www.musique-magazines.fr/site...
The recordings on this video:
𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐮𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐭
- Impromptu in G-Flat Major, D899/Op.90 No.3 (0:00)
April 16, 1952
- Impromptu in A-flat major, D899/Op.90 No.4 (4:31)
April 15, 1952
- Impromptu in A-flat major, D935/Op.142 No.2 (10:37)
April 16, 1952
- Waltzes Op.9A Nos. 1, 2, 3, 14, 12, 10 (15:21)
- Deutsche Tanze Op.33 Nos. 1, 2, 3, 7 (18:33)
(recording dates unknown)
𝐂𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐧
- Étude in E Minor Op.25 No.5 (21:47)
- Étude in G-Flat Major Op.25 No.9 'Butterfly' (24:42)
March 14, 1951
𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐡𝐦𝐬
- Intermezzo in E-Flat Major Op.117 No.1 (25:49)
- Intermezzo in B-Flat Minor Op.117 No.2 (30:21)
July 9, 1953
𝐃𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐲
Pour le piano: Prelude (34:14)
March 14, 1951
Children's corner:
V. The little shepherd (37:53)
VI. Golliwog's Cake-Walk (39:44)
November 14, 1951
Préludes, Book II: XII. Feux d'artifice (42:06)
November 14, 1951
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[@fredsteven8313]

I was riveted from the first note.The sound is so immediate and present that it's as if I were present in a live audience. She was a distinct and utterly convincing voice. Thank you Mark.

[@grdelgadomusico]

Increíble! Un músico de tal madurez y juventud... Un Debussy que pone en tela de juicio a Gieseking y un Schubert con nada que envidiar a Schnabel.
Qué gran injusticia que esa carrera se haya truncado con 24 años de edad...
Gracias por compartir estos registros, dear Mark. El mundo necesita más gente como tú (y, obviamente, más pianistas como Grete).

[@pianomaly9]

Glad I made the effort to listen to this clear through today. I echo abbottklavier1's remarks. She can stand shoulder to shoulder with just about anything you've ever gifted us with on The Piano Files (well, maybe just a tad shy of Sirota's firestorm Don Juan). I'm always interested to hear how the middle section of Op.90#4 is taken, with however much vehemence or resignation. It can work, in the hands of a sensitive interpreter, either way. Her Debussy is him after he's had his morning jolt of cafe au lait, not the late afternoon few glasses of wine with Phillip and Satie at the bistro around the corner.
If Ms. Scherzer is still with us, I hope she can enjoy the fact that at 90 she has some new admirers.

[@goscinnydyrygent]

some amazing playing here...I had no idea she was so young when she made these. She just seems to think in musical phrases - no applied "ideas" but what naturalness and perfect control..... thanks much!

[@alombredeslava2468]

Une artiste dont j’avoue n’avoir jamais entendu parler auparavant… et quelle artiste ! Son Schubert est une pure merveille. Quelle extraordinaire sensibilité, quelle finesse, quelle élégance dans l’expression de la mélancolie… et son Chopin léger et délicieux. Il n’est rien dans aucune des interprétations qu’elle donne ici ni Brahms ni Debussy, pouvant laisser à désirer. On est là devant une de ces étoiles filantes qui éblouissent un instant d’éternité.

[@ThePianoFiles]

You so eloquently articulate so much about what makes her artistry so captivating - wonderfully expressed... thank you. I'm so glad that her playing impressed you as much as it did me. Do check out the Classica magazine CD that I linked to in the descriptive text: for five euros, it's a steal. What an artist! I hope all her recordings will be made available - I've put the word out to other collectors to try to access her other studio discs for more uploads (there are a couple more on TH-cam too).

[@alombredeslava2468]

@@ThePianoFiles Merci à vous !

[@abbottklavier1]

This is absolutely some of the most stunning musically subtle and expressive playing I have heard and from a young 19 year old woman whose name is essentially unknown today. Such a tender and rich color cantabile - at times when listening to the Schubert Op. Op. G flat Impromptu, the intimate playing of Schnabel and Fischer comes to mind. Such a profound musical character and yet overall always simple direct concept of this music. The maturity of this artist is astounding through the Schubert, Chopin and also Brahms excerpts. Thank you again Mark for sharing this hitherto unknown pianist with us!

[@messrtwinky]

Very articulate and an excellent description of her astounding musical maturity!

[@frankromano9064]

Some very beautiful playing the Brahms was hypnotic and narcotic at the same time!

[@eytonshalomsandiego]

I'm only through the opening lines of the first impromptu but that's absolutely sensual a real delight no matter how many times you hear this song by the way the right person always makes it as she does

[@lawrenceallen6508]

Fabulous playing and a wonderful technique.

[@joelkatz8729]

What a pianist! Dazzling.

[@claudio7448]

fortunately a delight that was not lost and that you brought back to us as usual in a superb way. Thanks Mark

[@darjeeling6432]

Beautiful! Thank you.

[@dorfmanjones]

A pure soul with a delicate style. Lovely. all of it.

[@Zebobynh0]

❤

[@baladins07]

J’ai eu la chance de pouvoir travailler avec elle. Je lui avais présenté un programme dans sa maison à Engelberg. D’abord elle m’avait conseillé de trouver un bon professeur car elle n’avait pas d’élève et ne donnait pas de cours. Plusieurs années après, le lui redemande de m’écouter à nouveau en lui demandant de me conseiller un professeur car j’avais fini mes études à la Musikhochule de Stuttgart. Je lui présente un nouveau programme. Et à ma grande surprise, me dit qu’elle me fera travailler, chaque deux semaines pendant des sessions de 3 heures. Et voilà comment j’ai été son unique élève pendant 10 années. Une pianiste formidable.

[@ThePianoFiles]

WOW!!! Quelle chance que vous aviez! Si vous pourrez m'écrire a mon address courriel (markainley @ gmail . com - enlever les espaces) j'aimerais bien savoir un peu plus... je veux ecrire un page d'hommage sur mon website. Merci beaucoup!

[@Nai61a]

baladins07: Quelle chance! Savez-vous ce qu'elle est devenue après 1957? Vous avez gardé contact?

[@ThePianoFiles]

@@Nai61a I gather from another friend of hers that she was a devoted wife and she no longer performed.

[@Nai61a]

@@ThePianoFiles Thanks very much.