Description

SIGFRID GRUNDEIS (LEIPZIG, 14 JUNE, 1900 – LEIPZIG, 12 FEBRUARY, 1953)

After attending school, he completed an apprenticeship as a harmonium maker. At the same time, he became interested in the piano and had his first piano lessons at the age of 14. In addition to his work as an apprentice, he practiced the piano for 8 hours a day. At the age of 18, he presented himself to Joseph Pembaur at the Royal Conservatory in Leipzig and was accepted as a student. He then took his soloist exam here in 1921. When Pembaur moved to Munich to study at the State Academy of Music, University of Music in the same year, Grundeis followed him. He took his master class exam there in 1922.

Afterwards, in 1923, he became a university lecturer there himself and gave his first concerts. In his first piano recital he played all of Frédéric Chopin ‘s etudes, a programme that only a few pianists dare to undertake even today. At the age of just under 30, he made his first shellac recordings on the best labels of the time, Odeon and “Gloria” (Carl Lindström AG) in Berlin SO36. In the same year he was appointed professor. He stayed in Munich until 1931. He then took up a piano professorship at the “Kon” in Leipzig.

The 1930s were the most successful years for Sigfrid Grundeis as a piano virtuoso – mainly on Blüthner grand pianos. He was also highly respected internationally for his concert tours throughout Europe. In 1935 he was appointed court pianist by Prince Wilhelm of Hohenzollern. At the Concours Eugène Ysaÿe (today’s Concours Musical Reine Elisabeth) in Brussels in 1938, which was won by Emil Gilels, Grundeis was a member of the jury. He was awarded the title of “Officier de L’Ordre de la Couronne “.

Sigfrid Grundeis applied for admission to the NSDAP on July 1, 1937 and was admitted retroactively to May 1 of the same year (membership number 4,285,043), although he had to provide proof of the non-Jewish origin of the name Grundeis. He was not called up for military service in 1939 due to a heart condition. In 1944, Grundeis was on the list of those blessed by God of the Reich Ministry for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

In 1947 he was suspended from service because of his membership in the NSDAP (in the former Eastern Zone). When he was then asked to join the KPD (before the founding of the GDR), he categorically refused. After his rehabilitation in 1947, until his death, he held a professorship at the State University of Music and Theater in Halle/Saale, founded in 1947. There he taught the piano master class.

He also taught at the Leipzig University of Music. One of his students there from 1946 to 1948 was Kurt Masur, along with other aspiring renowned artists. The well-known pianist and piano teacher Bernhard Böttner (1924-2013) was also a student of Grundeis. Sigfrid Grundeis had already signed a new contract for a professorship in Munich, but then died suddenly and unexpectedly after an operation on February 12, 1953 in Leipzig.

In the entrance area of ​​the Villa Lehmann in Halle, the former seat of the State University of Theatre and Music which existed until 1955, there is a memorial plaque commemorating the activities of the great Liszt player Grundeis.

TRACKLIST

1. Feux Follets (Liszt) Decca 25572B
2. Impromptu As-dur Op. 90 No. 4 Odeon O-7910 b, XXB 8679
3. Impromptu As-dur Op. 142 No. 2 (Schubert) Odeon O-7910 a, XXB 8599
4. Liebesträume (Notturno Nr. 3) Odeon O-25618 a
5. Polonaise A-dur, Op. 40 (Chopin) Odeon O-26 302 a P Be 12251
6. Revolutions-Etude Odeon O-25618 b Be 11182
7. Walzer As dur (Grande Valse) Op. 42, Nr. 5 (Chopin) Odeon O-26 302 b P Be 12252