František Rauch (4 February 1910 – 23 September 1996) was a Czechoslovak pianist and music teacher.

Life and career

Born in

Plzeň Plzeň (; German and English: Pilsen, in German ) is a city in the Czech Republic. About west of Prague in western Bohemia, it is the Statutory city (Czech Republic), fourth most populous city in the Czech Republic with about 169,000 inhabita ...

, the son of a music instrument dealer, Rauch attended a business school in Plzeň before studying piano at the

Prague Conservatory The Prague Conservatory or Prague Conservatoire ( cs, Pražská konzervatoř) is a music school in Prague, Czech Republic, founded in 1808. Currently, Prague Conservatory offers four or six year study courses, which can be compared to the level ...

and composition with

Vítězslav Novák Vítězslav Augustín Rudolf Novák (5 December 1870 – 18 July 1949) was a Czech composer and academic teacher at the Prague Conservatory. Stylistically, he was part of the neo-romantic tradition, and his music is considered an important e ...

. Before he began his career as a pianist, he worked for several months in the piano factory of

August Förster August Förster is a German piano manufacturing company (also rendered "Foerster," occasionally "Forster," officially "August Förster GmbH Kunsthandwerklicher Flügel-und-Pianobau") that currently has a staff of 40 employees and produces around ...

. Rauch became known as a

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

ian, including pianist of the esteemed Pražské Trio with and , and as a concert pianist. His repertoire focused on compositions by

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

, Smetana,

Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...

Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

and

. In Poland he was in demand as interpreter of the works of Chopin. Rauch made around 60 recordings, including the piano cycle Pan and other piano works by his teacher Novák. As president of the Czech Chopin Society, he was the promoter of the Chopin Festival in

Mariánské Lázně Mariánské Lázně (; german: Marienbad) is a spa town in Cheb District in the Karlovy Vary Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 12,000 inhabitants. Most of the town's buildings come from its Golden Era in the second half of the 19th centu ...

. He taught at the Prague Conservatory from 1939 for more than forty years and was the teacher of musicians such as

Petr Eben Petr Eben (22 January 1929 – 24 October 2007) was a Czech composer of modern and contemporary classical music, and an organist and choirmaster. His life Born in Žamberk in northeastern Bohemia, Eben spent most of his childhood and early ad ...

, Valentina Kameníková,

Ivan Klánský Ivan Klánský (born 1948) is a Czech pianist. He studied at Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with František Rauch (1968-1973) and at the Prague Conservatory with Valentina Kameníková (1963-1968). He is laureate of some of the most prestig ...

and the harpsichordist

Zuzana Růžičková Zuzana Růžičková () (14 January 1927 – 27 September 2017) was a Czech harpsichordist. An interpreter of classical and baroque music, Růžičková was the first harpsichordist to record Johann Sebastian Bach's complete works for keyboard, ...

. In 1975 he acted as a jury member for the first Paloma O'Shea Santander International Piano Competition."Winners, Juries, Orchestras and Guest Artists – II International Competition 1975"
Santander Piano Competition Rauch died in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

at age 86.

References

External links

* * * Rauch's discography i
Český hudební slovník

František Rauch
on NKCR
František Rauch on Allmusic

Rauch plays Novák
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rauch, Frantisek 1910 births 1996 deaths Musicians from Plzeň Czechoslovak classical pianists Academic staff of the Prague Conservatory Merited Artists of Czechoslovakia Prague Conservatory alumni