Gisela Sott (1911 – 6 January 2002) was a German pianist and piano educator .

Life

Born in

Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...

, Sott was a student of Heinrich Lutter and (around 1935)

Alfred Hoehn Alfred Hoehn (20 October 1887 – 2 August 1945) was a German pianist, composer, piano pedagogue and editor. Life and career Born in , Hoehn was the son of a teacher and organist. He was supported by the pianist Eugen d'Albert, the conductor ...

at the

Hoch Conservatory Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium – Musikakademie was founded in Frankfurt am Main on 22 September 1878. Through the generosity of Frankfurter Joseph Hoch, who bequeathed the Conservatory one million German gold marks in his testament, a school for ...

in Frankfurt. She later became Alfred Hoehn's assistant at the conservatory. In the 1930s and 1940s she was one of the best up-and-coming pianists in Germany, but the war events thwarted a great career. From 1938 she worked as a

lecturer Lecturer is an List of academic ranks, academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. T ...

at Dr. Hoch's Conservatory. After the war, she continued this activity at the newly founded

Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts The Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts (german: Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main, italic=no, link=no, HfMDK) is a state Hochschule for music, theatre and dance in Frankfurt and is the only one of its k ...

, where she taught, as professor since 1971, until 1982. Due to a heart condition, Sott had to reduce her concert activity considerably over time, and in 1959 she finally swapped the concert podium for the radio studio. There she made a number of remarkable recordings, including piano concertos by

Britten Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten (22 November 1913 – 4 December 1976, aged 63) was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He was a central figure of 20th-century British music, with a range of works including opera, other ...

Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky , group=n ( ; 7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the Romantic period. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. He wrote some of the most popu ...

and

Scriabin Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (; russian: Александр Николаевич Скрябин ; – ) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. Before 1903, Scriabin was greatly influenced by the music of Frédéric Chopin and composed ...

and music by

Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer ...

and Strawinsky, which testify to a piano playing that is as differentiated as it is rousingly vital. Sott's pedagogical legacy is a synthesis of the tradition of

Franz 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 ...

, the playing technique of

Alfred Cortot Alfred Denis Cortot (; 26 September 187715 June 1962) was a French pianist, conductor, and teacher who was one of the most renowned classical musicians of the 20th century. A pianist of massive repertory, he was especially valued for his poeti ...

and the system of keystrokes of Alfred Hoehn, which she passed on to numerous students. After her work as a university teacher, the pianist was known in specialist circles for her valuable assistance in mastering technical problems. Sott died in Frankfurt in 2002.Gerhard Schroth, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 9. Januar 2002

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sott, Gisela Musicians from Hanover German classical pianists 1911 births 2002 deaths Women classical pianists