Walter Klien (27 November 1928 – 9 February 1991) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...

. ]

Career

Klien was born in

Graz Graz (; sl, Gradec) is the capital city of the Austrian state of Styria and second-largest city in Austria after Vienna. As of 1 January 2021, it had a population of 331,562 (294,236 of whom had principal-residence status). In 2018, the popul ...

in 1928. His mother was the artist

Erika Giovanna Klien Erika Giovanna Klien (12 April 1900 – 19 July 1957) was an artist and art educator. Career Erika Giovanna Klien was born on 12 April 1900, in Borgo Valsugana, Trentino, Italy. She began her studies at the Vienna School of Applied Arts, al ...

(1900-1957). She emigrated to the United States in 1929, and their only further contact was by correspondence. Klien studied piano with Josef Dichler at the Music Academy in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

and with

Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (; 5 January 1920 – 12 June 1995) was an Italian classical pianist. He is considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. According to ''The New York Times'', he was perhaps the most reclusive, e ...

. He also studied composition with

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith (; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advocate of the ''Ne ...

. He was a laureate of the Busoni Competition in

Bolzano Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third la ...

and the Marguerite Long Competition in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and made his debut in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

in 1969. In 1953 he had been awarded the Bosendorfer Prize in Vienna. Shortly before his death from cancer in 1991 (which occurred shortly before a planned visit to Australia), he was honoured with the Joseph Marx Music Prize in 1987 and the gold medal of the city of Vienna in 1989.

Recordings

His discography is large, and much of it has been reissued on CD or is available in download format. It includes the complete solo piano works and many of the

piano concerto A piano concerto is a type of concerto, a solo composition in the classical music genre which is composed for a piano player, which is typically accompanied by an orchestra or other large ensemble. Piano concertos are typically virtuoso showpiec ...

s of

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

, much of the piano music of

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...

, as well as the complete

piano sonata A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement ( Scarlatti, Liszt, Scriabin, Medtner, Berg), others with t ...

s of

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

. He partnered

Arthur Grumiaux Baron Arthur Grumiaux (; 21 March 1921 – 16 October 1986) was a Belgian violinist, considered by some to have been "one of the few truly great violin virtuosi of the twentieth century". He has been noted for having a "consistently beautiful t ...

in recording the Mozart music for piano and violin, and

Rena Kyriakou Rena Kyriakou (25 February 1917August 1994) was a pianist and composer born in Heraklion, Herakleion, Crete, Greece.Dubal, David (2004)''The Art of the Piano: Its Performers, Literature, and Recordings'' p. 208. Amadeus Press. Education Rena Kyr ...

in the complete piano music of

Chabrier Alexis-Emmanuel Chabrier (; 18 January 184113 September 1894) was a French Romantic music, Romantic composer and pianist. His Bourgeoisie, bourgeois family did not approve of a musical career for him, and he studied law in Paris and then worked ...

. He performed and recorded piano duo and duet repertoire with his wife,

Beatriz Klien Beatriz (, ) is a Spanish, Galician and Portuguese female first name. It corresponds to the Latin name Beatrix and the English and Italian name Beatrice. The name in Latin means 'brings joy' and in other languages also means 'she who brings oth ...

and with his Graz contemporary

Alfred Brendel Alfred Brendel KBE (born 5 January 1931) is an Austrian classical pianist, poet, author, composer, and lecturer who is known particularly for his performances of Mozart, Schubert, Schoenberg, and Beethoven.Stephen Plaistow"Brendel, Alfred" ''G ...

. He was much admired for his crystalline tone and projection of detail in his interpretations. His clarity of playing suited the music of Mozart and Schubert in particular. These qualities are also very evident in his Brahms recordings, where the dense textures of the writing can easily obscure the

musical argument A musical argument is a means of creating tension through the relation of expressive content and musical form: Experimental musics may use process or indeterminacy rather than argument.LaBelle (2006), p.7. The musical argument may be character ...

. Critics continue to regard his complete Schubert sonatas as amongst the finest recorded, not least for their unique Viennese lilt and unaffected ease.

References

External links

KATALOG DER DEUTSCHEN NATIONALBIBLIOTHEK
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klien, Walter 1928 births 1991 deaths Austrian classical pianists Male classical pianists Classical piano duos Long-Thibaud-Crespin Competition prize-winners 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century male musicians