Vilmos (Willi, Willy or Wilhelm) Thern (22 June 1847 – 7 April 1911)
/ref> and Lajos (Louis) Thern (18 December 1848 – 12 March 1920) were Hungarian pianists and teachers of German descent. They were the sons of the composer and conductor Károly Thern. Willi was born in Pest, Louis in Buda.world’s greatest musicians
/ref> They studied under their father; Louis had further study in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as ...

under

Ignaz Moscheles Isaac Ignaz Moscheles (; 23 May 179410 March 1870) was a Bohemian piano virtuoso and composer. He was based initially in London and later at Leipzig, where he joined his friend and sometime pupil Felix Mendelssohn as professor of piano at the Co ...

and Carl Reinecke, and made his debut at the

Gewandhaus Gewandhaus is a concert hall in Leipzig, the home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics. History The first Gewandhaus (''Altes Gewandhaus'') The f ...

. They formed a famous piano duo, appearing from 1866 onwards. They were heard annually in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...

, made many tours of

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

and

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, and in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, 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), ma ...

they played in fashionable salons and were friendly with people such as

Prince Metternich Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar, Prince of Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein ; german: Klemens Wenzel Nepomuk Lothar Fürst von Metternich-Winneburg zu Beilstein (15 May 1773 – 11 June 1859), known as Klemens von Metternich or Prince Metternic ...

, Baron d'Erlanger, Rossini and Berlioz. Their repertoire included works by Franz Liszt, who often attended their concerts and even played with them, as well as

Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque period. He is known for his orchestral music such as the ''Brandenburg Concertos''; instrumental compositions such as the Cello Suites; keyboard wor ...

, Mozart and

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 classic ...

. They were also prolific arrangers for piano 4-hands, including: *

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and

Third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute'' Places * 3rd Street (d ...

Piano Concertos * 15 string quartets, a set of piano trios, and 24 symphonies of Joseph Haydn * three piano quartets, two string quintets and the Octet in E flat, Op. 20 of Felix Mendelssohn. Both pianists later became piano teachers in Vienna. Willy Thern's best known student was

Erwin Schulhoff Erwin Schulhoff ( cs, Ervín Šulhov; 8 June 189418 August 1942) was an Austro-Czech composer and pianist. He was one of the figures in the generation of European musicians whose successful careers were prematurely terminated by the rise of the ...

. Louis's students included

Lubka Kolessa Lubka Oleksandrivna Kolessa ( uk, Любов Олександрівна Колесса; 19 May 1902 in Lemberg, Austro-Hungarian Empire – 15 August 1997 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) was a classical pianist and professor of piano. Biography Edu ...

and

Leo Ascher Leo Ascher (17 August 1880 – 25 February 1942) was an Austrian composer of operettas, popular songs and film scores. Biography Ascher was born in Vienna. His father, Moritz Ascher, was a local umbrella manufacturer. Leo wrote his first com ...

Sergei Bortkiewicz Sergei Bortkiewicz (russian: Сергей Эдуардович Борткевич; – 25 October 1952) was a Russian-born Austrian Romantic composer and pianist. He moved to Vienna in 1922 and became a naturalized Austrian citizen in 1926. Li ...

's ''Russian Dance'', Op. 18 for piano duet was dedicated to Louis Thern.Bortkiewicz: Life and works
/ref> Liszt's transcription for piano 4-hands of four marches by

Franz 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 wo ...

, S. 632, was dedicated to Willi and Louis Thern.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Thern, Willi and Louis 1847 births 1911 deaths Thern, Louis Thern, Louis Hungarian classical pianists Hungarian male musicians Male classical pianists Classical piano duos Pupils of Ignaz Moscheles Pupils of Carl Reinecke 19th-century classical pianists 19th-century male musicians