Elly Ney (27 September 1882 – 31 March 1968) was a German romantic pianist who specialized in

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 ...

, and was especially popular in Germany.

Career

She was born in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

, where her mother was a music instructor and her father was a registrar.Finscher, Ludwig; Blume, Friedrich (1994). ''Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart''. . Her grandmother introduced her to the works of Beethoven, and supported her piano playing. She studied at Cologne with

Isidor Seiss Isidor Wilhelm Seiss (23 December 184025 September 1905) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, piano pedagogue and philanthropist. His surname also appears as Seiß, and his first name also appears as Isidore. Biography Isidor Wilhelm Seiss ...

and Karl Bötcher. After winning the

Mendelssohn Scholarship The Mendelssohn Scholarship (german: Mendelssohn-Stipendium) refers to two scholarships awarded in Germany and in the United Kingdom. Both commemorate the composer Felix Mendelssohn, and are awarded to promising young musicians to enable them to co ...

in 1901, she studied in Vienna with

Theodor Leschetizky Theodor Leschetizky (sometimes spelled Leschetitzky, pl, Teodor Leszetycki; 22 June 1830 – 14 November 1915 was an Austrian-Polish pianist, professor, and composer born in Landshut in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, then a crown land of ...

, with whom she only had two lessons, and

Emil von Sauer Emil Georg Conrad von Sauer (8 October 186227 April 1942) was a German composer, pianist, score editor, and music (piano) teacher. He was a pupil of Franz Liszt and one of the most distinguished pianists of his generation. Josef Hofmann called vo ...

. She taught at the Cologne Conservatory for three years, then became a touring virtuoso. In 1927 she was given the honorary freedom of Beethoven's birthplace

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

. In 1932 she founded the Elly Ney Trio with Wilhelm Stross (violin) and

Ludwig Hoelscher Ludwig Hoelscher (23 August 19078 May 1996) was a German cellist. He played internationally as a soloist, and was well known as a chamber musician, first playing from 1932 in Elly Ney's piano trio, then in the Strub Quartet and other formations. ...

(cello): in quintets the group recorded with

Florizel von Reuter Florizel von Reuter (21 January 1890 – 10 May 1985) was an American-born violinist and composer, a child prodigy who went on to an adult career, mainly in Germany, as distinguished soloist and teacher of violin. He was also a psychic and medium a ...

(violin) and

Walter Trampler Walter Trampler (August 25, 1915 – September 27, 1997) was a German musician and teacher of the viola and viola d'amore. Born in Munich, he was given his first lessons at age six by his violinist father. While still in his youth, he played well e ...

(viola). She traveled to many parts of the world, including the USA, playing in

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

in New York City.

Nazi links

During the

Third Reich Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

she joined the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

in 1937,''Vor 125 wurde die große Beethoven-Interpretin Elly Ney geboren''. In: ''Leipziger Volkszeitung''. 9/28/2007. p. 10 participated in "cultural education" camps, and became an honorary member of the

League of German Girls The League of German Girls or the Band of German Maidens (german: Bund Deutscher Mädel, abbreviated as BDM) was the girls' wing of the Nazi Party youth movement, the Hitler Youth. It was the only legal female youth organization in Nazi Germany. ...

. She recited quotations from Hitler between performances of Beethoven sonatas and honored the composer's bust with a Hitler salute. She held

antisemitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

views: in 1933, Ney refused to perform in Hamburg after she was asked to replace a Jewish pianist (

Rudolf Serkin Rudolf Serkin (28 March 1903 – 8 May 1991) was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century. Early life, childhood debut, and education Serkin was born in t ...

), although she did record at least one

Mendelssohn Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy (3 February 18094 November 1847), born and widely known as Felix Mendelssohn, was a German composer, pianist, organist and conductor of the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Mendelssohn's compositi ...

Song without Words ''Song Without Words: A Book of Engravings on Wood'' is a wordless novel of 1936 by American artist Lynd Ward (1905–1985). Executed in twenty-one wood engravings, it was the fifth and shortest of the six wordless novels Ward completed, produc ...

'' in 1960 or shortly afterward. Ney was awarded the

War Merit Cross The War Merit Cross (german: Kriegsverdienstkreuz) was a state decoration of Nazi Germany during World War II. By the end of the conflict it was issued in four degrees and had an equivalent civil award. A " de-Nazified" version of the War Merit ...

, 2nd Class for care for troops. After the war, the city of Bonn imposed a stage ban on her. In 1952 a request for lifting the ban was rejected, stating that Ney was a "pronounced

National Socialist Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

". Nevertheless, after finally renouncing Hitler a full seven years after the end of WWII, she was named Honorary Citizen of

Tutzing Tutzing is a municipality in the district of Starnberg in Bavaria, Germany, on the west bank of the Starnberger See. Just 40 km south-west of Munich and with good views of the Alps, the town was traditionally a favorite vacation spot for th ...

in 1952. However, her Nazism was too embarrassing, and they stripped her of that status after her death in 1968.

Personal

Elly Ney was married twice; first, in 1911, to the Dutch conductor

Willem van Hoogstraten Willem van Hoogstraten (March 18, 1884 – September 11, 1965) was a Dutch violinist and conductor. Van Hoogstraten was born in Utrecht, and studied the violin from age eight including studies with Alexander Schmuller, and enrolled at the conserva ...

. They had one daughter, Eleonore (1918–2007). They divorced in 1927 and she married Paul Allais, an American coal dealer from Chicago. This marriage didn't last long, and later on Ney reconciled with van Hoogstraten. Ney died in

in 1968 aged 85.

References

External links

amica.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ney, Elly 1882 births 1968 deaths Musicians from Düsseldorf German classical pianists German women pianists Mendelssohn Prize winners Nazi Party members 20th-century classical pianists Women classical pianists 20th-century German women 20th-century women pianists