Ilona Eibenschütz plays Brahms Intermezzo opus 76 no. 4

Johannes Brahms (1833-1897): From Klavierstücke opus 76: No. 4 - Intermezzo in B flat major Ilona Eibenschütz, piano Recorded probably in the 50s. Ilona Eibenschütz (May 8, 1872 in Budapest, Hungary - May 21, 1967 in London, England) was a Hungarian Jewish pianist from Budapest. She received her first instruction in music from her cousin Albert Eibenschütz. At the age of five, Franz Liszt is said to have played at a concert with her (other sources say she played a Duet with Liszt when she was six years old). She later studied with Carl Marek, and from 1878 to 1885 at the Leipzig Conservatory under Hans Schmitt, and then, from 1885 to 1890, with Clara Schumann in Frankfurt. There she met Johannes Brahms in 1886, and she knew him until his death in 1897. She heard him play his own music on various occasions, and in 1926, she wrote (as Mrs. Carl Derenburg) for The Musical Times, “[Brahms] played as if he were improvising, with heart and soul, sometimes humming to himself, forgetting everything around him. His playing was altogether grand and noble, like his compositions.“ In the summer of 1893, Brahms privately premiered his piano pieces, op. 118 and op. 119, to Eibenschütz. She later wrote, “It was of course the most wonderful thing for me to hear these pieces as nobody yet knew anything about them. I was the first to whom he played them.“ Her teacher Clara Schumann (1819-1896) was Brahms’s closest personal and musical friend, but expressed reservations privately to Brahms about Eibenschütz’s playing, writing to Brahms on 1 February 1894 that “she goes too quickly over everything.“ (The translation is by Jerrold Northrup Moore in his booklet notes to the Pearl CD, “Pupils of Clara Schumann“ - Pearl CDS 99049 - which includes recordings of Eibenschütz.) Following her education, she undertook a succesful performing career that led her throughout Europe. She married Carl Derenburg in 1902 and retired from the stage, living the rest of her life quietly in London. She died there on May 21, 1967. (Source Wikipedia/IPAM)