Harold Bauer

For the Medal of Honor recipient, see Harold W. Bauer.

Harold Victor Bauer (28 April 1873 – 12 March 1951) was an English-born pianist of Jewish heritage who began his musical career as a violinist.

Fritz Kreisler, Harold Bauer, Pablo Casals, and Walter Damrosch at Carnegie Hall on March 13, 1917

Harold Bauer

Biography

Harold Bauer was born in Kingston upon Thames; his father was a German violinist and his mother was English. He took up the study of the violin under the direction of his father and Adolf Pollitzer. He made his debut as a violinist in London in 1883, and for nine years toured England. In 1892, however, he went to Paris and studied the piano under Ignacy Jan Paderewski for a year, though still maintaining his interest in the violin. An anecdote reports that Paderewski jokingly told Bauer to concentrate on the piano because "You have such beautiful hair". In 1893, in Paris, he and Achille Rivarde premiered Frederick Delius's Violin Sonata in B major.

During 1893-94 he travelled all through Russia accompanying the noted soprano Mademoiselle Nikita and giving piano recitals and concerts, after which he returned to Paris. Further recitals in the French capital brought him renown, and he almost immediately received engagements in France, Germany and Spain. His reputation was rapidly enhanced by these performances, and his field of operation extended through the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, England, Scandinavia and the United States.

In 1900, Harold Bauer made his debut in America with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, performing the U.S. premiere of Johannes Brahms' Piano Concerto No.1 in D minor. On 18 December 1908, he gave the world premiere performance of Claude Debussy's piano suite Children's Corner in Paris. After that he settled in the United States, and was a founder of the Beethoven Association.

Between 1915 and 1929 he recorded over 100 pieces for the Duo-Art and Ampico reproducing pianos, one of the most prolific virtuoso pianists in this medium of his era.

Harold Bauer was also an influential teacher and editor, heading the Piano Department at the well known Manhattan School of Music. Starting in 1941, Bauer taught winter master classes at the University of Miami and served as a visiting professor at the University of Hartford Hartt School of Music with Maestro and Founder - Moshe Paranov and head of the Piano Department - Raymond Hanson, from 1946 until his death in Miami, Florida, in 1951.

He published Harold Bauer, His Book (New York, 1948).

Family

Harold's sister Ethel Bauer was also a concert pianist active in London. Harold was married twice. He first married the divorcée Maria Knapp (1861–1940) in 1906 until her death. In January 1941, he married again, the concert pianist, colleague, and his former student, Wynne Pyle. He had no children by either marriage.

Students

Students of Harold Bauer included George Copeland, Vera Franceschi, Robert Schrade, Frank Sheridan, Abbey Simon, Bruce Simonds, Eleanor Spencer, and Dora Zaslavsky. Harold Bauer taught many other prominent pianists in his day, including composer Viola Cole-Audet, John Elvin, who was a piano professor at Oberlin College in Ohio and Consuelo Elsa Clark, a piano teacher at the New York College of Music from 1918 to 1968 and the teacher of the composer Michael Jeffrey Shapiro.

Recordings

• A Review of the Complete Acoustic Solo Recordings of Harold Bauer
• Harold Bauer plays Bach - Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in Dm - Phillips/Duo-Art Rolls 7316/7317, issued Apr-1929

References

General references

1. The Art of the Piano. Its performers, literature, and recordings. Third edition, by David Dubal. The Pianists section begins on page 11. Pompton Plains, NJ: Amadeus Press, 2004.
2. The ASCAP Biographical Dictionary. Third edition, New York: American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, 1966
3. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians

   Sixth edition, revised by Nicolas Slonimsky, London: Collier Macmillan Publishers

   Seventh edition, revised by Nicolas Slonimsky, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., Schirmer Books, 1984

   Eighth edition, revised by Nicolas Slonimsky, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992

   Ninth edition, edited by Laura Kuhn, New York: Schirmer Books, 2001

4. Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Classical Musicians, by Nicolas Slonimsky, New York: Schirmer Books, 1997
5. Biographical Dictionary of American Music. By Charles Eugene Claghorn (1911–2005), West Nyack, New York: Parker Publishing Co., 1973
6. Biography Index; A Cumulative Index to Biographical Material in Books and Magazines, New York: H.W. Wilson Company
   Volume 1: January 1946–July 1949 (1949)
   Volume 2: August 1949–August 1952 (1953)
   Volume 3: September 1952–August 1955 (1956)
   Volume 4: September 1955–August 1958 (1960)
   Volume 7: September 1964–August 1967 (1968)
   Volume 8: September 1967–August 1970 (1971)
   Volume 9: September 1970–August 1973 (1974)
   Volume 11: September 1976–August 1979 (1980)
   Volume 12: September 1979–August 1982 (1983)
   Volume 16: September 1988–August 1990 (1990)
   Volume 21: September 1995–August 1996 (1996)
7. Britannica Book of Music, edited by Benjamin Hadley, Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., 1980
8. The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography, edited by John S. Bowman, Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1995
9. Musicians since 1900; Performers in Concert and Opera, compiled and edited by David Ewen, New York: H.W. Wilson Company, 1978
10. The New American Dictionary of Music, by Philip D. Morehead with Anne MacNeil, New York: Dutton, 1991
11. The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, four volumes, edited by H. Wiley Hitchcock & Stanley Sadie, London: Macmillan Press, 1986
12. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 20 volumes, edited by Stanley Sadie, London: Macmillan Publishers, 1980
13. Notable Twentieth-Century Pianists: A Bio-Critical Sourcebook, two volumes, by John Gillespie & Anna Gillespie, Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1995
14. The Penguin Companion to Classical Music, by Paul Griffiths, London: Penguin Books, 2004
15. The Penguin Dictionary of Musical Performers: A Biographical Guide to Significant Interpreters of Classical Music — Singers, Solo Instrumentalists, Conductors, Orchestras and String Quartets — Ranging From the Seventeenth Century to the Present Day, by Arthur Jacobs, London: Viking Press, 1990
16. The Pianist's Dictionary, by Maurice Hinson, Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2004
17. American National Biography, 24 volumes, edited by John A. Garraty & Mark C. Carnes, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999
18. Dictionary of American Biography, Supplement 5, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1977
19. Who Was Who in America, A Component of Who's Who in American History, Vol. 3, 1951–1960, Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1966

Inline citations

External links

• Free scores by Harold Bauer at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)
• Finding aid to Harold Bauer papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.