Vilém Kurz
Encyclopedia
Czech people
Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...
pianist and piano teacher, a professor at the State Conservatory in Lwów
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
and Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, and Prague Conservatory
Prague Conservatory
Prague Conservatory, sometimes also Prague Conservatoire, in Czech Pražská konzervatoř, is a Czech secondary school in Prague dedicated to teaching the arts of music and theater acting.- Instruction :...
. His students included his daughter Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová
Ilona Štepánová-Kurzová
Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová was a Czech concert pianist and piano teacher, a professor at the Prague Academy of Arts. Her students included Ivan Moravec. Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová was the mother of pianist Pavel Štěpán.- Biography :Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová belongs to notable representatives of the Czech...
, Eduard Steuermann
Eduard Steuermann
Eduard Steuermann was an Austrian pianist and composer. The actress Salka Viertel was his sister...
, Břetislav Bakala
Bretislav Bakala
Břetislav Bakala was a Czech conductor, pianist, and composer.Bakala was born at Fryšták, Moravia. He studied conducting at the Brno Conservatory with František Neumann, composition with Leoš Janáček at the organ school. In 1922 he continued his studies at the Master school at the Conservatory...
, Rudolf Firkusny
Rudolf Firkusny
- Life :Born in Moravian Napajedla, Firkušný started his musical studies with the composers Leoš Janáček and Josef Suk, and the pianist Vilém Kurz. Later he studied with Alfred Cortot and Artur Schnabel. He began performing on the continent of Europe in the 1920s, and made his debuts in London in...
, Pavel Štěpán
Pavel Štepán
Prof. Pavel Štěpán , was a Czech pianist. He linked up in his career with his family's musical tradition: he is the grandson of Professor Vilém Kurz, a prominent Czech piano educator, and the son of piano virtuoso and teacher Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová and musicologist/pianist Václav Štěpán...
, Stanislav Heller
Stanislav Heller
Stanislav Heller was a harpsichordist and musicologist of Czech origin. Born in Brno, he studied piano with Vilém Kurz and organ with Bedřich Wiederman at the Prague Conservatoire. His family emigrated to South America after World War II and Stanislav Heller moved then to London in 1947 and later...
, František Maxián, Gidéon Klein
Gideon Klein
Gideon Klein was a Czech pianist and composer of classical music, organizer of cultural life in Theresienstadt concentration camp.-Life:...
, Rafael Schächter and Matusja Blum.
His teaching methods were largely based on those of Theodor Leschetizky and his pupils he met during the time he taught in Lwów
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...
. Later they were further developed by his daughter Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová
Ilona Štepánová-Kurzová
Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová was a Czech concert pianist and piano teacher, a professor at the Prague Academy of Arts. Her students included Ivan Moravec. Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová was the mother of pianist Pavel Štěpán.- Biography :Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová belongs to notable representatives of the Czech...
.
Antonin Dvořák's Piano Concerto in G minor
Kurz is known for his reworking of the solo part of Antonín DvořákAntonín Dvorák
Antonín Leopold Dvořák was a Czech composer of late Romantic music, who employed the idioms of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. Dvořák’s own style is sometimes called "romantic-classicist synthesis". His works include symphonic, choral and chamber music, concerti, operas and many...
's Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 33, which was originally composed in 1876. For more than a decade after the concerto's first performance, it suffered from neglect and critical disdain. A common remark for many years was that the piano part was written "as if for two right hands."
While he was in his 20s, Kurz undertook a revision of the solo part, and it is this version that he frequently performed. Since that time, the original and the Kurz versions have been printed together in Otakar Šourek's critical edition of the score, one beneath the other, so that the soloist can choose which version to perform. The Kurz version has become a part of the standard piano repertoire. Dvořák's original orchestral material is not affected by the soloist's choice. In 1919 Ilona Kurzová
Ilona Štepánová-Kurzová
Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová was a Czech concert pianist and piano teacher, a professor at the Prague Academy of Arts. Her students included Ivan Moravec. Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová was the mother of pianist Pavel Štěpán.- Biography :Ilona Štěpánová-Kurzová belongs to notable representatives of the Czech...
played first performance the Kurz version of this Dvořák's piano in G minor concert conducted by Václav Talich
Václav Talich
Václav Talich was a Czech conductor, violinist and pedagogue.- Life :Born in Kroměříž, Moravia, he started his musical career in a student orchestra in Klatovy. From 1897 to 1903 he studied at the conservatory in Prague with Otakar Ševčík...
.
Supraphon
Supraphon
Supraphon Music Publishing is a Czech record label, it is oriented mainly towards publishing classical music, with an emphasis on Czech and Slovak composers.- History :...
, the Czech recording company, issued a compact disc on which Ivan Moravec
Ivan Moravec
Ivan Moravec is a Czech concert pianist whose performing and recording career, spanning nearly half a century, has gained him a worldwide following....
plays the Kurz version, with the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek
Jirí Belohlávek
Jiří Bělohlávek is a Czech conductor. His father was a barrister and judge. In his youth Bělohlávek studied cello with Miloš Sádlo and was later a graduate of the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague...
, while Radoslav Kvapil
Radoslav Kvapil
Radoslav Kvapil is an internationally acclaimed Czech pianist and composer, considered by some to be the among the finest exponents of Czech piano music...
plays the composer's original score, with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra
Brno Philharmonic Orchestra
Brno Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra based in Brno, the Czech Republic. Its predecessor was the Czech Symphony Orchestra, dating from the 1870's. The current Brno Philharmonic was formed in 1956 with the merger of the Radio Orchestra and the Brno Region Symphony Orchestra, with Břetislav...
under František Jílek
František Jílek
František Jílek was a Czech conductor, known especially for his interpretation of Leoš Janáček's works.- Life :...
.