Peter Schmalfuss

Peter Schmalfuss, pianist born in Berlin, Germany on January 13, 1937. He studied with Walter Gieseking; with Adrian Aeschbacher; and, at the Beethoven-Class Positano, with Wilhelm Kempff. In 1960 he began touring in Europe, North Africa, and Asia; his performing accomplishments include presenting a complete cycle of the Beethoven sonatas on consecutive evenings. At the invitation of the Chopin Society of Warsaw, Poland, of which he is a member, he performed at Chopin’s birth house in Żelazowa Wola, Poland. Schmalfuss also has been active as a teacher of piano, serving for at least 24 years as a faculty member of the Darmstadt Academy of Musical Arts.

Schmalfuss began making records in the 1960s, but he has received little or no attention from major labels. His recordings released on CD, at least in the United States, have appeared almost exclusively on bottom-priced, mass-market-oriented labels; nonetheless, they reveal a musical player and bear out his affinity for the music of Chopin.

References

The foregoing derives mostly from a biographical sketch by Robert Cummings on the allmusic.com Web site [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=41:51323~T1] with some additional information from a brief biographical note printed in the booklet for Schmalfuss's recording of the Chopin Waltzes issued on Pilz Vienna Masters Series CD 160 230.