CONRAD HANSEN
German pianist (1906 - 2002)

Conrad Hansen was a pupil of Edwin Fischer.  His debut took place with the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of the most exalted of all conductors, Wilhelm Furtwängler.  Subsequent concerts followed with other illustrias conductors such including Eugen Jochum, Willem Mengelberg, Herbert von Karajan, Wolfgang Sawallisch, and even Richard Strauss.  That alone should make you wonder why you have hardly heard of this magnificent pianist. 

Fortunately, there are performances here in which Conrad Hansen performs concerti with some of these conductors, Furtwängler, Mengelberg, Sawallisch.

Probably best known for his Beethoven of which two excellent examples follow, we hear Conrad Hansen playing Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Dvořák equally splendidly.  His is the highest form of music making from the great Germanic tradition, no mus, no fuss, no exaggeration.  And yet it is rich in subtly expressive detail.

Conrad Henson made a number of recordings on the fortepiano, an instrument important to the appreciation of what the works of Mozart and Beethoven might have sounded like at the time.  I am not particularly fond of the fortepiano.  Its limitations in terms of power and tone, and its expressive constraints, make me yearn for a piano that has attained its full development.  But it can give us an understanding of what Mozart meant by his dynamic and phrase markings in the score, and how they might be played.  I would love to have heard Conrad Hansen play these sonata on a really fine 20th century Steinway.

Conrad Hansen was also also the pianist of the Hansen Trio.  Their recording of Dvořák's "Dumky" Trio is heavenly, and far and away the most beautiful I've heard.  The Schubert trio is also simply wonderful.  These are three consummate musicians who are delighting in making inspired music together.

Mozart  Piano Sonata 1 in C major, K 279
i Allegro
played on a fortepiano