Rudolf Serkin

Rudolf Serkin (March 28, 1903 – May 8, 1991) was an American pianist and pedagogue, widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century. His playing was noted for its integrity and fidelity to the classical tradition.

He was born in Eger (then in Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire; now Cheb, Czechia) into a Jewish family. His father was the cantor Mordko Serkin (originally from Disna) and his mother was Augusta Shargel. At the age of nine he was sent to Vienna to study, taking composition with Josef Marx and piano with Richard Robert, and at twelve he made his orchestral debut with the Vienna Philharmonic.

From 1918 to 1920 Serkin studied composition with Arnold Schoenberg and took an active part in Schoenberg’s Society for Private Musical Performances, which promoted concerts of new music. In 1920 he settled in Berlin, touring extensively in Germany and other European countries both as a soloist and in chamber music, notably in partnership with violinist Adolf Busch and the Busch Quartet. Serkin later married Busch’s daughter, Irene.

After the Nazis came to power in Germany, Serkin and the Busch family moved to Switzerland. During the 1930s Serkin and Busch appeared increasingly in the United States; in 1936 Serkin made his first appearance with the New York Philharmonic under Arturo Toscanini, and in 1937 he gave his first solo recital at Carnegie Hall. The enthusiastic critical reception helped him establish himself in the United States at the beginning of World War II.

In America Serkin continued to concert and record prolifically. In March 1972 he marked his 100th performance with the New York Philharmonic by playing Brahms’s First Piano Concerto. As a teacher, together with Adolf Busch he founded the Marlboro summer music school and festival in 1951, whose work contributed to the development and promotion of chamber music performance in the United States. He taught piano for many years at the Curtis Institute of Music and served as its director from 1968 to 1976.

A major milestone in Serkin’s recorded legacy was a cycle of Mozart piano concertos recorded in London under Claudio Abbado. His interpretations of Beethoven and Brahms were especially celebrated for their depth and powerful, classically “pristine” sound. Among his most officially recognized recordings was his collaboration with cellist Mstislav Rostropovich in Brahms’s two cello sonatas, which won a Grammy Award in 1984 for best chamber music recording of the year.

Serkin received numerous professional and state honors, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, one of the highest civilian awards in the United States. He had seven children, among them the American pianist Peter Serkin. He was a friend of Karl Popper, and it has been noted that a 1941 recording of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 with the New York Philharmonic under Bruno Walter (issued in Russia on a 2-CD set) is in fact played by Serkin, despite the omission of his name in the published track listings.

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