Around the Music Festival

Austrian pianist Jörg Demus died on the 16th. He was 90 years old. Together with Paul Badura-Skoda and Friedrich Gulda, it was called “Vienna Three Wings”. He has released over 350 LPs and over 200 CDs, focusing on German items such as Bach, Mozart and Schumann, and has received international acclaim.

Demus was born in 1928 in Sankt Perten, west of Vienna. His father is a famous art historian, Otto Demes, and his mother is a violinist. He entered the Vienna Academy of Music at the age of 11, and received instruction from Walter Kelschbaumer, Hans Swarowsky, Josef Krips and Joseph Marx. After graduating in 1945, he studied with Yves Nat in Paris. After that he studied under Walter Gieseking at the Salzburg Conservatory, and also received Wilhelm Kempff, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, Edwin Fischer, and other legendary masters. He won the Busoni International Competition in 1956, and has been active worldwide.

He is highly regarded as an accompanist and has also worked as a partner for great performers such as Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Josef Suk. Demus has a his base”Museo Christofoli” in the outskirts of Salzburg, where a collection of historical keyboard instruments was displayed. He also had a master class there every summer.

Photo：Jörg Demus Festival　/　Irene Zandel