Thomas Mann’s piano will be restored with Beethoven’s opus 111
NewsThe writer Thomas Mann’s personal piano has been bequeathed to the German state by his grandson.
After restoration, it will be ceremonially received in October into public ownership with a performance of Beethoven’s last sonata, a work of immense significance in Mann’s major work, Doctor Faustus.
Mann with friends Bruno Walter and Toscanini
Interesting. Any information about the piano’s manufacturer, and who will be the pianist?
Let me guess: Igor Levit?
Which grandson? Frido, I suppose. I wonder who has Andre Gide’s piano. -or Sartre’s. -or Einstein’s violin.
Op. 111is a good choice. There is an entire lecture-recital on it in “Doktor Faustus” that deeply impressed Mann’s friend Bruno Walter, who wrote him about it. In the book it is played by Adrian Leveerkuehn’s teacher, Wendell Kretschmar, a German-American.
If the piano is from Mann’s Pacific Palisades house in California, it could be the one Bruno Walter played in a private recital with Bronislaw Hubermann for Mann’s birthday. His former home in Bad Toelz was confiscated by the Nazis. His last home was in ZLuerich-Kuesnacht.
Mann was a good enough violinist in his youth to play chamber music with friends. I’ve never heard of him as a pianist, but he probably knew his way around the piano.
https://fridomann.de/thomas-manns-fluegel-im-weissen-haus-des-exils/?lang=en
Fantastic … thanks for the link!
Yes, Ruben. Thomas Mann’s grandson Frido was his model for Adrian Leverkuehn’s nephew Nepomuk Schneidewein in “Doktor Raustus”.
Please stop emailing me if I have to pay money
Mann’s ‘Doktor Faustus’ is his masterpiece.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Faustus_(novel)
Morgan, many thanks for the articles with details. I don’t see the writer’s name but am guessing it is Mann’s grandson Frido. Frido