Wilhelm Backhaus

The boy's talent was soon recognized by Arthur Nikisch, at whose recommendation Backhaus studied under Alois Reckendorf at the Leipzig Conservatory between 1891 and 1899, then took private piano lessons with Eugen d'Albert in Frankfurt.

Backhaus made his U.S. debut on 5 January 1912 as soloist in Beethoven's 5th Piano Concerto (the "Emperor") with Walter Damrosch and the New York Symphony Orchestra.

[3] That same year, he became an executive advisor to the Nazi organization Kameradschaft der deutschen Künstler (Fellowship of German Artists).

[4] For the show elections of 29 March 1936, Backhaus published a statement in the magazine Die Musikwoche under the rubric of "soloist" translated as, "Nobody loves German art, and especially German music, as glowingly as Adolf Hitler…"[5] A month later, on 20 April 1936, Hitler's 47th birthday, he gave Backhaus a professorship, and invited him that September to attend the annual Nazi party's Nuremberg Rally.

[3] The violinist Leila Doubleday Pirani wrote that in November 1938, she attended a Backhaus concert in London (conducted by Sir Adrian Boult) with the Viennese Jewish violinist Alma Rosé, who told Pirani that Backhaus "was a great friend of the family" and took her backstage to greet the pianist after the concert; but Pirani writes that while "Boult greeted us nicely," Backhaus, upon seeing Rosé, "turned his back and walked through a passage.

"; Pirani called the incident "a stab in the back by this cowardly man, who for fear of his Nazi masters could not behave decently, even in London.

"[9] His chamber recordings include Brahms's cello sonatas with Pierre Fournier, and Schubert's Trout Quintet with the International Quartet and Claude Hobday.

[10] The Times praised Backhaus in its 1969 obituary for having upheld the classical German music tradition of the Leipzig Conservatory.