12 Facts About Walter Gieseking

Walter Wilhelm Gieseking was a French-born German pianist and composer.

Walter Gieseking's family traveled frequently and he was privately educated.

Walter Gieseking made his first appearance as a concert pianist in 1915, but was conscripted in 1916 and spent the remainder of World War I as a regimental bandsman.

Walter Gieseking continued to play in many other countries, and in 1953 he finally returned to the US His concert in Carnegie Hall was sold out and well received.

Walter Gieseking had a very wide repertoire, ranging from various pieces by Bach and the core works by Beethoven to the concertos of Rachmaninoff and more modern works by composers such as Busoni, Hindemith, Schoenberg and the lesser-known Italian Petrassi.

Walter Gieseking gave the premiere of Hans Pfitzner's Piano Concerto in 1923.

Gieseking's 1944 performance of Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto, in which anti-aircraft fire is audible in the background, is one of the earliest stereo recordings, following a rendition of the same work in 1934 for Columbia, with Bruno Walter conducting the Vienna Philharmonic.

In December 1955, Walter Gieseking suffered head injuries in a bus accident near Stuttgart, in which his wife was killed.

Walter Gieseking's last recording project was the complete cycle of Beethoven's piano sonatas.

Walter Gieseking had completed the first three movements and was to record the finale the next day, but died a few days later of postoperative complications for the relief of pancreatitis.

Parallel to Walter Gieseking's work as a performing artist, he was a composer.

Walter Gieseking himself was a lepidopterist, devoting much time to the collecting of butterflies and moths.