FRIEDA VALENZI
Austrian pianist (1910 - 2002)

Frieda Valenzi studied at the Viennese State Academy for Music and Dramatic Art.  Her theory teachers were the composers Joseph Marx and Franz Schmidt, and she studied piano with Walter Kerschbaumer, teacher of Jörg Demus, and Friedrich Wührer.

She was dedicated to performing the works of contemporary composers and made many recordings for radio broadcast of music by Bartók, Berg, Hindemith, Krenek, Lutoslawski, Schoenberg, Prokofiev, Halffter, Frank Martin, Roussel, Shostakovich, Scriabin and Stravinsky, among many others.  Her performances of the Viennese school were considered outstanding.

As a pianist, Frieda Valenzi toured Europe, the united States and Canada, and even performed in Mozambique.  And she was a willing partner in chamber music concerts.

Unfortunately it appears she made only three recording for Remington Records in the 1950s, Goyescas by Granados, Franck's Symphonic Variations, and Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin.  There is also a recording of the first Concerto en miniature by Karl Frantz Müller that dates from the 1970s.

I have only the Goyescas and the Prelude from Le Tombeau de Couperinn to share with you here.  But it is my hope that someone with access to the many recordings she made for the ORF in Vienna will make them available to us.

Granados  "Goyescas"

1 Los Requieros
08:42 ➢ 2 Coloquis en La Reja
17:58 ➢ 3 El Fandando di Candil
24:53 ➢ 4 Quejas o La Maja y El Ruisenor

recorded in 1951