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Emil von Sauer

Gisa Adler
Gisa Adler was a Viennese pianist and pupil of Emil von Sauer. She was born on July 11, 1896, into a prominent family in Vienna; she was the niece of Alfred Adler. Her family in Vienna was artistic and musical. She played four-hand piano music and arrangements of Beethoven Symphonies at home with her sister during her youth. She then began what promised to be a successful musical career: she was a pupil of Emil von Sauer at the Vienna Academy and began teaching at the Academy at the age of 14. As she matured, she had the opportunity to tour with Charlotte "Lotte" Lehmann, giving pre-concert recitals.

Nazi persecution interrupted her career and adversely affected her health. During the Holocaust, Gisa alone of her immediate family survived. She later fled to the United States with another relative. Adler lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and became one of two original piano teachers at The New School of Music, Philadelphia, founded in 1943. Residual health problems did not permit her to continue a performing career in the United States. However, she taught for many years at The New School of Music and at the Germantown branch of the Settlement Music School. In her last decade, she suffered further health setbacks. Max Aronoff, founder and Director of The New School, assisted her in briefly relocating to care facility. Subsequently, she returned home and resumed active teaching until her death. She died on January 1, 1983 at the age of 86.

Teaching Style and Legacy
Adler taught many pupils through The New School of Music, but had few full-time students, as the school was founded for and remained focused on the development of orchestral musicians. For the most part, she dealt with novice through early intermediate pupils beginning to play classical repertoire. Yet as a performer, she was at a level to give master classes. Her first full-time student at "The New School" was Kay Hettich, author of this article.

Adler had an "old-school" European approach to teaching that probably limited her effectiveness. She adhered to the 19th-century legacy of practicing difficult passages with accents and rhythms. She often kept a student working on the same piece of music for months, a practice common to Max Aronoff (viola) and Jascha Brodsky (violin) among others. Adler was best at teaching beautiful tone production, illustrating by example, and imparting the sound-ideal of the Viennese classical style. She was especially fond of Mozart and Schubert.

Adler was able to bring some music, personal belongings and a silent piano with her to the United States. Her piano music included bound volumes of compositions by Emil von Sauer. Adler was also artistic; she brought several portraits she had painted of her students at Vienna Academy. The silent piano was used for strengthening the fingers; a knob regulated the key tension. The silent piano reflected the 19th-century mentality that finger strengthening could take place by means of mechanical devices. One recalls how Robert Schumann a few decades earlier devised his own unique exercise contraptions by which he suffered permanent hand injury.

In summary, Adler's life and career were irrevocably altered by historical events. She is deserving of remembrance as a pupil of Emil von Sauer in the succession of great pianists with ties to Franz Liszt. Adler was one of two pianist originally on the faculty of the New School of Music, Philadelphia; the other pianist was Jeanne Behrend.

It is sometimes thought that only famous pupils of Liszt influenced pianists in the United States. Gisa Adler's legacy is in being a direct link in the transmission of European teaching and style to the United States and to students in the Philadelphia area in particular.