The music world recognized Kurt Leimer’s extraordinary pianistic talent early on. His piano playing combined supreme technical perfection with a highly developed intellectual sensitivity to questions of musical interpretation.
As a pianist and composer, Leimer continued a family tradition that began with his great-uncle Karl Leimer, the teacher of Walter Gieseking. Together with Gieseking, Karl Leimer authored the influential piano method books Modernes Klavierspiel (1931) and Rhythmik, Dynamik und andere Probleme des Klavierspiels (1938), which were groundbreaking for 20th-century piano pedagogy.
Kurt Leimer’s talent was already recognized in his youth: during an audition, his piano playing was praised by Carl Schuricht, Wilhelm Furtwängler, and Walter Gieseking, among others, who awarded him the highest honors and declared him “worthy of every support” as he was clearly destined for the concert stage. Leimer made his public debut in Berlin in 1938 after being accepted as a scholarship student into the class of Rachmaninoff pupil Vladimir Horbowski at the Berlin Conservatory. Another scholarship enabled him to continue his studies in 1939 with Edwin Fischer.
Leimer’s promising career was interrupted by military service and imprisonment in Livorno. It was during this time, under the impression of war, that he composed his Concerto for the Left Hand in One Movement in 1944. This work premiered in 1953 with the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Herbert von Karajan. After the Second World War, Kurt Leimer’s remarkable career as a concert pianist and composer began in earnest and is impressively documented in numerous audio and film recordings.
His extraordinary talent was also recognized by the renowned composer and conductor Richard Strauss, who dedicated to Leimer the Panathenäenzug, Op. 74, originally composed for Paul Wittgenstein in 1926–27. This came after Leimer had performed the concerto for the left hand, including a cadenza of his own (approved by Strauss), alongside Strauss’s Burleske for Piano and Orchestra at the Salzburg Festival in 1947 under Ernest Ansermet. This context gives meaning to Strauss’s enthusiastic praise in a letter dated April 21, 1947:
“Leimer is a virtuoso of the highest rank, an outstanding musician, his technique sensational…”
In 1953, Kurt Leimer was appointed professor at the Mozarteum Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Salzburg, where he held a professorship until his death and also led the master class at the Salzburg Summer Academy. In 1955, his Piano Concerto No. 4 was premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York with Leopold Stokowski.
Kurt Leimer (Wiesbaden, September 7, 1920 – Vaduz, November 20, 1974) was a German concert pianist, composer, and piano pedagogue. He attended high school in Wiesbaden and, in 1936, received a scholarship to the Spangenberg Conservatory in Wiesbaden, where he studied piano with C. Heintl and, from 1937, with Wilhelm von Ketel.
In a 1937 evaluation, Walter Gieseking, Carl Schuricht, and Wilhelm Furtwängler rated Leimer’s piano playing with the highest distinction, stating, among other things, that he “belongs on the concert stage” and is “worthy of every support.”
Based on this evaluation, Leimer was awarded a scholarship to the Berlin Conservatory, where he continued his piano studies with Vladimir Horbowski, a student of Rachmaninoff, and with Winfried Wolf. His public debut followed in 1938 in Berlin. A further scholarship allowed him to study with Edwin Fischer in 1939 and to continue his composition studies at the Berlin Conservatory. Toward the end of World War II, Leimer was drafted into military service and captured in Livorno in 1944. Under the impression of the war, he composed his Concerto for the Left Hand in One Movement, which he premiered in 1953 with the Vienna Philharmonic under Herbert von Karajan. After the war, Leimer launched a distinguished international career as a concert pianist, performing in many of the world’s leading concert halls.
Kurt Leimer always regarded his encounter with Richard Strauss as a pivotal moment in his career—particularly because Strauss entrusted him exclusively with performances of Panathenäenzug, Op. 74, and gave him permission to make certain adaptations.
In 1953, Leimer was appointed professor at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, where he held the position until his death. He was also responsible for directing the master class at the Salzburg Summer Academy. A year later, together with colleagues, he initiated the founding of an Institute for Contemporary Piano Pedagogy, which unfortunately could not be established due to administrative obstacles. In 1955, his Piano Concerto No. 4 premiered at Carnegie Hall with Leopold Stokowski.
Leimer’s four piano concertos were created in close collaboration with Kurt Overhoff (1902–1986), the former assistant to Wilhelm Furtwängler and later conductor, composer, and music educator. Overhoff was responsible for the detailed realization of Leimer’s musical ideas as well as the orchestration. However, their artistic partnership dissolved after a few years due to personal and financial reasons.
