He was a phenomenal child prodigy. He began giving public concerts at
age six. At ten, he was concertizing so heavily that the Society for
the Prevention of Cruelty to Children had to intervene. His teachers
included Moritz Moszkowski (1854-1925) and, starting from age 16, Anton
Rubinstein (1830-1894), one of the most revered pianists of the 19th
century. He was history's first recorded musician, making a number of
recordings for Thomas Edison as early as March 1888. Legend has it that
the 12-year-old Hofmann made these recordings while sitting on Edison's
lap, but according to an article in the IPQ magazine, recent research
has shown that this wasn't true. Though started off earlier than anyone
else, he made only a small number of commercial recordings, although
there are quite a few broadcast ones. Most of his recordings have been
issued by VAI Audio and Marston in their "Complete Hofmann"
Edition. Hofmann, in addition to his musical talents, also had a lot
of scientific creativity and contributed much to the early development
of the phonograph. He also patented the windshield wiper. So, next time
it rains and you see the wiper in action, remember Josef Hofmann.
In the introduction to this page, I said that in order to understand
a pianist's art as thoroughly as possible, we must at least analyze
all of his/her recordings. It is particularly true in the case of Hofmann,
as I am about to explain. He made a relatively small number of commercial
recordings between 1903 and 1923, which are found on Volumes 3 and 4
(a total of three CDs) of VAI's Complete Hofmann Edition. In Philips'
"Great Pianists of the 20th Century" set, they only selected
from these sources.
Notwithstanding their acoustic shortcomings, these early recordings
are still important, because the technique Hofmann displays is truly
astonishing. His fingers were simply dauntless. He never had to compromise,
even in the most difficult passages.
Most of these studio recordings give one the impression that the primary
thing Hofmann cared about was the technical side of a piece, not its
musical content. However, when we listen to acoustical recordings, there
is one thing that we must keep in mind. The recording industry was in
its infancy. Not only that pianists often had to rush through a piece
so that it could fit on one side of a 78-rpm disc, but they also had
to pay constant attention to other technical issues. As Leopold Godowsky,
another technical wizard in the early 20th century, put it: "The
left hand had to be louder than the right hand; the pedal sparingly
or not at all when the hands were close to each other. The fear of doing
a trifling wrong augmented while playing; the better one succeeded in
playing the foregoing, the greater the fear became while playing. It
was a dreadful ordeal, increasingly so the more sensitive the artist....How
can one think of emotion!" (from the Godowsky Great Pianists set
on Philips)
Hofmann's pianism maintains a sovereign control of sonority, perfection
in touch, and phrasing. His style conveys the best of what modern pianism
strives for: textual accuracy, rhythmic precision, and a high level
of technical mastery few artists have achieved. Unfortunately, many
recordings sound restrained, calculated, and more pianistic than musical.
Perhaps a glimpse of the truer side of his art is found in a a performance
of Chopin's Fourth Ballade, resembling the accounts of Anton Rubinstein
and giving the impression that the music was being evoked forth by an
elemental force. Rachmaninoff considered Hofmann as his equal, if not
superior and dedicated his Third Concerto to Hofmann, who, oddly, never
performed the work in public. Hofmann had an encyclopedic repertoire,
only a portion of which was recorded. It is a difficult matter, as Hofmann
was adored by the greatest but perhaps did not leave his best playing
on disc.
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