Joseph is a masculine given name. It may also refer to:

Person

• Joseph (son of Jacob)
• Saint Joseph (adoptive father of Jesus)

Places

• Joseph, Utah
• Joseph, Oregon

Media

• YosepH, album by Luke Vibert
• Josef (film), a Croatian television movie from 2011
• Various works based on the life of Joseph in the Hebrew Bible:
  • Joseph and his Brethren, oratorio by George Frideric Handel
  • Joseph (film), a German/Italian/American television movie from 1995, which tells the story of Joseph in the Hebrew Bible
  • Joseph (opera), by the French composer Étienne Méhul
  • Josephslegende, 1914 ballet by Richard Strauss
  • Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice

See also[link]

• Joe (disambiguation), listing other uses of the shortened name
• Saint Joseph (disambiguation), for other saints and places
• Yosef (disambiguation), a variation of the name in Hebrew
• Yusuf (disambiguation), as rendered in Islam/Arabic

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the same title. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article.

Josef Hader
Josef Hader (2009)
Born	Josef Hader (1962-02-14) 14 February 1962 (age 50) Waldhausen im Strudengau, Upper Austria, Austria
Occupation	Comedian, actor, writer, producer
Years active	1982–present

Josef Hader (born 14 February 1962 in Waldhausen im Strudengau, Upper Austria) is an Austrian comedian, actor, writer and producer.

Life and work[link]

Hader grew up in Nöchling in Lower Austria and attended the Stiftsgymnasium Melk. After his civilian service at the Red Cross he started studying German and History. As a student he began working on his first comedy programme "Fort Geschritten". His second programme "Der Witzableiter und das Feuer" won the "Salzburger Stier" comedy award. Soon after he quit studying and wrote "Biagn oder Brechen" and "Bunter Abend".

Haders programme "Privat" is the most successful comedy in Austrian history. His most recent show called "Hader muss weg" is more acting than comedy. He plays seven different roles using no props other than a simple Trenchcoat and acts only through gestures, voice and facial expression.

Hader has starred in many different movies such as Indien, Komm, süßer Tod, Silentium and The Bone Man.

Comedy and Plays[link]

• 1982: Fort Geschritten
• 1985: Der Witzableiter und das Feuer
• 1986: Im milden Westen
• 1987: Tausche Witze gegen Geld
• 1988: Biagn oder Brechen
• 1990: Bunter Abend
• 1991: Indien (with Alfred Dorfer)
• 1993: Im Keller
• 1994: Privat
• 1997: Hader spielt Hader
• 2004: Hader muss weg

Filmography[link]

Awards[link]

• 1985: Salzburger Stier
• 1986: Österreichischer Kleinkunstpreis
• 1990: Deutscher Kleinkunstpreis
• 1992: Österreichischer Kleinkunstpreis
• 1993: Deutscher Kabarettpreis
• 1993: Förderpreis zur Kainz-Medaille
• 1994: Platinum album for the CD Privat
• 1994: Platinum album for the VHS tape Privat
• 1999: Nestroy Ring
• 2000: Locarno International Film Festival (Bronze Leopard)
• 2001: Romy Award for Komm, süßer Tod
• 2009: Diagonale Acting Award
• 2009: Deutscher Fernsehpreis (German Television Award)
• 2010: Nomination for the Goldene Kamera
• 2010: Adolf Grimme Award
• 2010: Das große Kleinkunstfestival (Berlinpreis)
• 2010: Romy Award for The Bone Man
• 2011: Bayrischer Kabarettpreis (Hauptpreis)
• 2011: Göttinger Elch

External links[link]

• Josef Hader at the Internet Movie Database
• Website of Josef Hader
• kabarett.at - Kabarett in Austria
• Josef Hader in the German National Library catalogue (German)
• Josef Hader at Harald Schmidt Show (YouTube.com)

Lukas Resetarits (born October 14, 1947 in Stinatz) is an Austrian cabaret artist and actor, best known for playing police inspector Kottan in the Austrian TV series Kottan ermittelt.

Resetarits was born in the Austrian state Burgenland, but his family moved to Vienna when he was at the age of four. Resetarits attended Austrian gymnasium which he finished in 1965. He studied psychology and philosophy at the University of Vienna, at the same time jobbing as rock singer, construction worker and traffic officer at the Vienna International Airport.

In 1975 he joined the cabaret group "KEIF", which consisted of Wolfgang Teuschl, Erwin Steinhauer, Alfred Rubatschek and Erich Demmer. In 1977 together with Teuschl and Steinhauer he performed the TV cabaret "Tu felix Austria".

On October 26, 1977 he premiered his first solo program "Rechts Mitte Links" in the Konzerthauskeller. In Mai 1978 he presented his second solo program "A Krise muaß her", and performed a second TV cabaret with Teuschl and Steinhauer, "Man wird ja noch fragen dürfen". He released his first LP vinyl record "Ein Abend mit Lukas Resetarits" ("An Evening with Lukas Resetarits") in 1979.

From 1980 to 1983 he was main actor in the Austrian TV series Kottan ermittelt, written by Helmut Zenker and directed by Peter Patzak.

Resetarits has been married since 1968 and has two daughters. Willi Resetarits (musician known as Dr. Kurt Ostbahn), Peter Resetarits (TV host at ORF) and Lukas Resetarits are brothers. Karin Resetarits, a present member of the European Parliament, is his divorced sister in law.

Cabaret programs[link]

• 1977 Rechts Mitte Links
• 1978 A Krise muaß her
• 1979 Haben schon gewählt
• 1979 Alles leiwand
• 1981 Nur kane Wellen
• 1982 Ka Zukunft
• 1983 Vorläufig ohne Titel
• 1984 Was nun
• 1985 I oder I
• 1986 Das 10. Programm
• 1987 Rekapituliere
• 1988 Nichts geht mehr
• 1989 Zu blöd
• 1990 Ich bin so frei
• 1991 Heimspiel - live
• 1992 Zu bunt
• 1995 Alles zurück
• 1997 Kein Grund zum Feiern
• 1999 Ich tanze nicht
• 2001 Niemandsland
• 2002 Zeit
• 2003 Nachspielzeit
• 2006 XXII
• 2009 "Osterreich - ein Warietee"

Awards[link]

• Nestroy-Ring 1981
• Österreichischer Kleinkunstpreis 1981, 1983, 1984
• Deutscher Kleinkunstpreis 1985
• "Ybbser Spaßvogel"
• Romy 1997, best actor
• German Cabaret Prize 1998
• Karl 2004

External links[link]

• Lukas Resetarits at the Internet Movie Database

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (February 2009)

Liefers speaks at the Demonstration at November 4, 1989 in Berlin

Jan Josef Liefers, is a German actor, producer, director and musician. He was born on August 8, 1964 in Dresden.

Life[link]

Liefers is the son of director Karlheinz Liefers and actress Brigitte Liefers-Wähner. After his apprenticeship he studied at the Hochschule für Schauspielkunst Ernst Busch in Berlin. From 1987 until 1990 he acted at the Deutsches Theater Berlin; after this he moved over to the Thalia Theater in Hamburg. His first role in cinema was Alexander von Humboldt in the German film Die Besteigung des Chimborazo.

Following that he played in some minor film roles however, in 1996, he achieved his breakthrough with the Helmut Dietl film Rossini - oder die mörderische Frage, wer mit wem schlief. He received the Bayerischen Filmpreis for his role (Bodo Kriegnitz). As a result of this success he was awarded roles in several German films. He has been playing a pathologist in the famous serial Tatort since 2002.

Jan Liefers is a keen motorcyclist and in 2007 started on a trip of a lifetime from Quito (Ecuador) to Patagonia in South America. Unfortunately his trip came to a premature end when he hurt himself avoiding a collision with a young child who ran out in front of his motorbike. In 2008 a film of the trip called "70° West - Entscheidung in Peru" (Decision in Peru) was shown on German TV channel DMAX.^[1]

He has been married to the actress and singer Anna Loos since 2004. For Jan Josef this is his 2nd marriage after that to Russian actress Alexandra Tabakow.

Filmography[link]

• Die Besteigung des Chimborazo (1989)
• Der Fall Ö (1991)
• Charlie & Louise - Das Doppelte Lottchen (1993)
• Die Partner (Serie, 1995)
• Ich, der Boss (1995)
• Rossini – oder die mörderische Frage, wer mit wem schlief (1997)
• Kidnapping Mom and Dad (1997)
• Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997)
• Vergewaltigt - Das Geheimnis einer Nacht (1997)
• Arielle, die Meerjungfrau (Disney), German (Prinz Erik), (1997)
• Jack's Baby (1998)
• Sieben Monde (1998)
• 666 – Traue keinem mit dem du schläfst (2001)
• Die Frauenversteher - Männer unter sich (2002)
• Das Wunder von Lengede (2003)
• Die Nachrichten (based on the novel written by Alexander Osang) 2005
• Madagascar (DreamWorks), (German version) voice of Alex (2005)
• Die Entscheidung (2006)
• Tatort (2006)
• Die Sturmflut (2006)
• Der Untergang der Pamir (Autumn 2006)
• Der Rote Baron (2006)
• Nachtschicht – Der Ausbruch (2006)
• Bis zum Ellenbogen (2006)
• Frühstück mit einer Unbekannten (2007)
• Lily C. (2007)
• Der Baader-Meinhof-Komplex (2008)
• Madagascar 2, (German version) voice of Alex (2008)
• Life is live (2009)
• Es liegt mir auf der Zunge (2009)
• Die Spätzünder (2009)
• Simon and the Oaks (2011)

[edit] Tatort - Professor Dr. Karl Friedrich Boerne

In the German "Tatort" crime series Liefers plays Professor Dr. Karl Friedrich Boerne, the director of the "Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensics" at the University of Münster. The witty scientist loves his job and enjoys life to the fullest, often without considering the feelings of others. Karl-Friedrich Boerne loves the good things in life, plays golf, fences and is fond of classical music, especially if it's loud. But what he loves most are his luxury cars (Jaguar, Mercedes, Audi, Porsche, etc.), which he drives without worrying too much about wrecking them, and the sound of his own voice. Boerne's irony and intellect make him seem cynical and arrogant at times, but still it's evident that there's a good heart beating inside him. His wife left him and ever since Boerne lives alone in his big city apartment. The much smaller neighbouring apartment he let to inspector Frank Thiel. But not only at home the idiosyncratic, quirky forensic physician and the quiet, down-to-earth police officer share a close partnership.

[edit] Tatort - Episodes

• 2002: Der dunkle Fleck
• 2002: Fakten, Fakten
• 2003: Dreimal schwarzer Kater
• 2003: Sag nichts
• 2004: Mörderspiele
• 2004: Eine Leiche zuviel
• 2005: Der Frauenflüsterer
• 2005: Der doppelte Lott
• 2006: Das ewig Böse
• 2006: Das zweite Gesicht
• 2007: Ruhe sanft
• 2007: Satisfaktion
• 2008: Krumme Hunde
• 2008: Wolfsstunde
• 2009: Höllenfahrt
• 2009: Tempelräuber
• 2010: Der Fluch der Mumie
• 2010: Spargelzeit
• 2011: Herrenabend
• 2011: Zwischen den Ohren

CDs[link]

• Jack's Baby (1999)
• Don't let go (2002)
• Oblivion (2002)
• Soundtrack meiner Kindheit (2007)

Audio Books[link]

• 2006: Fußball unser - Das Hörbuch
• 2006: Brigitte Hörbuch-Edition - Starke Stimmen: Die Männer - Der Reinfall
• 2008: Jan Josef Liefers liest den Tatort Fall `Der dunkle Fleck´
• 2009: Brigitte Hörbuch-Edition - Starke Stimmen: Die Krimis - Dr. Siri und seine Toten

Awards[link]

• 1996: Bayerischer Filmpreis, best newcomer in Rossini – oder die mörderische Frage, wer mit wem schlief
• 2000: Fernsehfilmpreis der Deutschen Akademie der Darstellenden Künste, actor award for Halt mich fest
• 2000: Bayerischer Fernsehpreis for Jack's Baby
• 2003: Bambi for Das Wunder von Lengede
• 2004: Adolf-Grimme-Preis for the best actor in Das Wunder von Lengede

External links[link]

• Official Fanpage (German)

References[link]

1. ^ "Jan Liefers Trip on DMAX (German)". http://ruta40.dmax.de/. Retrieved 2010-02-03. 

Josef Casimir Hofmann (originally Józef Kazimierz Hofmann; January 20, 1876 – February 16, 1957) was a Polish-American virtuoso pianist, composer, music teacher, and inventor.

Biography[link]

Josef Hofmann was born in Podgórze, near Kraków, Austria-Hungary (now Poland) in 1876. His father was the composer, conductor and pianist Kazimierz Hofmann, and his mother the singer Matylda Pindelska. A child prodigy, he gave a debut recital in Warsaw at the age of 5, and a long series of concerts throughout Europe and Scandinavia, culminating in a series of concerts in America in 1887-88 that elicited comparisons with young Mozart and young Mendelssohn.^[1] Anton Rubinstein took Hofmann as his only private student in 1892 and arranged the debut of his pupil in Hamburg, Germany in 1894. Hofmann toured and performed extensively over the next 50 years as one of the most celebrated pianists of the era.^[2] In 1913, he was presented with a set of keys to the city of St. Petersburg, Russia.

As a composer, Hofmann published over one hundred works, many of those under the pseudonym Michel Dvorsky, including two piano concertos and ballet music. He made the United States his base during World War I and became a US citizen in 1926. In 1924, he became the first head of the piano department at the inception of the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, and became the Institute's director in 1927 and remained so until 1938.

He was instrumental in recruiting illustrious musicians such as Efrem Zimbalist, Fritz Reiner, Marcella Sembrich, and Leopold Auer as Curtis faculty. Hofmann's pupils included Jean Behrend, Abram Chasins, Abbey Simon, Shura Cherkassky, Ezra Rachlin, Nadia Reisenberg (see ^[3]), and Harry Kaufman. While not a pupil, Jorge Bolet benefited from Hofmann's interest. In 1937, the 50th anniversary of his New York debut performance was celebrated with gala performances including a "Golden Jubilee" recital at the Metropolitan Opera, New York. In 1938 he was forced to leave the Curtis Institute of Music over financial and administrative disputes. In the years from 1939 to 1946, his artistic eminence deteriorated, in part due to family difficulties and alcoholism.^[4] In 1946, he gave his last recital at Carnegie Hall, home to his 151 appearances, and retired to private life in 1948. He spent his last decade in Los Angeles in relative obscurity, working on inventions and keeping a steady correspondence with associates. ^[5]

As an inventor, Hofmann had over 70 patents, and his invention of pneumatic shock absorbers for cars and airplanes was commercially successful from 1905 to 1928. Other inventions included a windscreen wiper, a furnace that burned crude oil, a house that revolved with the sun, a device to record dynamics (U.S. patent number 1614984^[6]) in reproducing piano rolls that he perfected just as the roll companies went out of business, and piano action improvements adopted by the Steinway Company (U.S. patent number 2263088^[7]).

Hofmann died of pneumonia on February 16, 1957. He was survived by four children. His second wife, Betty Short, had previously been one of his pupils.^[8]

The Josef Hofmann Piano Competition, co-sponsored by the American Council for Polish Culture and the University of South Carolina Aiken was established in his honor in 1994.^[9]

Career as a child prodigy[link]

Hofmann as a young man at the keyboard.

Anton Rubinstein heard the seven-year old Hofmann play Beethoven's C Minor Piano Concerto in Warsaw and declared him to be an unprecedented talent (see ^[10] and ^[11]). At Rubinstein's suggestion, German impresario Hermann Wolff offered career management and to send the boy on a European tour, but Hofmann's father refused to let the boy travel until he was nine years old. At that age, Hofmann gave concerts in Germany, France, Holland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, and Great Britain.^[10]

In 1887, an American tour was arranged and after three months of performances that included fifty recitals, seventeen of which were at the Metropolitan Opera House. Yet soon after,the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children stepped in, citing the boy's fragile health. However, as per the contract that had paid Hofmann $10,000, he was legally obliged to complete the tour. The contract was rendered void by Alfred Corning Clark who donated $50,000 and, in turn, legally forbade Hofmann to perform in public until he turned 18 years old.^[2] The final segment of the tour was cancelled and the family returned to Potsdam, outside Berlin. This marked the end of Hofmann's child prodigy years. (See ^[12] and ^[10] for details.) At the age of 12, young Josef Hofmann was probably the first pianist of note to record on Edison's phonograph; Hans von Bülow recorded a Chopin Mazurka on Edison's improved phonograph the same year, i.e., 1888. ^[13]

Education in music[link]

Clark's donation enabled Hofmann to continue individual study in science and mathematics, and he continued to take music lessons from Heinrich Urban (composition)and with the pianist and composer Moritz Moszkowski. In 1892, Rubinstein accepted Hofmann as his only private pupil, the two meeting for 42 sessions in Dresden's Hotel d'Europe. Initial lessons, a week apart, included ten Bach Preludes and Fugues and two Beethoven sonatas, from memory. Hofmann was never allowed to bring the same composition twice, as Rubinstein said as a teacher he would probably forget what he told the student during the previous lesson. Rubinstein never played for Hofmann, but gave ample evidence of his pianistic outlook during many recitals the boy heard. In a three-day period Hofmann heard in Berlin's new Bechstein Hall recitals by Hans von Bülow, Johannes Brahms and Rubinstein, and commented on their radically different playing. Rubinstein arranged Hofmann's adult debut on March 14, 1894, in Hamburg's Symphonic Assembly Hall, the piece being Rubinstein's Piano Concerto No. 4 in D minor, with the composer conducting. After the concert, Rubinstein told Hofmann there would be no more lessons, and they never saw each other again. In later years Hofmann referred to his relationship with the titanic Russian master as the "most important event in my life.". ^[10]

Hofmann at the end of his career[link]

By the early 1930s, Hofmann had become an alcoholic but he retained exceptional pianistic command throughout this decade; Rudolf Serkin and a young Glenn Gould have recounted magical impressions created on them by Hofmann's concerts in mid-and-late 1930s. ^{[14] [15]} After his departure from the Curtis institute in 1938, a combination of his drinking, marital problems and a loss of interest in performing caused a rapid deterioration in his artistic abilities. Commenting on Hofmann's sharp decline, Sergei Rachmaninoff said, "Hofmann is still sky high ... the greatest pianist alive if he is sober and in form. Otherwise, it is impossible to recognize the Hofmann of old". ^[16] Oscar Levant wrote, "one of the terrible tragedies of music was the disintegration of Josef Hofmann as an artist. In his latter days, he became an alcoholic. …[H]is last public concert … was an ordeal for all of us". ^[17]

Technique and style[link]

Josef Hofmann playing solos in the Metropolitan Opera House gala on Nov. 28, 1937, the 50th anniversary of his American debut.

Hofmann's views on technique and musicianship are explained in his book Piano Playing with Questions Answered.^[18] He had small but exceptionally strong hands.^[2] Steinway eventually built for him a custom keyboards with slightly narrower keys (pianist/critic Stephen Hough has commented on how Hofmann's mechanical understanding of the Steinway piano action set him apart from all other pianists.^[19]) His concert instruments had subtle action changes for faster repetition, two pedals rather than three (he liked the older Steinway trap work geometry), faultless regulation, and were accompanied on tours by his own recital chair, built with a short folding back and a 1½" slope from rear to front. After playing Hofmann's special concert instrument in the Steinway New York basement, Gunnar Johannsen reported that the piano had the biggest sonority of any he had ever tried.

Unlike Rubinstein, Hofmann sat quietly at the piano,^[2] striking the keys in a kneading manner. His finger staccato was at the time unequaled, as was his orchestral sonority. According to his student Nadia Reisenberg, he continuously used a combination of finger pedalling and foot pedalling.^[3] New York Times critic Harold C. Schonberg said Hofmann had all of Leopold Godowsky's technique,^[2] a claim approved by Godowsky himself. ^[20] By his own admission, Sergei Rachmaninoff, in his 40s, prepared for a career as a concert pianist by practicing over 15 hours a day with the goal of attaining the level of Hofmann's technique.^[20] When pianist Ralph Berkowitz was asked if Vladimir Horowitz had the greatest technique of all the pianists he had heard, Berkowitz replied that Horowitz indeed was the supreme master of the technical parts of performance, but one older era pianist was his equal - Hofmann.

Hofmann's approach and style can be summarized by his motto "an aristocrat never hurries". ^[20] He often stated that Rubinstein and Moriz Rosenthal were the only pianists that influenced his art, and admired singers Mattia Battistini and Marcella Sembrich (see ^[2] and ^[14]). He adopted a more demonstrative style in live performances but a subtle and restrained style for his studio recordings; in both cases, he mostly adhered to the printed score, occasionally doubling left-hand octaves, and shunned sentimentality. ^[2] He put spontaneity rather than structure foremost and admitted to Rachmaninoff that "I do not know how to build a composition ... occasionally, it happens to sound well".^[2] Schonberg wrote that among Hofmann's contemporaries, only Godowsky had the finish and refinement of Hofmann but lacked Hofmann's color, fire, and "red blood", while only Ferruccio Busoni and Rachmaninoff were ever mentioned by contemporaries as Hofmann's equals.^[2] After hearing a performance of Chopin's B minor Sonata by Hofmann, Rachmaninoff cut that piece from his own repertoire saying "not since Anton Rubinstein have I heard such titanic playing".^[20]

Suggested examples illustrating Hofmann's style:,,^[21][22],^[23][24],^[25][26],^[27][28],^[29][30],,,^[31][32][33] and ^[34] (dedicated to him by Sigismond Stojowski).

Repertoire, musical ear and memory[link]

Hofmann's repertoire was mostly confined to music written before the start of the 20th century. Much like Rubinstein's seven historic recitals of 1885, he gave 21 consecutive concerts in St. Petersburg without repeating a single piece, playing 255 different works from memory during that marathon cycle in 1912–1913.^[35] In the diary his wife kept during his 1909 Russian tour, she mentions his raising his eyebrows when he saw Brahms' Handel Variations on a program—a piece he had not played or even looked at for two and a half years. He played the work at the concert without hesitation.^[35] Although a poor sight reader, he was said to possess the ability of Franz Liszt and Camille Saint-Saëns to hear a composition once and play it back correctly without seeing the printed notes. Rosina Lhévinne recalled that Hofmann heard her husband Josef Lhévinne play Liszt's Lorelei, a piece Hofmann had never heard but went on to play it "just like my Josef (Lhevinne)" for an encore at his concert later that day.^[36] Maurice Aronson, who served as Leopold Godowsky's assistant, recalled Hofmann learning Godowsky's Fledermaus transcription. Godowsky and Hofmann met in Berlin in 1900, becoming friends until Godowsky's death in 1938. Hofmann would visit Godowsky's studio and listen while Godowsky was composing Fledermaus. A week later Hofmann visited Godowsky again and played the entire transcription, and he had never seen the music. Godowsky, in fact, had not yet written it down. Schonberg has added that Godowsky's Fledermaus is one of the most resourceful and complicated stunts ever written for the piano.^[36]

Recordings[link]

Hofmann started recording in studio in 1880's but was never satisfied with the available technology and made only test pressings after 1923;^[2] he considered the test pressings made for HMV in November 1935 to be a worthwhile representation of his art. ^[37] In the 1940s he recorded for the Bell Telephone Hour radio programs which include Hofmann's only filmed appearance, playing Rachmaninoff's Prelude in C-sharp minor, Op. 3, No. 2. Gregor Benko has remarked that Hofmann should not have appeared on many of the Bell Telephone Hour broadcasts since, by this time, his pianistic control had deteriorated considerably though the tonal palette was still immense and the phrasing provocative (see ^[37] and ^[2]). Hofmann's student Jeanne Behrend, after first hearing the recordings from 1940 to 1946, stated "well, it's his playing, but nothing like what we heard in the 1920s."

Cylinders recorded c. 1890 for Thomas Edison were some of the earliest recordings of classical music and were lost during World War I. Four cylinders made in Russia in 1895–1896, with music by Mendelssohn, Louis Brassin and Rubinstein, have been recently discovered and issued on CD.^[38] He made two series of reproducing piano rolls, including in 1913 23 pieces for Welte-Mignon but did not trust rolls as an accurate representation of his playing. Hofmann recorded acoustic discs from 1912 to 1923 for Columbia and Brunswick, but felt the representation of his chaste and prismatic tonal palette was not captured. He did experiment with short studio test recordings in 1935, and in retirement in California experimented with piano string electrical pickups and designing an additional spruce soundboard under the piano lid. At least three of his concerts in 1930's were recorded live. These concert recordings exhibit an older Hofmann (age 60-62) in public just prior to the sharp decline in his pianistic command, and include sensational readings of Chopin's G minor Ballade, Andante Spianato and Grand Polonaise, A-flat Waltz (Op. 42) and F minor Ballade. All of these recordings have recently been published on compact discs under the auspices of Gregor Benko and audio restorer Ward Marston.^[39]

Controversial stature[link]

Harold C. Schonberg has argued that Hofmann was the most flawless and possibly the greatest pianist of the 20th century.^[2] HMV and RCA unsuccessfully pursued recording projects with Hofmann in the 1930s. Rachmaninoff dedicated his Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor (1909) to Hofmann, although Hofmann disliked it and never played it. Older generation critics such as James Huneker labeled Hofmann the "king of pianists", and Samuel Chotzinoff called him the "greatest pianist of our time." Contemporaries such as Rachmaninoff, Ignaz Friedman, Josef Lhévinne, and Godowsky considered Hofmann to be, overall, the greatest pianist of their generation,^[16][20] but the acclaim was not so universal from the next generation of pianists.^[14] In his autobiography Arthur Rubinstein criticized Hofmann as someone who took interest in only the mechanics of music and not in its heart or spirituality, and commented that at the end of Hofmann's career "he was left with nothing after his technique left him".^[40] Claudio Arrau dismissed Hofmann (along with Paderewski) as someone who only happened to be very famous and said "I didn't know what to do with him".^[41] Sviatoslav Richter, after listening to a Hofmann RCA test pressing of the Scherzo from Beethoven's Sonata in E-flat, Op. 31, No. 3, considered the older pianist to be technically "stunning", but noted that Hofmann ignored the composer's sforzando markings; while György Sándor has called him the greatest of all 20th century pianists in terms of music, interpretation, and technique.^[42] Hofmann's own student Shura Cherkassky compared Horowitz favorably with Hofmann as follows: "Hofmann was possibly the greater musical mind. But, I think, Horowitz was the greater pianist, the greater virtuoso—he somehow appealed to the whole world. Hofmann could not communicate on that level".^[14]

Bibliography[link]

Hofmann's books were based on his frequent articles in the Ladies' Home Journal:

• Piano Playing: A Little Book of Simple Suggestions (1907) — e-text
• Piano Questions Answered (1909)
• Piano Playing: With Piano Questions Answered (1920, compilation of the first two books) — e-text, ISBN 0-486-23362-6 and ISBN 1-150-03067-4

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of a 1921 Collier's Encyclopedia article about Josef Hofmann.

• Josef Hofmann Collection, International Piano Archives, University of Maryland
• Free scores by Józef Hofmann at the International Music Score Library Project
• Piano Rolls (The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation)
• Jan Żdżarski: Józef Hofmann Geniusz zapomniany, Wydawnictwo STO, www.sto.com.pl
• Historical Marker Database Josef Hofmann Historical Marker, Aiken, SC