Paul Hamburger

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Paul Hamburger (Vienna, 3 September 1920 - London, 11 April 2004) was a British pianist, accompanist, chamber musician, and scholar.

Paul Hamburger was born in Vienna in 1920, and studied at the Vienna State Academy before emigrating to England in 1939. In 1941, he received a scholarship to attend the Royal College of Music, London, studying with Frank Merrick, Gordon Jacob, Ralph Vaughan-Williams, and he obtained his ARCM. From 1945, he started on a career as an accompanist, chamber musician and teacher, and has been associated in concerts and on disc with some of today’s most distinguished singers and instrumentalists, including Dame Janet Baker, Elisabeth Söderström, Max Rostal and Pierre Fournier. He has performed both in Britain and abroad, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Holland, France and Belgium.

Hamburger worked as coach for the English Chamber Group, preparing for the television performance of Britten’s Turn of the Screw and touring with the company. He was also coach at Glyndebourne Opera, working on Fidelio, Alceste, The Rake’s Progress, Arlecchino, many Rossini and all the Mozart operas. He coached the singers in Eric Leinsdorf’s recording of Die Walküre with Birgit Nilsson. For twelve years, he held the post of official accompanist at the BBC, and was later the BBC producer responsible for the ‘Artists of the Younger Generation’ series.

Hamburger taught singers and accompanists at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, and gave masterclasses and annual seminars in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Sweden and Finland. His literary works include an edition of Mozart Lieder (Oxford University Press), contributions to books on Mozart songs, Mahler’s Wunderhorn songs, Chopin and Britten, and translations, notably of Bruno Walter and Alfred Brendel.

He was a Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy, London, and was awarded the Order of Merit in the Arts and Sciences by the Austrian Government.