Lajos Hernádi

Lajos Hernádi ( ; March 13, 1906 – June 29, 1986) was a Hungarian pianist. He played widely across post-war Europe and taught for several decades at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, where he influenced pianists like Tamás Vásáry, Peter Erős, and György Cziffra.

Early life and education Hernádi was born in 1906 in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary, to an Ashkenazi Jewish family. Originally named Lajos Heimlich, He studied piano as a child and joined the Budapest Academy of Music in 1924, studying under Béla Bartók. His graduation recital featured contemporary pieces including the Petrushka Suite by Stravinsky and Bartók's Piano Sonata. Notable students include Tamás Vásáry, Peter Erős, Tamás Ungár, Carola Grindea, and Péter Frankl, and Hernádi also influenced György Cziffra.

Hernádi also made a large contribution to Hungarian music publishing, preparing editions of works by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and Czerny. In 1948 he co-edited, with István Szelényi, an anthology titled Techniques of the Masters. His 1953 essay "Bartók: the pianist, the teacher and the person" drew considerable attention and was subsequently published in French in an issue of La Revue musicale devoted to Bartók. His annotated editions of Bach's shorter preludes and inventions and of Haydn's piano sonatas remain in use as teaching materials in Hungary. In 1956, he received the Kossuth Prize in recognition of his work.

Publications

Chopin's Piano Style from a Musicological Perspective (1942; 1949) Contributions to the Psychology of Practicing Piano (1947) Chopin - Celebrations in Warsaw (1960) Some Characteristic Features of Chopin's Piano Writing (1963)