Volkmar Andreae(1879-1962)

The distinguished Swiss musician Volkmar Andreae was born in Bern on July 5th 1879. His musical gifts manifested themselves at a relatively early age and he began his serious music studies at the Bern Conservatoire under Karl Munzinger. His progress was rapid, and within a few years Andreae had enrolled at the Cologne Conservatoire, a pupil of the then director of the institution, the important German musician Franz Wüllner, who had succeeded Ferdinand Hiller. With Wüllner as his main teacher, there should be little surprise that a gifted and eager student, such as Volkmar Andreae showed himself to be in Cologne, would make great strides in his conservatoire work. Andreae excelled both as composer and conductor, and published his first mature composition, the Piano Trio in F minor Opus 1, in 1901 when he was 22. The work made a deep impression, and hearing it today, over one hundred years after it appeared, we may pause and consider why such a fine score as this should have become relatively neglected.

Volkmar Andreae on Guild Music

• GMCD 7307 Volkmar Andreae Piano Trios
• GMCD 7237 Romantic Swiss Song

Page revised Thursday March 29 2007