Lili Kraus

Born in 1905 in Budapest to a financially struggling Hungarian mother and Czech father, Kraus began piano studies at the local Academy of Music at the age of eight. Among her teachers were Kodály and Bartók, and she earned her diploma with highest distinction in 1922. She continued her training at the Vienna Konservatorium, working with Eduard Steuermann and participating in Schnabel’s master classes. Beginning in 1925 she served on the faculty there herself for six years. During the 1930s she appeared regularly both as a soloist and as recital partner to violinist Szymon Goldberg; together they recorded Beethoven and Mozart sonatas for British Parlophone in 1935 and 1937, along with additional solo material. Her core repertoire also embraced Chopin, Haydn, Schubert, and Bartók.

After marrying philosopher Otto Mandl, the couple converted to Catholicism and settled in Italy, yet the advance of Nazism forced their move to the Dutch East Indies. While on tour in 1942, Kraus, her husband, and their two children were arrested in Indonesia and confined to separate prisoner-of-war camps on Java for nearly three years. Their survival was largely due to the Japanese authorities’ familiarity with her name and recordings; a Japanese conductor reportedly supplied food and musical scores until British forces liberated them. She then spent two years performing in Australia and New Zealand, acquiring British citizenship in the latter country, and also appeared in South Africa before returning to England in 1948. Her American debut followed in 1949. Recording resumed as well, first for Vox with second-tier Viennese orchestras and conductors in Mozart and Beethoven concertos, later for Vanguard in the United States. In the 1966–1967 season she performed twenty-five of Mozart’s twenty-seven concertos in a single New York series, then played his complete keyboard sonatas the following season.

An indefatigable conversationalist who created her own concert gowns, Kraus was never regarded as a virtuoso even before the war, yet she was esteemed for her interpretive depth. Those who heard her both before and after the conflict often noted with regret that her playing had been permanently altered. She continued performing, however, with characteristic directness—sometimes almost brusqueness—in certain repertoire. Texas Christian University at Fort Worth named her artist-in-residence in 1968, and she became a frequent juror at the Cliburn International Competitions. She strove to transmit to her students the same fervor that sustained her own concert career until 1982, an intensity that occasionally unsettled shy or reserved pupils. Observers at various American piano competitions often described her as a surrogate stage mother because of her tireless exhortations and advocacy. Nevertheless she remained devoted to her students, modeling her approach on the teachers of her own youth.

In 1978 the Austrian government conferred upon her the Cross of Honor for Science and Art. Retaining British citizenship, she taught in Texas until retiring in 1983. She kept a home in Asheville, North Carolina, where she died in 1986.