Sophie Menteraus romantic

Sophie Menter (later married Popper, * 29 July 1846 in Munich; † 23 February 1918 in Munich) was a German pianist, composer and music educator.

Life

Sophie (also: Sofie) Menter was born in Munich on 29 July 1846, the daughter of the cellist Joseph Menter, and began playing the piano at an early age under the guidance of her mother and older sisters. She received her first lessons from Sigmund Lebert, who was active in Munich at the time and later founded the Stuttgart Music School. After her father’s death, she studied from 1857 at the Royal Conservatory with Rheinberger, Leonhard and Julius von Kolb and finally privately with Friedrich Niest until her successful debut on 24 November 1862 in a concert of the Musical Academy in Munich. She then began to stage her own concerts and to undertake concert tours, the longest of which took her to Switzerland in early 1866. Decisive for her becoming known in northern Germany were two performances a year later in the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the most renowned German concert hall at the time, where she was stormily celebrated. A visit to Berlin followed, during which she became acquainted with Carl Tausig and became his pupil.

In 1869, during a stay in Vienna, she met Franz Liszt, with whom she remained close friends until his death. Liszt regarded Sophie Menter as the best pianist of her time. However, she was not his pupil, as she had already completed her training when they met.

In 1868 Menter became court pianist to Prince Konstantin von Hohenzollern-Hechingen in Löwenberg in Silesia. In 1872 she married the violoncellist David Popper (1843-1913), with whom she had a daughter. The marriage was divorced in 1886. She was appointed k.k. Chamber virtuoso and was professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory from 1883 to 1887. During this time she established close contacts with Tchaikovsky, Rubinstein and Rimsky-Korsakov. Her concert piece Hungarian Gypsy Tunes goes back to her own sketches, which were arranged by Liszt and orchestrated by Tchaikovsky.

From 1887 to 1902 Sophie Menter lived at Itter Castle in Tyrol, which she had already acquired in 1884, and from 1905 in Stockdorf near Munich. At the end of 1917, she moved to Munich to live with her friend Alice Ripper, where she died in 1918.

Source Wiki: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sophie_Menter