Arthur Friedheim

Arthur Friedheim (, 26 October 1859 – 19 October 1932) was a Russian-born concert pianist and composer who was one of Franz Liszt’s foremost pupils. One of Friedheim’s students was Rildia Bee O’Bryan Cliburn, the mother of 20th-century piano virtuoso Van Cliburn. Biography Friedheim was born in Saint Petersburg on 26 October 1859. He began serious study of music at age eight. He later studied for a year with noted pianist Anton Rubinstein but disapproved of Rubinstein’s disorganized teaching methods and went instead to Liszt. At first Liszt did not like Friedheim’s playing, though he admitted the individuality of Friedheim’s style. Harold C. Schonberg asserts in his book The Great Pianists that another reason Liszt may have been hesitant was that Friedheim had studied with Rubinstein, of whom Liszt may not have been terribly fond. Friedheim had to play before Liszt several times before becoming accepted as a pupil in 1880. The friendship between them eventually led Liszt to make Friedheim his secretary. Friedheim copied many of Liszt’s mannerisms, which were noted by pianist and composer Ferruccio Busoni on hearing Friedheim play in Vienna in 1883. Busoni wrote: “There is a pianist