Eduard Erdmann plays Schubert – Andantino from Sonata in A major, D.959 (1944 rec.)

The Baltic-German pianist and composer Eduard Erdmann (1896-1958) was a very cultured man. His enormous library was renowned, and he had professional and personal relationships with not only the greatest musicians of his time (such as Artur Schnabel and Walter Gieseking) but also with painters, scientists and writers. He saw himself mainly as a composer. As a pianist his approach was philosophical, eclectic, analytical and "anti-romantic" in the sense that he tried to be as objective as possible in his interpretations.

The Nazi rise to power had a great impact on his career. In 1935 he resigned as a piano professor at the Cologne Academy of Music, in protest of the way his Jewish colleagues were treated. His own works were seen as "degenerate" by the Nazis, and as a result his compositions were not heard or performed. After the war was over, they were soon considered outdated. Erdmann became an "inner exile", and he and his family settled permanently in Langballig (in the North of Germany, close to the Danish border). He kept concertizing, and in 1937 he was forced to accept a membership of the Nazi Party to protect his family (he had four children). This somewhat ruined his post-war reputation.

This radio broadcast recording of Schubert's Sonata in A major, D.959 was made in Hamburg in 1944 – it must have been a particular dark & desperate period for him. It didn't capture him at his best... however the slow movement I find quite extraordinary.
Paintings of Erdmann by Hans Holtorf (1899-1984) and Fritz Flebbe (1893-1929).

Source: eduard-erdmann-gesellschaft.de/