Sophie Menter

A cabinet card portrait of the German pianist and composer Sophie Menter (1846-1918), who became the favourite female student of Franz Liszt. In Paris they called her ‘l'incarnation de Liszt’ because of her robust, electrifying playing style. She was considered one of the greatest piano virtuosos of her time.

Born in Munich, the daughter of cellist Josef Menter and singer Wilhelmine Menter (née Diepold), she studied piano with Siegmund Lebert and later Friedrich Niest. At 15, she played Carl Maria von Weber's Konzertstück for piano and orchestra with Franz Lachner conducting. Her first concert appearances took her to Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Switzerland, and in 1867 she became acclaimed for her interpretation of Liszt's piano music at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. In Berlin, Menter became acquainted with the famous pianist Carl Tausig; she became a pupil of Liszt in 1869 after studying with Tausig and Hans von Bülow. Between 1872 and 1886 she was married to cellist David Popper. In 1881 she first appeared in England and was awarded honorary membership of the Royal Philharmonic Society two years later. In 1883 she became professor of piano at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory but left in 1886 to resume her concert tours.

Because of her popularity, Menter succeeded with music that no other pianist would touch. This included Liszt's First Piano Concerto, which she played in Vienna in 1869, twelve years after its disastrous premiere there. She also composed various pieces for piano, mainly in a brilliant style.

Liszt described Menter as ‘my only piano daughter,’ proclaiming that ‘No woman can touch her.’ Critic Walter Nieman described her style as ‘a blend of virtuosity and elegance; a great, round and full Lisztian kind of tone; fiery temperament; a masculine weight on the keys; plasticity; a through-and-through distinguished craft of shape and form; in which soul, spirit and technique are fused in harmony and union.’

She died at Stockdorf, near Munich, in 1918.

Photographed by Elliott and Fry of 55, Baker Street, London.