In Memoriam Prof. Michael Uhde (1953 - 2024) - Pianist & Chamber Musician

When in January 2024 I received the unexpected news of the sudden passing of Prof. Michael Uhde at the age of only 70, it came as a huge shock and with great sadness. Not only had he been one of the most outstanding advocates of chamber music in general, but in particular that of the German Classics & Romantics - with Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms amongst his favourites -, and he was furthermore a renowned music teacher, pianist, chamber musician and researcher - plus, on top of all, my first piano teacher and musical mentor, but more about this later.

Obituary for Prof. Michael Uhde

Michael Uhde was a pivotal figure within an established musical family, born in 1953 as the son of one of post-war Germany's most revered scholars: pianist, writer and teacher Prof. Jürgen Uhde (1913-91), himself author of three detailed volumes on the entire piano music by Ludwig van Beethoven¹. 

Jürgen Uhde - Beethovens Klaviermusik, Vol I-III

Jürgen Uhde would make his name not only by performing on stage or on the radio, but also by introducing the pieces to his audiences in a simple, understandable and non-academic language, establishing a way of presenting which later his son would pick up, too, and routinely include in his own performances. Jürgen Uhde regularly appeared on national radio programs reviewing and analysing musical works from the Baroque to the contemporary, and comparing various recordings of those works.²

Michael, after receiving his first piano lessons from his father, went on to study piano with Carl Seeman in Freiburg im Breisgau, and later with Bruno Canino in Milan, before marrying the extremely talented, Belgrade born cellist and pupil of André Navarra, Mstislav Rostropovich and Pierre Fournier, Sanja-Božena Uhde. The pair joined forces with another musical couple, Antonio (violin) and Cornelia (viola) Pellegrini, and widely toured as "Schumann Ensemble" (or "Schumann Duo/Trio", depending on the repertoire performed) around southern Germany and abroad, often taking Michael's trusted old Grotrian baby grand in the back of a trailer to venues where no piano would have been available otherwise. Sanja Uhde, however, eventually scaled down her own career, in order to focus on the upbringing of the couple's four children, three of them having since forged extraordinary musical careers for themselves:

Twins Katharina (violin) & Tatjana (violoncello) were born in 1981 - at the time I received my first piano lessons from their father - and have long firmly established themselves in today's musical world: Katharina, who studied with Ulf Hoelscher in Karlsruhe, Germany, had moved to the USA where she completed her PhD and now teaches as a professor for violin and musicology; apart from performing with various international ensembles and orchestras (and with her family, of course)³, she has recently re-discovered and recorded two pieces by Joseph Joachim which were considered lost, and published those for the German Bärenreiter Verlag.⁴ 

Tatjana, on the other hand, who studied with Martin Ostertag and Antonio Meneses, amongst others, now lives in Paris where she is assistant solo cellist at the Opera Bastille, as well as a member of the Quatuor Hernani and other ensembles, but she also regularly performs with her family. Every summer she gets selected by some of the most famous conductors to play as solo cellist at the Richard Wagner Festival in Bayreuth. And in 2020/21 she released her finest album to date: a recording of all Beethoven Cello Sonatas together with her father.

Gabriel Uhde (*1990) has taken up the viola and is currently a member of the excellent NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg, Germany. Even the next generation of Uhde children are now well underway, with Katharina's two daughters both having picked up the playing of string instruments from an early age. 

Michael Uhde, who had been teaching chamber music at the small Conservatory of Trossingen (in the region of Swabia in southern Germany), was later offered a professorship for chamber music at the renowned Hochschule für Musik (Conservatory) in Karlsruhe, where his children had been studying before, and where he soon successfully took on the role of Prorektor (Vice Chancellor) which he held for many years. Sanja continues to teach the cello at the same institution until today.

Uhde Family - CD

It was almost by chance that I got to meet Michael Uhde: we were neighbours in a small town in southern Germany (not far from Freiburg where he had been a student) when, in 1981, the Uhde and Pellegrini couples shared a house next door to where we had moved from spending my early childhood abroad. And as it happened, it was my mother's dream that I should learn the piano (a wish she could not have fulfilled herself growing up during the post-war chaos in Germany), my first piano lesson was quickly arranged: being a shy, introverted child, I was almost fearful at the arrival of this tall man with a large mane of blond hair, reminiscent of the well-known picture of the young Johannes Brahms!⁵

The young Johannes Brahms (ca. 1867)

But through his calm, patient and most of all, positive way, Michael would soon convince me to carry on with my lessons and awakened in me a liking not only for playing the piano, but for classical music in general. Yet I had my own approach to ingesting all things musical, and this did not necessarily involve practising scales and arpeggios: I would prefer improvising at the piano and scribbling notes onto reams and reams of score paper, generating lots of rather meaningless outputs of Beethoven-inspired music. However, instead of loosing his patience over my lack of discipline when supposed to practice - and rather not doing as I was told! -, Michael would recognise my widened interest in music, and he would arrange for me to take supplementary theory lessons from a student at the Freiburg Conservatory. Nevertheless, Michael succeeded in preparing me for my exams and my entrance at the Saarbrücker Musikhochschule (Conservatory), not least through the connection of him teaching the wife of my future professor, Bernd Glemser, Suzanne, in his chamber music class at the Conservatory in Trossingen. Before I left Michael's tuition, however, he persuaded my parents to purchase from him the aforementioned Grotrian baby grand, which - until today - I play almost every single day. 

Uhde's Grotrian Steinweg 5'7'' grand piano, now owned by the author

It was this instrument which he used for our private piano lessons, whereas his treasured Steinway B model was spared mainly for the regular "house concerts" where all of his pupils came together to present their latest pieces, and which had become somewhat of an institution in the Uhde household.

When at the Saarbrücken Conservatory, my studies had become more disciplined and focussed on the piano repertoire, but I continued taking classes in theory and counterpoint, yet, discouraged by the leading scholars there, gave up the writing of endless scores containing meaningless music, as I did previously. Then, after my final exam, I took on travelling and earned a small living by playing the bar piano on a cruise ship. This wasn't my most productive time in musical terms, but through my travels I was being introduced to the music of Central and South America, and I began to study and analyse the Latin culture, entirely new to me then, which seemed to open new doors of musical comprehension and appreciation - from Salsa to Tango, from Samba to Frevo, plus many other genres -, as well as being an inspiration for writing beautiful melodies, colourful harmonies and complex rhythmical patterns. 

Years later, and back on firm land, it turned out to be a significant moment when I met Michael for the last time - at concert with Sanja and him in 2015, in the same small town where we first lived together - when he rekindled and encouraged my efforts in writing music - which he very well remembered all these years after! And when I introduced him at the same event to my Brazilian wife, he happily gifted us a copy of his recent CD of Brazilian chamber music (recorded in 2013 together with his daughters Katharina & Tatjana) and started talking about the workshops he held in Belo Horizonte and other major Brazilian cities. It is therefore without hesitation that Michal Uhde should be the dedicatee of my Piano Trio No. 1 "Samba", in appreciation of all his efforts and support, and of the tremendous influence he has held on me, not only as a piano teacher, but also as a musical mentor and role model. 

Announcement of a masterclass given by Michael Uhde in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 2015

With the untimely passing of Prof. Michael Uhde, we - the people who have been privileged to know him - have not only lost a good friend with a huge personality, a great sense of humour, intensely generous and a fantastic listener, but the wider musical world will always remember him as one of their greatest chamber musicians of recent times, an excellent pedagogue, teacher and a source of inspiration, and, of course, a member of one of Germany's best established musical families. He will be sadly missed by everyone, but luckily - and this is so important - his wife and children continue to play regularly together as a family ensemble, whenever their busy schedules allow it, thus keeping the most intimate musical tradition alive: the institution of "house music" which goes all the way back to one of Michael's personal heroes, Robert Schumann.

Alexander Kirsch

Blackpool, in October 2025

***

¹ Jürgen Uhde, Beethovens Klaviermusik I-III; Reclam Verlag, Ditzingen, Germany; 1970 - 1984

² Fortunately, some of Prof. Jürgen Uhde's lectures are available on YouTube: 

• "Der Klang im späten Klavierwerk Beethovens", 06/06/1991, Vortragssaal der Kunsthalle Stuttgart; 
• Ludwig van Beethoven: Klaviersonate Es-Dur op. 81a "Les adieux". Kommentar und Interpretationsvergleich von Jürgen Uhde. Mitschnitt von Sendungen des SDR2 Juni 1989

³ Katharina Uhde has recently performed with the great Italian maestro Bruno Canino, with whom her father himself had studied; a number of YouTube videos of their performances are available.

⁴ Joachim, Joseph: Fantasie über Ungarische Motive (1850) / Fantasie über Irische [Schottische] Motive (1852) für Violine und Orchester; BÄRENREITER URTEXT; Bärenreiter-Verlag, Kassel, Germany; 2018

⁵ I was probably one of Uhde's very first private pupils - but as his local reputation grew, so did his piano class.