Frey, Walter

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Frey, Walter

Frey, Walter, Swiss pianist and teacher, brother of Emil Frey; b. Basel, Jan. 26, 1898; d. Zurich, May 28, 1985. He studied piano with F. Niggli and theory with Andreae. From 1925 to 1958 he was an instructor in piano at the Zurich Cons. He concurrently evolved an active concert career in Germany and Scandinavia. He specialized in modern piano music and gave first performances of several piano concertos by contemporary composers; later he became well known for his championship of the keyboard works of Bach. He publ. (withW. Schuh) a collection, Schweizerische Klaviermusik aus der Zeit der Klassik und Romantik (Zurich, 1937).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire