Haberbier, Ernst

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Haberbier, Ernst

Haberbier, Ernst, German pianist and composer; b. Königsberg, Oct. 5, 1813; d. while giving a concert in Bergen, Norway, March 12, 1869. He studied with his father, an organist. He left home in 1832, and went to Russia, where he became a court pianist in St. Petersburg in 1847. He gave concerts in London in 1850, and in 1852 appeared in Paris, where he scored a sensational success. In 1866 he settled in Bergen. He perfected what he considered a novel system of piano technique, dividing difficult passages between the 2 hands, but this had been done by Scarlatti and Bach long before. He wrote a number of effective piano pieces, of which Études-Poésies (op.53) are the best known.

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire