Ania Dorfmann (9 July 1899 – 21 April 1984) was a Russian-American pianist and teacher, who taught at the
Juilliard School in New York for many years and was the first of only a very few women pianists to play or record under
Arturo Toscanini.
Career
Ania Dorfmann was born in
Odessa,
Russia (now in
Ukraine) in 1899, the daughter of a merchant. She gave her first concert at the age of 11. Around this time she accompanied the even younger
Jascha Heifetz.[1][2] In 1916-17 she studied in
Paris with
Isidor Philipp at the
Conservatoire de Paris,[3][4] then returned to Russia to find it in the midst of
revolution. She returned to France in 1920, commenced her professional career in Belgium,[3] and played throughout Europe and Britain for the next 15 years, under such conductors as
Willem Mengelberg, Sir
Thomas Beecham and Sir
Henry Wood.[5] She made her home in London during this time.[4] Among the artists she appeared with in Britain were
John McCormack[6][7] and
Heddle Nash.[8]
She made her
New York debut in 1936 at the
Town Hall,[1] and played there again in 1938 and 1939. She was the first female pianist ever engaged as a soloist by
Arturo Toscanini,[1][9] under whom she played
Beethoven's Choral Fantasy with his
NBC Symphony Orchestra on 2 December 1939, the only time Toscanini ever programmed that work.[10] They later played all the Beethoven piano concertos,[1][11] and recorded the
First Concerto in 1945 (there is also a recording of a live performance from 1939).[10] She settled in the United States in 1938,[4] touring and recording. Her agent at that time was David Rubin.[12] Her appearances included concerts under
Serge Koussevitzky.[13]
In 1947 Ania Dorfmann worked intensively with the actress
Barbara Stanwyck, who was making the film The Other Love, in which she played a concert pianist.[14] Although Ania Dorfmann played the piano music heard on screen, she had Stanwyck practise for three hours a day to make her actions match the music.[15]
She retired in June 1983 and died on 21 April 1984, aged 84.[26]
Personal life
She was the wife of Vladimir Dorfmann, a Russian businessman she met in Paris. Their daughter, Natacha Ullman (1929-1986), was a writer who used the pen name Natacha Stewart; she was the author of "Evil Eye and Other Stories", and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. Natacha had two sons, Nicolas and Alex Ullman.[27]
Recordings
Ania Dorfmann made a number of recordings primarily for
RCA Victor, some of the most notable of which were:
^Some sources say Ania Dorfmann was the only woman pianist who ever played under Toscanini, but Maria Carreras played Beethoven's Triple Concerto under him with the New York Philharmonic (Michel Piastro, violin and Alfred Wallenstein, cello) more than once in the 1932/33 season and Dame
Myra Hess played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 under him on 24 November 1946. (Frank, pp. 86-87)
^
abMortimer H Frank, Arturo Toscanini: The NBC Years, pp. 122-123