Maria Curcio Was One of the Best Piano Teachers Ever. Here’s Why

 by Emily E. Hogstad 

 

Maria Curcio could easily have been one of the most famous pianists of the twentieth century.

So why do only a handful of classical music lovers know her name today? What kept her from the solo career she seems to have been born for?

Today, we’re looking at the remarkable story of Maria Curcio: her astonishing precocity, the story of how she escaped the Nazis, and how she came back from wartime health issues to become one of the most influential piano teachers of all time.   

Maria Curcio’s Childhood

Maria Curcio

Maria Curcio was born in August 1918 near Naples, Italy.

Her father was a wealthy Italian businessman, and her mother was a Jewish Brazilian pianist who studied under a pupil of composer/pianist Ferruccio Busoni.

Maria began taking piano lessons from her mother when she was  three years old.

She started giving public performances that same year, expressing delight at the toys that the appreciative audience handed her.

Curcio’s Unhappy Childhood

Curcio’s parents chose to homeschool her, so she’d have as much time as possible to pursue her musical studies and tour.

She didn’t go to school and didn’t play with other children. As an elderly woman, she described her childhood as “not a happy one.”

When she was seven, she was invited to perform for Mussolini. However, on the day of the performance, she threw a tantrum and hid underneath a tablecloth, refusing to come out. According to legend she claimed he was “ruining our country.”

Studying With Legendary Teachers

Maria Curcio

Despite that scandalous no-show, Italian artists took note of the prodigy.

Composer Ottorino Respighi invited her to perform at his home in Rome, and she studied for a time with composer and pianist Alfredo Casella.

Artur Schnabel

She also worked with pianist and conductor Carlo Zecchi, a student of legendary pianist and pedagogue Artur Schnabel.

Later, after her graduation from the Naples Conservatory at the age of fourteen, she spent a year in Paris studying with Nadia Boulanger, the most influential music teacher of the twentieth century.

Meeting Schnabel

Karl Ulrich Schnabel, 1940’s © schnabelmusicfoundation.org

When she returned to Italy, she played for pianist Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Artur’s son.

Karl knew his father didn’t like working with children, but Curcio was simply so dazzling that he urged his father to hear her play.

So Zecchi took Curcio to Lake Como, where the elder Schnabel was ensconced, teaching a series of masterclasses.

Schnabel was blown away by her, declaring her “one of the greatest talents I have ever met.” He quickly asked her to be his pupil.   

Curcio would also work intensively with Schnabel’s wife, singer Therese Behr, providing accompaniments to her students. This training gave her important insights into vocalists’ approaches to music. She later said that she learned just as much from Behr as she did Schnabel.

Through Schnabel, she met conductor Fritz Busch, who offered to work with her while Schnabel was touring. This invaluable connection enabled her to hear legendary opera and orchestral performances.

“You can’t play Mozart if you don’t know the operas,” she later said in an interview. “Because Mozart was vocal.”

A Promising Career Interrupted by War

In 1939, when Curcio was nineteen, she made her London debut.

Unfortunately for Curcio, 1939 was one of the worst years of the century to launch a European career.

That September, Hitler invaded Poland, sparking World War II. Months later, in the spring of 1940, the Nazis made another push and invaded multiple other European countries, including Holland.

Staying in Amsterdam During the Occupation

Upon the outbreak of war, Schnabel’s Jewish secretary, Peter Diamand, moved back to his home in Amsterdam. Curcio joined him and continued her concert career there.

After the Nazis forbade Jews from playing music in public, she protested by refusing to concertize. “I wouldn’t accept to play in a country where not everybody had equal rights.”

Her parents begged her to return to Italy, even involving the Italian ambassador and consul to convince her. But she was deeply loyal to her colleague, and she wasn’t about to abandon him.

Saving Peter Diamand

Diamand ended up being arrested by the Nazis and interned in a Dutch concentration camp. It was only through Curcio’s intervention and string-pulling that he and his mother were kept from being sent to an extermination camp deeper in Nazi territory.

The Diamands were freed, but were told that they would be prime candidates for re-arrest in the near future. It became clear they had no other option but to go into hiding.

Curcio coordinated the dangerous work of securing food and forged identity papers for them. The trio hid in cramped conditions, suffering extensive physical and mental traumas from their ordeal.

During their time underground, Curcio developed tuberculosis and malnutrition. It would take years of work for her to regain use of her limbs and enough physical strength to play piano at a high level again.

While filming a 1980s documentary, Diamand remarked, “It was typical for Maria. I mean, as I said, there are no compromises, and when it means risking one’s life, she risked her life.”

“Would you say that part of the price she paid was her concert career?” the interviewer asked him.

“Indeed,” Diamand replied. “Indeed. She ruined her health.”

Despite the intensity and desperation of their circumstances, or maybe because of them, Curcio and Diamand fell in love. They married in 1947.

Recovering from the War

After the war, she entered a sanitarium to recover from her tuberculosis infection.

She later told a student that while she was bedbound, she spent a huge amount of time thinking about how to play the piano, working out technical and musical problems in her head.

(During this time, fellow patient, conductor Otto Klemperer, tried flirting with her, but only succeeded in spilling orange juice on her.)

She slowly returned to playing during the 1950s.

Although she had lost a huge amount of strength and time, she had also built up a reserve of inner strength and internal conviction that would serve her well as a teacher.

Making Musical Friends

She also had the benefit of being married to Diamand, who, in 1948, became director of the Holland Festival.

As she recovered, through her husband’s work, she was able to remain connected with the greatest musicians of the era.

During this second phase of her performing career, she worked with stars like Benjamin Britten and his partner Peter Pears, Otto Klemperer, Pierre Monteux, and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf.

Conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler also wanted to work with her, but, interestingly, she declined. Although she admired his music-making, she couldn’t justify working with someone whom she felt had legitimised the Nazis.

He sent her a bouquet of roses as a token of his admiration, and she returned the generous gesture by sending him a gift of oranges (a rare treat in late 1940s Europe), but she still refused to make music with him.

In 1963, the year she turned forty-five, she retired from public performance, choosing to focus on teaching instead.

Moving to Britain

In 1965, Peter Diamand was named the director of the Edinburgh International Festival, a position he would hold for thirteen years. The couple moved from Amsterdam to the United Kingdom.

This appointment helped to solidify the family’s connection with Benjamin Britten, who had several of his most important works premiered at the Edinburgh Festival in the 1950s and 1960s.

Curcio often played four-hand piano with him, and the two artists exchanged ideas and inspiration.

Britten helped her get a position teaching at the Royal Academy of Music in London. She also joined the jury of the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition.

Her Teaching Career

Maria Curcio and Simone Dinnerstein

After she settled in Britain, her reputation as a teacher began to grow exponentially.

Many of the most beloved pianists of the last and current centuries visited her studio seeking advice, including:

• Martha Argerich
• Simone Dinnerstein
• Leon Fleisher
• Radu Lupu
• Yevgeny Sudbin
• Inon Barnatan
• Mitsuko Uchida

And those are only a few of many.

Later Life and Death

In 1971, when she was fifty-three, it came out that Diamand had an affair with actress Marlene Dietrich. He and Curcio divorced that year. However, he continued to speak positively of her and agreed to be interviewed for a documentary in the 1980s.

Through the personal turmoil, she continued teaching and redoubling her devotion to her career and her students.

In her eighties, she moved to the coastal city of Porto, Portugal, where she died in 2009. She was ninety years old.

The Legacy of Maria Curcio

Thankfully, before her death, a couple of priceless documentaries were made about her, featuring interviews with her, Diamand, and some of her students.

One BBC Scotland documentary from the 1980s begins with her telling a pupil who is playing the Chopin G-minor Ballade:

The sound that we need on the piano must always not express just notes; it must express feelings.

It must be immediately the transmission between your soul and the soul of the composer, which goes through your ear and your hands, must go immediately to us.

It’s the soul of Chopin which is crying, which is loving.

It’s not the notes.

The Greatest Child Prodigies of All Time, Part 1

by Emily E. Hogstad 

 

Throughout music history, there have been many incredible children who have demonstrated an astonishing, unnervingly early mastery of their art.

Some went on to become the greatest musicians of their age. Others have vanished from our collective memories.

One thing they all have in common is that the stories of their childhoods are all fascinating.

Today, we’re looking at the backgrounds, education, and jaw-dropping accomplishments of some of the greatest child prodigies of all time.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is likely the most famous musical prodigy of all time. He was born in 1756, the second surviving child of court musician Leopold Mozart and his wife.

His older sister Maria Anna, nicknamed Nannerl, began taking keyboard lessons when she was seven and Wolfgang was three.

Nannerl later wrote:

He often spent much time at the clavier, picking out thirds, which he was ever striking, and his pleasure showed that it sounded good…

In the fourth year of his age, his father, for a game as it were, began to teach him a few minuets and pieces at the clavier… He could play it faultlessly and with the greatest delicacy, and keeping exactly in time…

At the age of five, he was already composing little pieces, which he played to his father, who wrote them down.

Despite Leopold’s reputation as a pushy stage father, when it came to his early attempts at composition, Wolfgang was clearly the instigator. His early manuscripts are stained with ink and bear evidence of his enthusiasm for composing.

After both Nannerl and Wolfgang became prodigies, Leopold decided to take leave from his job and accompany them on a tour of Europe. Over a period of years, the Mozart family traveled across Austria, Germany, France, and Britain, showcasing the talents of both children.

Wolfgang composed on the road and wrote his first symphony when he was eight (possibly with the assistance of Nannerl).  

Thomas Linley the Younger

Thomas Linley the Younger

Thomas Linley the younger was born the same year as Mozart, in 1756, in Bath, England. His father shared his name, so the son often went by the nickname Tom.

Thomas Linley the Elder made his living as a music teacher and local impresario, and eventually became the most famous musical patriarch in Bath.

Presenting concerts became a family affair. His children, including Tom, started out by collecting tickets, but once they began showing musical talent, Thomas the Elder had them appear onstage. The musical performances of the Linley children helped secure the family’s social and economic fortunes.

Tom gave his concerto debut on violin in the summer of 1763, just after his seventh birthday. That year, he began studying composition with William Boyce, Master of the King’s Musick.

In between lessons, the Linleys began touring Britain. In 1767, two of the Linley siblings performed at a Covent Garden performance of The Fairy Favour by Thomas Hull. Tom played the violin, sang, and danced, receiving rapturous reviews.

In 1768, the year he turned twelve, Tom went to Italy to study violin playing and composition with Florentine master Pietro Nardini. Tom became Nardini’s favourite pupil.

In April 1770, the month he turned fourteen, he met Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was traveling through Italy with his father to concertize and study. The two boys became fast friends. English writer Charles Burney wrote of their meeting:

The Tommasino, as he is called, and the little Mozart, are talked of all over Italy as the most promising geniuses of this age.

When Wolfgang had to leave for the next stop on his tour, both boys were upset at having to separate. Leopold Mozart wrote to his wife, who remained in Salzburg during the Italian tour:

These two boys performed in alternation during the whole evening, constantly embracing each other.

The next day, the little Englishman, a very dear boy, had his violin brought to us and played the whole afternoon; Wolfgang accompanied him on the violin.

The day after, we dined with Msr. Gavard, the Grand Duke’s financial administrator, and these two boys played in alternation the whole afternoon, not as boys, but as men!

Little Thomas accompanied us home and cried the most bitter tears because we were leaving the next day.

Tragically, Tom would never get to develop into a fully fledged performing artist or composer. He died in August 1778 at the age of twenty-two in a boating accident.

Mozart would never forget his friend, telling tenor Michael Kelly years later that Tom was “a true genius” and, had he lived, would have become one of the great musicians of the age.   

William Crotch

William Crotch

William Crotch was born in Norfolk, Britain, in the summer of 1775. His father was a carpenter and instrument builder.

When William was two years old, he began performing on an organ that his father had built. He made fast progress. The following year, his mother brought him to London, where he performed for King George III, playing on an organ at St. James’s Palace.

One magazine reported:

As soon as he has finished a regular tune, or part of a tune, or played some little fancy notes of his own, he stops, and has some of the pranks of a wanton boy; some of the company then generally give him a cake, an apple, or an orange, to induce him to play again…

Later in life, Crotch admitted that this strategy to get him to play had spoiled him.

His first oratorio was performed when he was just fourteen.

He attended Oxford University and became a professor there in 1797, when he was twenty-two. Over the course of his career, he taught a number of important British musicians.  

Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn

Felix Mendelssohn was born in early 1809 to a wealthy and musical banking family. He grew up to become one of the most impressive musical prodigies in classical music history.

A variety of influences played into Felix’s early development.

His older sister Fanny Mendelssohn was a child prodigy herself, and the two siblings bonded over their musical studies.

The wider family also valued the arts and education, and their wealth enabled both Fanny and Felix to explore their musical interests in a supportive environment.

In addition, the Mendelssohns’ social cachet meant that all manner of artistic and intellectual leaders of the nineteenth century flocked to the family home.

In short, it was the perfect environment for a prodigy to develop.

Felix began studying the piano with his mother when he was six. Throughout his childhood, he had a number of first-rate teachers, including Marie Bigot (who had worked with Beethoven) and Ludwig Berger (who had studied with Clementi). He also began studying composition.

His parents paid for a private orchestra to perform at house concerts, and Felix began writing music for the ensemble. As a child, he wrote thirteen string symphonies for them.

His first published work, a piano quartet, appeared when he was just thirteen. (It is believed that his father helped to ensure the publication of the work.)  

But Felix’s father wasn’t encouraging his son out of pity: the works were of genuine, astonishing quality. In fact, Mendelssohn’s string octet, written for four violins, two violas, and two cellos, is widely considered to be one of the finest works of chamber music ever written…and he was only sixteen when he composed it!  

The following year, he followed the Octet up with his Overture to a Midsummer Night’s Dream, which still appears on concert programs today.

In 1821, when Felix was twelve, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe compared Felix to Mozart, suggesting that between the two, Felix might be even more talented. It was a shocking comparison, especially because Goethe had met Mozart when he was a touring seven-year-old prodigy.

Charles-Valentin Alkan

Charles-Valentin Alkan

Charles-Valentin Alkan was born in Paris in 1813 to a musical family. His father was a musician and head of a private music school, and all five of his siblings went into music professionally in some capacity.

His musical talent was obvious from an early age. Astonishingly, he took his first audition for the Paris Conservatoire solfège class when he was just five years old. One of his examiners wrote that he had “a pretty little voice.”

A year later, he auditioned for the piano class, too. That time the examiners wrote, “This child has amazing abilities.”

In 1821, when he was seven, he won a first prize in solfège. That same year, he gave his first public performance on violin.

He also began studying piano, and at the age of ten, he won a piano prize to add to his collection.

His opus 1 for solo piano was written in 1828, when he was just fourteen. As the work makes clear, he was already a master musician.  

Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns

Camille Saint-Saëns was born to a Parisian family in 1835. Tragically, just a few months after Camille’s birth, his father died of tuberculosis.

He spent the first two years of his life in the countryside with a nurse, and was only reunited with his widowed mother in Paris in 1837.

Before his third birthday, he began picking out melodies on the family piano. His great-aunt was his first piano teacher, but he quickly learned all that she had to teach. When he was seven, he began studying with Camille-Marie Stamaty.

He began playing for small groups when he was five years old, but his mother made sure that he didn’t concertize too widely as a very young boy.

He gave his public debut when he was ten in a remarkable double-header, playing Mozart’s fifteenth piano concerto and Beethoven’s third concerto.

In 1848, when he was thirteen, he enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire. Over the course of his studies there, he became an organ virtuoso as well as a piano virtuoso.

He began his formal composition studies when he was fifteen. That same year, he wrote a symphony in A-major, although he never published it.

He capped off his student career by writing his Op. 1 for harmonium in 1852, the year he turned seventeen.  

Blind Tom Wiggins

Blind Tom Wiggins

Thomas Wiggins was born on a Georgia plantation in the spring of 1849. His lot was unimaginably difficult: both of his parents were enslaved, and he was born blind.

Because his blindness kept him from doing work that an enslaved person would generally do, he was permitted to wander the grounds as a child.

One day, he heard one of the plantation owner’s daughters play piano, and he was immediately intrigued. He was allowed access to the piano and was composing by the time he was five.

The master of the plantation, a man named General Bethune, saw a money-making opportunity. He moved Tom into his own room and made a piano available to him. He began playing twelve hours a day.

Because of his lack of traditional formal training, he focused on reproducing the sounds he heard around him, like rainstorms and birdsong.

When he was eight years old, General Bethune hired a promoter to oversee Tom’s career. Tom began a grueling touring schedule, being marketed as a freak of nature and compared to an animal. He began earning the family the modern equivalent of millions of dollars a year. Of course, Tom and his family saw none of that money.

To publicise Tom, Bethune would hire musicians to play for Tom, then challenge him to reproduce what he’d just heard, which he could always do. That extraordinary memory resulted in his learning thousands of pieces of music by ear.

In 1860, when he was eleven, he appeared at the White House for James Buchanan, becoming the first Black artist to give a command performance there.

After the Confederacy lost the American Civil War, Bethune sent a teenage Tom to Europe. While there, he received testimonials from pianist Ignaz Moscheles and conductor Charles Hallé, attesting to his genius.

John Williams Conducts 50 Years A Salute to Film Composers [1080p

00:00 : Speech (John Williams) 00:30 : Warner Bros. Fanfare 00:37 : As Time Goes By (Casablanca) - Max Steiner Adaptation 00:50 : Citizen Kane (Bernard Herrmann) 00:57 : 20th Century Fox Fanfare (Alfred Newman) 01:06 : Star Wars Main Title (John williams) 01:15 : SeaHawk (Erich Wolfgang Korngold) 01:34 : Spellbound (Milklos Rozsa) 01:42 : Titanic (James Horner) 01:54 : Psycho (Bernard Hermann) 01:59 : Jaws (John Williams) 02:07 : The Pink Panther (Henry Mancini) 02:16 : Exodus (Ernest Gold) 02:27 : Out of Africa (John Barry) 02:43 : Dr Zhivago (Maurice Jarre) 02:55 : Bridge on the River Kwai (Musical Direction : Malcom Arnold) 03:05 : Patton (Jerry Goldsmith) 03:14 : Rocky Theme (Bill Conti) 03:18 : The Magnificient Seven (Elmer Bernstein) 03:34 : The Natural (Randy Newman) 03:39 : Cinema Paradiso Love Theme (Andrea & Ennio Morricone) 04:00 : The Godfather Theme (Nino Rota) 04:11 : E.T The Extra-Terrestral (John Williams) 04:21 : Gone with The Wind (Max Steiner)

Who Wants To Live Forever | Arena di Verona 2024 ❤

831,354 views May 29, 2024 #ignazioboschetto #pierobarone #gianlucaginoble

Social • Instagram: @ignazioboschetto.italy • Tiktok: @ignazioboschetto.italy

Salut Salon "Wettstreit zu viert" | "Competitive Foursome"

Antonio Vivaldi's "Sommer" wird zum Schauplatz eines musikalischen Wettkampfs. Salut Salon fechten ihn akrobatisch aus, und mit viel Humor - ein Klassiker des Hamburger Quartetts. Ein Konzertmitschnitt aus dem Film "Salut Salon. Der Film" von Regisseur Ralf Pleger. "The Summer", composed by Antonio Vivaldi, becomes the stage for a musical competition. Salut Salon fight acrobatically and with a special sense of humor -- this is a Salut Salon classic, a live recording from the movie "Salut Salon. The Movie", directed by musicfilmmaker Ralf Pleger.

Dvořák: 9. Sinfonie (»Aus der Neuen Welt«) ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester

9,305,755 views Jun 6, 2018

Antonín Dvořák: 9. Sinfonie (»Aus der Neuen Welt«) ∙ (Auftritt) 00:00 ∙ I. Adagio – Allegro molto 00:24 ∙ II. Largo 13:01 ∙ III. Scherzo. Molto vivace 26:23 ∙ IV. Allegro con fuoco 34:06 ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester – Frankfurt Radio Symphony ∙ Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Dirigent ∙ hr-Sinfoniekonzert ∙ Alte Oper Frankfurt, 25. Mai 2018 ∙

Lionel Richie & CoCo Lee - Endless Love (Chinese Idol Finale)

Music video by Rod Stewart performing What a Wonderful World. (C) 2004 RCA Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment

David Foster & Martin Nievera “Be My Lady” (11/19) at Solaire Manila 2023

Celine Dion Medley with Brian McKnight

69,432,730 views Sep 7, 2009

1. Because You Loved Me 2. Theme Song From Beauty And The Beast 3. My Heart Will Go On

Hungarian cellist Zoltán Onczay reconnects with Pinoys via music

 

Popular Hungarian cellist Zoltán Onczay performs in 'A Night in Hollywood' held at the Aliw Theater in Pasay City on June 28. The Manila Symphony Orchestra presented the concert. (Images courtesy of Instagram)

By Robert Requintina

Published Sep 2, 2025 12:17 am

Renowned Hungarian cellist Zoltán Onczay radiated joy as he took to the stage for his debut performance in the Philippines. The vibrant atmosphere of the Aliw Theater in Pasay City came alive during the Manila Symphony Orchestra's enchanting event, "A Night in Hollywood."

With each stroke of his bow, Zoltán captivated the audience, creating a magical evening filled with the mesmerizing sounds of orchestral music.

"It's fantastic! I love Asia, especially Southeast Asia. But this is my first time in Manila. It's very nice and the people are very kind. I like the sunshine and the humidity," said Zoltán when asked about performing in Manila during an interview at the Manila Bulletin's Paper Cup coffee shop in Intramuros recently.

Performing for the Philippine audience, Zoltán added, "That was a fantastic concert, 'A Night in Hollywood.' I want to thank the organizers. I would also like to thank the Manila Symphony Orchestra, organized by Jeffrey Solares. It was a special concert with good music. I could feel the vibrant energy of the audience. The orchestra played various pieces from films, primarily from the works of John Williams. I had the opportunity to play his wonderful solo piece 'Seven Years In Tibet,' and I performed folk music."

Zoltán was accompanied by Hungarian Ambassador to the Philippines Titanilla Tóth during the interview at the Manila Bulletin. She was also impressed by the audience that attended the concert.

"The concert was a huge success, with many young people in the crowd. The crowd was fantastic, and it was a full house," the Ambassador said.

Hollywood, some people were dressed in costumes. We were surprised by how the younger generation tried to connect with the music."

Zoltán expressed his delight about the concert, a thrilling experience that resonated with his deep passion for Hollywood movies and the enchanting world of music.

The melodies and captivating performances transported him, making every moment feel like a scene straight out of a cinematic masterpiece.

Reconnecting with Pinoys

Unknown to many, Zoltán's bond with the vibrant Filipino community has its roots stretching back to the unforgettable year of 2022.

"We were on holiday with my family when I got a message from a friend who informed me about the concern of Jeffrey Solares, the Executive Director and Associate Conductor of the Manila Symphony Orchestra.

"The message read, 'Hi, we are from the Philippines. We need your help because we've been involved in an accident. Some of the cellos have broken. I didn't know what to do because it was Saturday.