From Buchenwald to Carnegie Hall

Walter Gieseking

On that first day, Gieseking invited me to lunch and I met his wife and two daughters, Freya and Jutta. I couldn't help but notice that now the shoe was on the other foot in Germany, It was the Germans ' turn to eat very little. The Giesekings were eating nothing but potatoes, while we DPs, supplied by the American army, had food up to our ears. This gave me an idea, so the next Thursday when I came for my first lesson, I brought a few cans of food with me from the DP camp, I figured that if he was going to teach me for free, the least I could do was show I was grateful. As I started to unpack the food, Gieseking looked at me sternly, "Why did you do that? Youhad nothing to eat for five years. It's you who needs food, it's you who needs to eat, it's you who needs strength to play the piano. You bring it once more, and you won't get a lesson," "I'm sorry, Professor. I meant well." "I know. It's all right." But I had gotten the idea in my head to pay him in someway, 144 walten gieseking Walter Gieseking 145 and it wouldn't let go. So the next week I arrived fifteen minutes early for my lesson, and as I waited for Gieseking in the music room, I hid cans of food here and there, putting some behind books, some under a chair, some on the windowsill. I had my lesson and went home. The next week when I entered the music room for my lesson, he was looking at me with a little smile on his face. "You know," he said, "this has became a very funny room. I go to the window to see if it's raining, and I see on the windowsill a can of beef. Then I go to my bookshelf, and I find a can of butter." He was amused by the idea, but he wagged his finger at me anyway. "What did I tell you?" "Professor, I'm embarrassed. It's just that I don't know how to thank you." "Fine, fine. But don't bring any more. Really." Of course, I did not want to anger my teacher, so I didn't. He was a wonderful human being as well as a great artist. We hit it off right away. Nonetheless, I have to admit that when I arrived for my first lesson with him, I was very nervous. To be honest, I was scared stiff. I knew I was studying with the greatest pianist in the world. I soon realized that he was more of a coach than a teacher, which was what I needed. He wasn't about to tell me, "This is a sharp, this is a flat," or explain to me the basics of music. If I hadn't already been a concert pianist, he wouldn't have bothered with me. He once told me, "If anybody ever says he studied with me before the war, tell him he's a liar." Not long after one of my first lessons with Mr. Gieseking, I ar^ rived at his home to find a Polish guard with a rifle standing on the grounds of the villa. Many Poles were working as guards for the U.S. Army at the time. When I asked him in Polish what was going on, he told me that the Americans wanted Gieseking to leave. Their plan was to take possession of the largest houses in that section of the city for their own use. Inside I found Gieseking and his daughters packing the books and music they hoped to save from confiscation. "Professor," I said, 146 After the Storm "I'm going to start a little diversionary action, I'll get a hold of the guard and tell him a few Polish jokes. He'll forget where he is." That's exactly what happened. While the guard was walking one way with me and laughing at my jokes, books and music were taken out the side doors. In a week or ten days the Americans changed their minds, so the order was rescinded and the guard was lifted. When I grasped that Mr. Gieseking wasn't a teacher as much as a coach, I had mybest idea. We would be...