Badura-Skoda (real name, Badura)

Badura-Skoda (real name, Badura), Paul, Austrian pianist, music scholar, and composer; b. Vienna, Oct. 6, 1927. He was reared by his stepfather, whose surname he adopted professionally. He studied piano and conducting at the Vienna Cons. (1945–48), and attended the piano master classes of Edwin Fischer in Lucerne. In 1948 he made his debut in Vienna. After winning third prize in the Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris in 1949, he performed throughout Europe. On Jan. 10, 1953, he made his U.S. debut in N.Y. He played for the first time in Tokyo in 1959, and in 1964 he made his first appearance in Moscow. From 1966 to 1971 he served as artist-in-residence at the Univ. of Wise, at Madison. In addition to his solo career, he also gave duo piano recitals with Jòrg Demus. In 1977 he was awarded the Cross of Honor by the Austrian government and in 1992 he was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur of France. While he became particularly known for his performances of the Viennese classics, he also programmed contemporary works. He ed. scores by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin. Among his own works were several instrumental and vocal pieces. In 1951 he married Eva Badura-Skoda (née Halfar), with whom he collaborated on the books Mozart-Interpretation (Vienna, 1957; Eng. tr., 1961; 2^nd éd., rev, 1996) and Bach-Interpretation (Laaber, 1990; Eng. tr., 1992). With Demus, he publ. the study Die Klaviersonaten von Ludwig van Beethoven (Wiesbaden, 1970).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire