PUPILS OF LISZT. Jose Vianna da Motta (1868-1948) was like most of history's great pianists, a child prodigy. He began piano studies at the age of five, and gave his first public performance in Lisbon in 1881 at the age of 13.

Sophie Menter (the favorite of Liszt's female pupils) was performing in Lisbon in 1882, and heard da Motta at the age of 14, when he had already completed his studies at the Lisbon Conservatory. She encouraged da Motta to go to Berlin to continue studies with Scharwenka, which he did, beginning that same year. He was a pupil in Liszt's master classes in Weimar in 1885, and also studied extensively with von Bulow. Da Motta began to establish his growing reputation in' Berlin during the period from 1885 until the outbreak of the First World War.

Ferruccio Busoni and Vianna da Motta were the greatest of friends. Together they collaborated on various projects and editions, and the two appeared in several two-piano recitals in Berlin.

. His scholarship and his personal acquaintance with the brilliant men of his time are evident in his writings. In his book Vida de Liszt we read that Liszt told his master class students in Weimar that Chopin did not want the first part of his Polonaise in C# minor. Opus 26 no. 1, to be repeated by way of a da Capo at the end of the second part. Nevertheless, such a da Capo is to be found in many editions.

In an interview once, da Motta was asked whether he favored the subjective or objective view of performance practice. He answered: "In order to answer your question well, I would have to write a book. Here I can only summarize my attitude towards a work which I am to play. I am not particularly a partisan of subjectivism or objectivism. A true objectivism (meaning the absolute relation of the composer's intention, without the slightest interference of the executant's personality) seems to me neither possible nor even desirable. If it were possible, there would be only one form of execution for each work. It would be useless to hear more than one artist in a given work who had the luck to possess this unique gift of "true" interpretation. It would be the death of all musical activity in the field of musical interpretation.

On the other hand, I don't agree with unlimited subjectivism, whose prototype was the great Anton Rubinstein. Inasmuch as this type of interpretation is more interesting than the so-called objectivism (for the multitudes, it's even more enthralling) the result of this criterion is that whoever may be the composer of whatever the work the artist executes, what you hear is always the artist and not the composer. This may be interesting but only when the artist possesses a temperament and a powerful personality, as Rubinstein did. Between the two extremes, however, there is a middle road that is respect the content of a work and the unmistakable intention of the composer, without abdicating your personality nor enslaving it to the compose's wishes."

De Motta performed the 32 Beethoven sonatas in a series of recitals in Lisbon in 1927, the same year that Arthur Schnabel first performed the whole cycle. In fact, in the same year da Motta performed all the Beethoven piano chamber music as well.

At the outbreak of the First World War, da Motta was forced to leave Berlin when Germany declared war on Portugal. He eventually returned to Portugal, where he assumed the directorship of the Conservatorio Nacional in Lisbon in 1919, and continued to perform, as well as conduct, compose and teach. The Conservatorio was also his residence, where he lived in a wing of the building on the second floor. Shelves in the long entrance corridor were solid with books and scores. It was very impressive, a perfect ambience of study and steadfastness.

It was in this environment that Vianna da Motta lived and worked from 1919 until 1938. He retired at that time and lived with his daughter Ines, who is married to the noted Portuguese psychiatrist. Dr. Barahona Fernandes. Vianna da Motta died in their home in 1948.

A condensation of the writings of Fernando Laires and Joseph Moreno

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