Édouard Risler

Joseph Édouard Risler ( born February 23, 1873 in Baden -Baden, † July 22, 1929 in Paris) was a French pianist.

He studied with the famous pedagogue Louis Diémer at the Paris Conservatoire and at the Liszt pupils Bernhard Stavenhagen and Eugen d' Albert.

Risler was not only considered the first pianist of the French school, the serious and comprehensively dealt with the work of Ludwig van Beethoven, but also as one of the first ever, who performed all 32 sonatas of the Bonn master cyclically - in 1906 in Berlin. The critics were enthusiastic and were particularly his sensitive touch and its wide range of expression shows that the previous Beethoven image added important nuances.

Arthur Rubinstein, who heard Risler on this occasion, even later emphasized that he had never seen such an impressive visualization of the Beethoven sonata cosmos. However, this can be understood as a defensive reaction against the German "heavy " Beethoven tradition, for which an Artur Schnabel, a Wilhelm Backhaus were worshiped and could start with the Rubinstein by his own admission, like so many of his Slavic colleagues, nothing.

Risler has treated and listed Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks by Richard Strauss for piano solo.