Overview
Biography
Eva Bernáthová (4 Dec 1922 – 21 Jan 2019) was an international concert pianist. She collaborated with the Janácek Quartet and performed as a soloist with many orchestras. After she retired from performing, she taught at Trinity College of Music for many years.
Eva Bernáthová, was a pianist of exceptional sensitivity and nobility. She made her debut in Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 in Prague in 1948, standing in for an indisposed soloist even though she had never previously played with an orchestra.
Born Eva Surányi in Budapest, she identified with the music of her Hungarian compatriot Béla Bartók, a performance of his Piano Concerto No 3 prompting the conductor Franz Konwitschny to comment that the music had suddenly become “as lucid as Mozart”; her recording of the work was reissued in 2003.
She had been encouraged to study music by her mother, entering the Liszt Academy at the age of seven. There she studied with Béla Böszörményi-Nagy and Paul Weingarten. As a Jewish family, Eva and her parents suffered greatly after the Germans occupied Hungary in March 1944. Their home was confiscated and they were taken to the ghetto, where they were forced to stay until liberation in January 1945.
After resuming her studies, Eva met Josef Bernáth, a Czech violinist, in Leó Weiner’s chamber music class. They married in 1947 and settled in Prague: visitors to their home included the pianists Sviatoslav Richter and Annie Fischer, the violinist David Oistrakh and the conductor Karel Ančerl.
A recording of music by Leoš Janáček won a Grand Prix du Disque award. With the Jánaček Quartet, Eva toured the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and they recorded quintets by Franck (another Grand Prix du Disque winner), Shostakovich, Dvořák and Brahms. Eva’s other recordings included Balakirev’s Islamey, solo works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Liszt and Voříšek, and concertos by Ravel, Franck and Martinů.
In 1965, Eva and Josef moved to London, and after the Soviet invasion in 1968 were forced to abandon the home they kept in Prague. A Proms appearance in 1969, when Eva played Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 2 with the Czech Philharmonic, was televised by BBC Two.
In 1974 Eva retired from performing, having four years earlier joined the keyboard faculty at Trinity College of Music, London, where she was a much-loved and respected figure until her retirement in 1991.
I first met Eva in 1986 when she was on the panel for my college audition and later studied with her for several years. She encouraged musical integrity and the beautiful singing tone that characterised her own playing, and continued to be a sought-after mentor to many young pianists.
Josef died in 1999. Eva is survived by a nephew.
