[eh-MEEL fon ZOW-er]
Born in Hamburg, October 8, 1862
Died in Vienna, April 27, 1942
- Emil von Sauer was a romantic-style composer and concert pianist. He is best remembered for the latter and enjoyed a decades-long career as a touring pianist. Despite being relatively obscure today, Sauer was admired during his lifetime as one of the most eminent pianists of his generation.
- Sauer studied piano with Nikolay Rubinstein at the Moscow Conservatory from 1879-81, followed by a period of study with Franz Liszt from 1884-85.1
- Sauer also squeezed in time to teach advanced piano students at the Vienna Academy (also known as the Vienna Conservatory), as well as edit piano works by Brahms, Chopin, Liszt, and Schumann for publication.2
- A note about Sauer’s name: the musician was born Emil Georg Conrad Sauer. In 1917, the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy raised Sauer to the nobility, thus adding the “von” to his name.
- Fun fact – for the last 30 years of his career, Sauer played piano with only nine fingers. He injured a tendon in the middle finger of his left hand, leaving it in a permanently bent position.3
Learn More
Biography via the Mahler Foundation
Sources
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Emil von Sauer,” Encyclopedia Britannica (2025), accessed September 10, 2025, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Emil-von-Sauer.
- Steven Heliotes, Notes in accompanying booklet, Sauer & Scharwenka: Piano Concertos performed by Sir Stephen Hough and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lawrence Foster, Hyperion 66790, 1995, compact disc.
- “Emil von Sauer (1862-1942),” Mahler Foundation, accessed September 10, 2025, https://mahlerfoundation.org/mahler/contemporaries/emil-von-sauer/.