Petri Egon, *23 March 1881 Hanover, †27 May 1962 Berkeley (California), German pianist and teacher of Dutch origin, naturalised in 1939 in the United States. Under the guidance of his father, Henri Petri (1856–1914), a pupil of J. Joachim, he began learning to play the violin; having begun his piano studies with T. Carreño and R. Buchmayer in Berlin (1888), he continued them from 1901 with F. Busoni in Weimar and Berlin, eventually (1914) becoming his assistant and associate. He also studied the organ and composition with F. Draeseke in Dresden; there, between 1899 and 1901, Petri was a violinist in the Hofoper orchestra (in which Henri Petri was concertmaster) and second violinist in the string quartet founded by his father. At Busoni’s urging, from 1901 he devoted himself exclusively to the piano, apart from occasional appearances as an organist (C. Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3, Warsaw Philharmonic, 1919). He combined his concert activities across Europe – including a series of concerts in a duo with Busoni (London 1921) and performances in the Soviet Union (from 1923) – with his teaching work. From 1905 to 1911 he lectured at the Royal Manchester College of Music, from 1911 to 1917 in Berlin, in 1920–21 at the Basel Conservatoire, and from 1921 again in Berlin – at the Hochschule für Musik. He was co-editor (with Busoni and B. Mugellini) of the collected edition of J.S. Bach’s piano works (J.S. Bach-Busoni Ausgabe, Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden, Leipzig, 25 issues). In February 1914, Petri made his debut at the Warsaw Philharmonic (Saint-Saëns’ Piano Concerto No. 5, Liszt’s Rhapsodie espagnole in Busoni’s arrangement, and works by Chopin and C. Franck). From 1916, he performed frequently in Warsaw, Łódź, Poznań, Lviv and Kraków, staying in Zakopane (from 1920), which was his permanent home from 1926 to 1939. Here he gave recitals (in the hall of the Morskie Oko Hotel) and performed with the local symphony orchestra, conducted by A. Furmański, performing in 1931 piano concertos by W.A. Mozart, Beethoven (in E-flat major) and Liszt (in A major), from where he travelled to give concerts in other European countries and the United States (from 1932) and to give guest lectures at the conservatoires in Lviv, Kraków and the Malkin Conservatory in Boston (1934/35). In 1939, he settled permanently in the United States. From 1940 to 1946, he taught at Cornell University in Ithaca (New York); from 1947 to 1957, at Mills College in Oakland (California); and from 1952 to 1962, at the San Francisco Conservatory. His pupils included G. Johannesen, E. Wild, V. Vronsky and E. Istomin, and J. Ogdon, who attended the masterclass he led at the Basel Conservatory in 1957–58. Petri’s playing style, strongly influenced by Busoni, was characterised by great technical proficiency, a rich tonal palette, precision, expressiveness and vivid detail. Petri possessed an extensive repertoire, dominated by works by J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Liszt, C. Franck, as well as rarely performed pieces by Ch.V. Alkan. Petri’s recital became the highlight of the 1919 season in Warsaw, with a programme featuring several dozen études by Chopin, Liszt, Henselt, A. Rubinstein and Alkan. Petri was also an outstanding interpreter of Busoni’s piano works, many of which he recorded on discs (Columbia).
