Sandra Droucker [Drouker; Droucher]

born St Petersburg, May 7, 1875; died Oslo, April 1, 1944

Documents associated with this person:

Russian Jewish pianist and teacher, who in late career studied and was an advocate for Schenkerian theory.

Career Summary

Daughter of a German father and Russian mother, Sandra Droucker studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory with Anton Rubinstein. She made her debut in 1894. In the 1880s she was living in Berlin. She taught at the Stern Conservatory, Berlin 1904‒06, married Austrian pianist Gottfried Galston in 1910, changed her name to Droucker-Galston, and moved to Munich; the marriage lasted only to 1918. At the beginning of World War II she settled in Oslo, becoming a Norwegian citizen in 1938.

She wrote a book of memories of Anton Rubinstein's teaching at the St Petersburg Conservatory (Leipzig: Bartholf Senff, 1904), and also Et blad av Oslos musikkhistorie (1945).

Droucker and the Schenker circle

In the mid-1920s Droucker was a pupil of Otto Vrieslander. In his diary Schenker records hearing her play two etudes by Scriabin on the radio (March 17, 1925), visiting her (April 6, 1926), and receiving from Vrieslander a program of a private concert in which she played "Ländler and Vrieslander's arrangement of Bach's Toccata in D minor" (June 13, 1927).

Oswald Jonas also records that she was a pupil of his: he wrote to Schenker reporting a lecture on Schenker that she had given in Oslo (OJ 12/6, [38], September 25, 1932; and a private concert by her in which she included the Paganini Variations "with really astonishing beauty" (OJ 12/6, [19], January 28, 1933).

Recordings

Surviving recordings by Droucker include:

  • Beethoven Piano Concerto No.4 with the Berlin Philharmonic in Oslo, March 27, 1913 (http://www.arbiterrecords.com/notes/140notes.html)
  • Three Debussy pieces in concert, January 27, 1914, in Norway (http://www.hf.uio.no/imv/forskning/forskningsprosjekter/norgesmusikk/bulletin/1/oversikt.html)
  • Brahms Piano Concerto No.2 with Furtwängler in Hamburg, March 13, 1914 (http://www.furtwangler.net/doc/WF06-22.doc), where she is described as "the piano teacher of Emperor Wilhelm II's daughter"
  • Chopin G major Nocture, Op.37, Welte Mignon piano rolls (http://www.usc.edu/libraries/archives/arc/findingaids/welte/176WelteRolls.pdf)

Source

  • Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Drouker

Contributors

  • John Rothgeb and Ian Bent

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Correspondence

Diaries