Frida Kindler

{{short description|Dutch pianist active in Britain (1879–1964)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2024}}

Frida Carola Johanetta Kindler (1879 – 26 January 1964) was a Dutch concert pianist and teacher active in the UK, a pupil of Busoni and later the wife of composer Bernard van Dieren.

Kindler was born in Rotterdam. Her father was the oboist and conductor Johan Karl Eduard Kindler (1838–1899) and her younger brother was the cellist (and later conductor) Hans Kindler. She attended the Berlin Conservatoire and Busoni's master classes of 1900–1901. Busoni dedicated his 1908 piano piece Nuit de Noël to Kindler.Guijt, Paul C. [https://paulguijt.nl/2024/12/wirtz_nl/ Wirtz, Wirtz, Kindler, Van Hove & Van Dieren] (2024, self-published)

She made her UK debut in Birmingham in 1903'Music in Birmingham', The Musical Times, Vol. 44, No. 722 (Apr. 1, 1903), p. 258 and played at the Proms in London on 11 September 1906.[https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/efz2fx BBC Proms performance archive] During this period she bagan a long-term friendship with the headmistress Emmeline Tanner, coming to play at Sherborne, and later at her other schools, even teaching for a while at Bedford High School.Susan Major. Doors of Possibility: The Life of Dame Emmeline Tanner (1995), p. 190

In 1909 Frida relocated permanently to England with Bernard van Dieren, a composer ten years her junior, whom she married on 1 January 1910. A son, Hans Jean Jules Maximilian Navarre Benvenuto Bernard van Dieren (1910–74, known as Bernard), was born the same year.Barry Smith. [https://doi-org.lonlib.idm.oclc.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/67851 'Dieren, Bernard Hélène Joseph van (1887–1936), composer and writer'] in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) They settled at 35A St George's Road, West Hampstead in the 1920s,Gerald Norris. A Musical Gazetteer of Great Britain & Ireland (1981), p. 72 and later at 68, Clifton Hill, St John's Wood.Lewis Foreman. From Parry to Britten: British Music in Letters (1987), p.158 But by 1912 her husband's ill-health was already holding back her career as a virtuoso pianist, which over time she sacrificed to support his survival and his work as a composer,Denis ApIvor. [https://www.musicweb-international.com/apivor/warlock_circle.htm "Memories of The Warlock Circle", at MusicWeb International] though she did continue to premiere most of her husband's piano works.For instance, she premiered van Dieren's Theme and Variations at the Wigmore Hall on 9 June 1927, and accompanied John Goss in some new van Dieren songs. The Times, 11 June 1927, p. 10

On the evening of Tuesday 16 December 1930 Frida and Bernard van Dieren met Peter Warlock at the Duke of Wellington pub near Sloane Square, then went back to his basement flat at 30 Tite Street, where they stayed until after midnight. They were the last to see him alive: he was found dead the following morning from coal-gas poisoning.Barry Smith. Peter Warlock: The Life of Philip Heseltine (1996)

Frida continued teaching, and resumed performing after van Dieren's death in 1936.Denis ApIvor. [https://library.mcmaster.ca/finding-aid/apivor A Memoir of Frida Kindler (Frida Van Dieren)] (May, 1982), Denis ApIvor Collection, McMaster University Her pupils included Robert Collett, Eiluned Davies, the American pianist Thomas Lishman,'Pianist Garrick Ohlsson on Busoni's 70-minute concerto', in The Washington Post, 17 November 2014 and the Scottish pianist Virginia Fortesque.'Distinguished young pianist', in The Buxton Advertiser and Herald, 31 August 1951, p. 5 Denis ApIvor reported her suffering from dementia in her last years. A year before her death her Steinway grand piano was put up for sale at the Steinway showrooms in Hanover Square."Model 'O' Grand. 5 ft 8in mahogany case. No. 103584", in The Times, 22 June 1963 She died in January 1964, aged 84.'Deaths', The Times, 28 January 1964, p. 1