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A PIANIST, A HUMANIST: MAGDI RUFER
Leylâ ÇAPAN *
Magdi Rufer (1924‐2007), mostly known as the life partner of Sabahattin Eyüboğlu 1 was a Swiss
pianist born and brought up in Bern before going to Paris to continue her studies in École Normale de
Musique. In Paris, she was part of a circle of intellectuals and artists, one of which was Sabahattin
Eyüboğlu. After spending two summers in Istanbul with him, she finally moved to Istanbul in 1951
where she was to stay until her death. She was not a celebrity, was known by a very limited number
of people, yet to all those who knew her, she was unique. At her funeral, Türkan Saylan 2 asked those
who were present there to write their memories of Magdi. She stressed the importance of putting
down memories into writing for historiography. Among the small crowd were her friends, her
nephew, and her students. I remember her from the beginning of 1970s, through the eyes of a small
girl. In the 80s, we had closer contact as I took piano lessons from her for ten years, between 1983
and 1993. My attempts of writing about her, perhaps writing to her failed until the symposium about
“Writing Women’s Lives.” As I started going through written material about her, I discovered that
there very many different ways of looking at Magdi. There was also a documentary I watched and a
video recording from a gathering in her house. All, through different eyes. It was then I realized that
there was no reason to be hesitant about producing my version. Thus, Magdi became my writing
project. Fiction, non‐fiction? A novel perhaps, or stories? All I know for the moment is that it is going
to be the story of the pianist Magdi Rufer. I will attempt to give a brief account of how I am going
about my research, which also provides a glimpse of her life as a pianist.
The main source for the research was a special edition prepared in her memory; Magdi. 3 It was
distributed among friends only. This book of 208 pages comprises of vast archival material. It opens
with biographical notes produced by her nephew Ueli Kasser and his mother Ursula Kasser‐Rufer,
Magdi’s elder sister. The next section is dedicated to her musical life; her concerts, two articles she
wrote and interviews with her. 4 The section for obituaries is around a hundred pages. The following
sections are mostly made up of photographs providing a visual account of her life, newspaper
clippings and letters, witnesses of her life, enjoyments and sufferings. There is a mention of the
section “Magdalena Rufer” in Berat Günçıkan’s book Gölgenin Kadınları (Women of the Shadow)
where she has put together the interviews she has held with creative women (writer, painter,
musician, actress…) who were married to famous men. 5 There is also the story of how this interview
has lead İlknur Ulutak to produce a documentary film on Magdi. 6
As I started going through the book closely, I realized that this vast source of information was not
complete in any way. It was a like a puzzle with pieces missing. So I decided to construct a frame for
my story. Starting out with a timeline seemed the most logical way as dates are never subjective. At
least it was what I thought so then, not having a clue that Magdi never put the date down when she
was writing letters. This was something I would find out later. Meanwhile, I was putting together the
dates from the sections about her life and musical life constructing a timeline for Magdi’s life, filling
in the gaps as I came across new dates going through newspaper archives. The majority of these
dates were those of her concerts or recordings in the 50s and 60s. There were some reviews about
these performances but not enough to construct a real portrait of Magdi as the pianist she was. It
was time for a close reading of the interviews and the obituaries. 7
What was missing now was not the dates, but some part of Magdi herself. She was much loved by
all those people who wrote about her, they all regarded her as unique. And although each of them
had their own version of Magdi, they shared some common points. First of all she was mostly
regarded in connection with Sabahattin Bey, as his companion. Many a time she was the Swiss
woman who had sacrificed her career as a pianist. She was a piano teacher at times. The woman who
would not return to her native land even after the death of her life‐long partner. Why was it that I
* Yeditepe University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences. Department of English Language and
Literature.