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She would give very interesting facts about composers’ lives. She was so knowledgeable about the
composers she liked. And she was a very good pianist. She would practice the piano for hours every
morning, without skipping a day.
Hermann Gattiker (1899‐1959) was a journalist and a music critic who held concerts in his house
in the historical quarter of Bern. 13 It was in his house that Magdi gave her first concert in 1944. 14
Among the audience were the composers Edward Stämpfli, and Peter Mieg. Mieg, also a painter and
a journalist was to be in her repertoire between 1960‐66; at least four times. She had started the
Bern Conservatory in 1940 and was a student of Hans Albrecht Moser whose works she was to
perform later. In musical theory she was the student of Albert Moeschinger. In the concert she gave
in Gattiker’s house once again, in April 1945, it was Moeschinger’s “Toccata” that she played. In her
long play she recorded in Milan in 1960s, besides other sonatas she played a capriccio of Mieg, and
two toccatas by Moeschinger. 2 préludes in the same recording are those of Scelsi’s. 15 We learn from
the book about these concerts that Magdi was to work with him later in the fifties in Paris. 16 It was in
1946 that she went to Paris, to continue her piano education in “École Normale de Musique”.
She was the student of Alfred Cortot 17 , whose courses in musical interpretation were said to be
legendary. From the interview she gave in 1963, we learn she has studied there for four years and
took lessons from Yves Nat 18 and Lazare Lévy 19 . These names, along with those mentioned in
Gattiker’s house were leading intellectuals of their time, open to the world. Moser, of whom Magdi
was a student in Bern, was a friend of Hermann Hesse. Besides his own literary works, he had
published a book on the art of piano playing: Über die Kunst des Klavierspiels 20 . Lévy had toured
throughout Europe, North Africa, Israel, the Soviet Union and Japan. When Magdi’s repertoire is
studied closely, the contemporary composers she played then are mostly examples of the “avantgarde.”
She also travelled back and forth between Turkey and Europe in the fifties and the sixties for
concerts. Although we have the programmes of most of these, there are barely any recordings. There
are only a few reviews, too. Although she continued to perform when she came to Turkey, she seems
not to have found a place among the musical circles here. Instead of drawing conclusions about the
reasons for this, I will continue with what I found out in my contact with people who were her
friends, and students. It goes without saying that she was friends with almost everyone she knew as
her Ueli once stated, “She was really interested in people she met, independent of where they stood
in society; a deep curiosity for human beings without prejudice.”
There are still people who remember how spectacular her concert in the Ses Theatre was. It was
the first concert she gave in Turkey 21 . The Turkish audience knew her from her short recordings made
for the Ankara and Istanbul radios. Among the audience was Yüksel Koptagel’s sister Günsel
Koptagel‐İlal, who is still enthusiastic about the concert sixty two years after: “Oh, how well‐prepared
she was!” she recounted me, “such a wonderful performance. She played Beethoven’s last sonata,
Opus 111. It was for the 125 th anniversary of his death.” Of those people who knew Magdi, today
there are very few who had heard her play. Magdi did not talk about herself. She talked about music.
Yet, another witness is Leyla Pınar. 22 Magdi had worked as a part time piano instructor at the State
Conservatoire of Istanbul in the seventies. However hard I tried, I could not reach any information
relevant to her position there. No dates, no information as to her position. The administrative staff I
talked to remembered her with warm feelings; that was all. I tried to learn something from a few
professors there, some of whom might have been there when Magdi was teaching. Some did not
even know she’d ever taught there. “Has she? Oh, it must be the other conservatory,” said one of
them. There were others who said that they did remember her as they were students then, but no,
they were not her students. Later, I learned from Leyla Pınar that she was assigned to the ballet
department, teaching correpetition. She was also working at the State Conservatory then, and they
were sharing the same lounge for part timers. “This lady had style,” she told me. “We were given
pieces now and then, for our work. Magdi Hanım would immediately play them. It wasn’t any
deciphering we knew of, she played brilliantly.” When I told her about Magdi’s being a student of
Yves Nat, she told me what a great interpreter of Beethoven Nat was. “If I were to listen to
Beethoven sonatas, I would make sure I would listen to those played by Yves Nat,” she said.
Her student Selin remembers Magdi telling her that of all the composers Liszt was her favorite.
Once she had dreamily said that if she was ever to be reborn, she would want to be born at the time