Ludwig Berger

Who was Ludwig Berger?

Carl Ludwig Heinrich Berger was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher. He was born in Berlin, and spent his youth in Templin and Frankfurt, where he studied both flute and piano. Later, he studied composition with J. A. Gürrlich in Berlin. He became friendly with the composer Clementi, and visited him in Russia, where he stayed for eight years. While in Russia, he married, but was widowed in less than a year. During the Napoleonic wars, he fled to London, where his piano performances were well received. He returned to Berlin in 1815, and lived there for the rest of his life. A nervous disorder in his arm led to the end of his career as a piano virtuoso, and he built a reputation as a teacher, numbering Mendelssohn, Taubert, Henselt, Dorn, and August Wilhelm Bach among his more distinguished pupils.

Berger wrote over 160 solo songs, as well as a piano concerto, seven piano sonatas, twenty-nine studies, and several didactic piano works.

He died in Berlin in 1839.