Austrian pianist; pupil of Schenker's intermittently March 1915 to June 1926.

Miss König seems to have been a resident of Vienna, during which time she was a pupil not only of Schenker but also of “Zirner-Polatschek” (perhaps Viktor Polatschek, in which case she also studied the clarinet). She married merchant Semion Rubinraut on December 8, 1918, and after that lived in Prague for some years, perhaps returning to Vienna later.

König/Rubinraut and Schenker

According to Schenker’s diary, Hilde König and her mother introduced themselves to Schenker on March 15, 1915, and she attended her first lesson two days later. Schenker’s 1914/15 lessonbook contradicts this by placing her first lesson on the 15th with “further study of Beethoven’s Sonata Op. 109 [and] Chopin’s Etude in C major,” which perhaps implies that study with Schenker preceded this date. The lessonbook is, however, suspect, March 16–18 being omitted altogether.) Schenker records that he made an arrangement identical to that with Felix Hupka, which was a reduced fee in light of financial circumstances. König then completed most of the 1915/16 season and all of 1916/17 and 1917/18, in which latter season she took counterpoint studies up to “three voices and more.” In 1918/19 she worked on mixed species counterpoint, but seems to have ended lessons upon her marriage on December 8, after which at some point she moved to Prague. Throughout this period her repertory comprised mostly pieces by Chopin and Brahms, with an extended study of Beethoven’s fourth piano concerto.

After marriage, the lessonbook records no lessons until December 1925. Correspondence between Rubinraut and Schenker, however, contradicts this. Rubinraut had asked for lesson times as early as summer 1919 (Schenker’s diary), but nothing had come of that until January 1922 when she proposed travelling from Prague once every three weeks for lessons on two successive days, and suggested she drop the theory lesson, thus taking two piano lessons (OJ 13/35, [2]), with payment in dollars. Her first two resumed lessons fell on Wednesday and Thursday, October 4 and 5, 1922 (OJ 13/35, [3]), and lessons seem to have proceeded thereafter, moving to once every four weeks in December 1922. By January 1923 she had a permanent visa to enter Austria, and announced that she was expecting a baby (OJ 13/35, [4]). The 1925/26 lessonbook keeps more detailed notes, together with dates between December and March.

Through all of the special arrangements he made for her, Schenker, unusually, betrays no irritation in his diary. Rubinraut kept in contact until October 1932, by which time she was seeking pupils herself and asked Schenker for a recommendation.

Correspondence

No correspondence with König is known to survive, and none from Schenker himself. Four items of correspondence from Rubinraut to Schenker survive: one calling card and three letters, OJ 13/35, [1]–[4], January 1922 to January 1923.

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