(b Vienna, 16 May 1930). Austrian pianist and composer. He made his début in 1944 and appeared at Carnegie Hall, New York, in 1950. Until 1962 he was most successful in Viennese classical music, then developed an interest in jazz; he appeared at the Newport Festival and founded the Eurojazz Orchestra. His technically skilled performances, with improvised cadenzas, seek to reconcile distinctions between musical idioms.

The Concise Grove Dictionary of Music. Copyright © 1994 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.