Rudolf Kehrer, Georgia’s greatest pianist hope, was 18 years old when he was deported from his hometown of Tbilisi, Georgia, to the then USSR in October 1941. Stalin believed that all people of German descent would support Hitler’s war. His thirteen years of exile began in the windowless hut of the Kazakh village. Thirteen years in which Rudolf Kehrer “played the piano” on a table with a keyboard he had drawn himself. Only after Stalin’s death was he allowed to leave exile.
His indomitable will and his love of music were rewarded: Rudolf Kehrer made a career as a pianist.
A quote from his student Markus Schirmer about his teacher: “Rudolf Kehrer was a giant in the shadows. Unfortunately, far too few music lovers know this truly extraordinary personality, who in his homeland was so often mentioned in the same breath as Svjatoslaw Richter or Emil Gilels.
His poetry was boundless, perhaps to be heard in Skrjabin’s Preludes op.9 for the left hand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtMFv__GZhM
For those interested, a look at the extensive Rudolf Kehrer Archive by Dr.Dr.Reinhard Niemann is recommended, in which almost all of his work is documented: http://www.rudolf-kehrer.info/musik/kehrer/ ”