| Biography | Eva Bernáthová was a pianist. She made her debut in Tchaikovskys Piano Concerto No 1 in Prague in 1948, standing in for an indisposed soloist even though she had never previously played with an orchestra.
She had been encouraged to study music by her mother, entering the Liszt Academy at the age of seven. There she studied with Béla Böszörményi-Nagy and Paul Weingarten. As a Jewish family, Eva and her parents suffered greatly after the Germans occupied Hungary in March 1944. Their home was confiscated and they were taken to the ghetto, where they were forced to stay until liberation in January 1945.
After resuming her studies, Eva met Josef Bernáth. They married in 1947 and settled in Prague: visitors to their home included the pianists Sviatoslav Richter and Annie Fischer, the violinist David Oistrakh and the conductor Karel Ancerl. In 1965, Eva and Josef moved to London, and after the Soviet invasion in 1968 were forced to abandon the home they kept in Prague. |