The Cat-Loving Pianists of Classical Music: From Liszt to Horowitz and Beyond

When we think of the world’s great pianists – names like Liszt, Horowitz, and Zimerman – we imagine packed concert halls, thunderous applause, and glamorous virtuosity.

But behind the scenes, many of these musical legends shared their lives not just with pianos, but with purring, whiskered companions.

Today, to celebrate International Cat Day, we’re looking at the roles that cats have played in the private lives of the greatest classical pianists.

Carl Czerny (1791-1857)

Many cats

The young Carl Czerny

Carl Czerny, Beethoven‘s most influential student and arguably the greatest piano teacher of all time, had no family and never married.

Instead, he found companionship with his multiple cats.

According to biographer Harold Schoenberg, he kept between seven and nine cats at a time in his apartment. Students who were allergic to cats simply couldn’t take lessons from him: the cats took precedence.

If kittens were born in his home and he had too many to keep, he found his charges new families, acting as a one-man cat rescue.

He also taught them to eat from his hand by ringing a bell.

Franz Liszt (1811-1886)

Madame Esmeralda

Franz Liszt

Liszt was Czerny’s most famous student, studying with him as a boy. Apparently the affection for cats rubbed off on him.

According to Liszt biographer Alan Walker in his book Franz Liszt: The Weimar Years:

“No account of daily life [in the Liszt household] would be complete without mention of Madame Esmeralda, the family cat, and a guard dog called Rappo, who romped all over the house without restraint and used to bark beneath Liszt’s window while he composed.”

Liszt’s Sonata in B-minor, 1853-54

Madame Esmeralda lived in the period between 1848 and 1861, when Liszt was working as Weimar’s Hofkapellmeister and living with his mistress Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein.

Apparently the cat was named after Esmeralda from Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

We also covered Madame Esmeralda in our article “Cats and Composers.”

Sophie Menter (1846-1918)

Klecks

Sophie Menter and Klecks

Sophie Menter was a brilliant, beautiful pianist who studied with Liszt.

Liszt himself named her most famous cat Klecks (or Spot), due to the pigmentation on his nose.

When Menter concertized, she would bring a basket with her and treat it very carefully and tenderly. No one would know what to make of the basket…until it started meowing!

In 1884, she bought a castle and let her cats run free there. Later, she bought a house in the German countryside and fenced off a portion of the yard with chicken wire for her cats. Eventually she owned more than fifty.

Petite Valse by Sophie Menter

Natalia Janotha (1856-1932)

Prince White Heather

Natalia Janotha and Prince White Heather

Pianist Natalia Janotha was born in Warsaw in 1856 and was a pupil of Clara Schumann.

In the 1890s, she acquired a black cat who became known as Prince White Heather.

She told the Boston Globe:

“I am so fond of him. He goes everywhere with me. After dark he walks out on the street with me. He perches on my shoulder, and he is so wise and not at all alarmed by electric cars and other weird noises.”

Prince White Heather accompanied Natalia Janotha to meet all kinds of royalty, and he became a celebrity in the press.

Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965)

Sizi and Piccolo

Albert Schweitzer

Albert Schweitzer was a Renaissance man. To quote Wikipedia, he was “a theologian, organist, musicologist, writer, humanitarian, philosopher, and physician.”

He also was a cat lover who kept cats, including Sizi and Piccolo.

Sizi’s favourite place to nap was on Schweitzer’s left arm as he was writing. Unfortunately, Schweitzer was left-handed. But he was so loath to disturb his beloved cat that he never wanted to move Sizi, so he just wrote with his right hand instead.

Learn more about the extraordinary multifaceted career of cat-lover Albert Schweitzer: https://interlude.hk/albert-schweitzer-bach-peace-and-cats/

Schweitzer practising Bach (with cats)

Vladimir Horowitz (1903-1989)

Fussy and others

Vladimir Horowitz and cat

Vladimir Horowitz and poodle

In the 1970s, pianist Vladimir Horowitz and his wife Wanda adopted a stray cat and named it Fussy (pronounced Foosy).

They also had two poodles named Peppi and Pippo, as well as at least three other cats. This menagerie shared an apartment on the Upper East Side of New York City.

All of Horowitz’s pets were welcome to spend time with him during his daily practice sessions.

One of his and Wanda’s favourite charitable causes was animal welfare. The Vladimir Horowitz and Wanda Toscanini Horowitz Adoption Centre has saved the lives of thousands of pets in need.

Scott Ross (1951-1989)

Scott Ross

Scott Ross was an American harpsichordist who became the first player to record all 555 (!) of Domenico Scarlatti‘s piano sonatas.

However, his musical interests were wide-ranging, stretching from Scarlatti to Chopin to Glass.

He was also fascinated by orchids, volcanoes, fungi…and cats. Toward the end of his life, he adopted an adorable black and white cat.

It was a major tragedy for the music world when he died from AIDS-related complications in 1989. He was just 38.

Scott Ross playing Scarlatti

“Are you tender?” “With my cats!”

Krystian Zimerman (1956-)

In February 2024, when pianist Krystian Zimerman won his seventh Gramophone award, Gramophone Magazine reported that his acceptance speech included a very special thank-you: https://www.gramophone.co.uk/international-piano/features/article/krystian-zimerman-interview-i-want-to-reach-people-who-don-t-yet-know-that-they-love-this-kind-of-music

The awards evening is about to begin. Zimerman’s Szymanowski has indeed won (his seventh Gramophone Award). A star-studded assembly cheers him to the chandeliers. And his acceptance speech is the only time I’ve ever heard an artist include, in the thank-yous, his cat. Zimerman is, as ever, full of surprises.

Unfortunately, there’s not much else online about Zimerman’s cat, but it’s nice to know he has one!