Ludwig Schwab

Ludwig Schwab (1880–1943) Met the Czech violinist Jan Kubelik when both were students at the Prague Conservatory. A violinist, pianist, and occasional composer, Schwab spent 14 years touring the world as Kubelik’s piano accompanist. In 1912, Schwab received the enormous sum of $8,000 from the wife of a wealthy New York broker to serve as the exclusive pianist for functions at her home. Schwab later became the violist with the New York String Quartet, founded in 1919. After his years in the United States, Schwab settled in Australia, where he married pianist Merle Robertson. In 1903, his friend Kubelik married a countess (and niece of a former Hungarian premier) who bore him eight children. Schwab dedicated his folk-influenced Berceuse écossaise (“Scottish Lullaby”) “À Madame Marianne Kubelik.”