Susi Jeans
| Susi Jeans | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Suzanne Hock |
| Also known as | Lady Jeans, Suzanne Jeans |
| Born |
25 January 1911 Vienna, Austria |
| Died | 7 January 1993 (aged 81) Westhumble, Surrey, England |
| Occupation(s) | Organist, teacher, musicologist |
Susi Jeans born Suzanne Hock (1911–1993), after 1935 also known by virtue of her husband's knighthood as Lady Jeans, was an Austrian-born professional organist, teacher and musicologist.
Born in Vienna, she was the oldest child of Oscar and (J)ekaterina Hock. She trained as a ballet dancer by the modernist teacher Gertrud Bodenwieser but growing rather rapidly, switched to the piano. From 1925 to 1931, she studied piano at the Vienna Conservatory, with organ as a second study. This became her first instrument from about 1928, when she began studies with the composer Franz Schmidt and the organist Franz Schütz.
In 1931, she was heard by the organist and composer Charles-Marie Widor. After criticising her pedal technique, which he thought not legato enough, Widor invited her to become a student. She accepted his offer but did not report on his lessons' effects other than to say that he was a very old man at the time.
During her 1934-35 tour she met the astronomer and mathematician Sir James Jeans just over 32 years her senior, whom she married, in Vienna, in September 1935. They lived together in a large house (replaced at the end of the century by Cleveland Court) 'Cleveland Lodge' next to Box Hill and Westhumble railway station in Westhumble, Surrey having three children before his death in 1946. Lady Jeans continued to live at the house until she died in 1993.
Between 1933 and 1935, she studied intermittently at the Leipzig Kirchenmusikalisches Institut with Karl Straube during which time Jeans acquired knowledge of period instruments, forming her specialisation.
Jeans advocated, amongst other theories, that the trio sonatas by J S Bach were conceived with the pedal harpsichord as the larger instrument of the three involved, rather than the organ, Jeans bought a two manual and pedal harpsichord by Maendler-Schramm of Munich. In ensuing years, she was to make many broadcasts from this instrument and the study organ.
Before marriage, the enlarged marital home, Cleveland Lodge had assembled a large three-manual Willis II organ in a specially-built concert hall. In 1937 this was supplemented by a new tracker action organ, built into her study by Eule of Bautzen although she later represented it was installed by Hill, Norman and Beard It was the first neo-Classical organ built in Britain in the 20th century.
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