Albert Einstein’s Favorite (and Least Favorite) Classical Music

When you think “genius,” you probably think of him. Albert Einstein’s influence cannot be overstated.

His colossal contributions to the field of physics — particularly in his theories of relativity — have paved the way for all who have followed.

One thing that might surprise you about Albert Einstein: he loved classical music.

In fact, when Einstein arrived in the US in 1933, biographer Walter Isaacson notes that he was carrying his trusty violin case.

Einstein was a devoted listener and musician. His beloved violin — which he affectionately named “Lina” — never left his side. Making music became a vital creative outlet, an “inner necessity,” reflects biographer Roger Highfield.

As a biography by Ronald Clark quotes, the thinker himself said that the “satisfaction that [physics and music] bestow” is similar.

Where did this passion for music begin? How did it benefit Einstein’s professional work? And what classical music did Albert Einstein really love?

Introduction to Music

Albert Einstein’s love of music can be traced back to his mother, Pauline. She was an accomplished pianist. During Einstein’s childhood in Munich, Pauline would perform duets, sometimes with her husband’s colleagues.

When he was about six years old, Pauline arranged for the young Albert to take violin lessons.

It was not an immediate fit. The young Einstein toiled with the instrument, only partially engaged. But he did dutifully keep up with it.

The Music He Loved (And Hated)

It was the work of one composer in particular that sparked Einstein’s lifelong love for music. At age 13, he fell for the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, engaged, in part, because the composer’s music instilled “an awareness of the mathematical structure of music,” as biographer Ronald W. Clark writes.

Throughout his lifetime, Mozart would remain Einstein’s favorite composer. Some have drawn comparisons between the two men — supremely gifted, but endowed with a quirky sense of humor and an almost childlike persona.

Mozart’s works inspired awe in Einstein. Biographer Jürgen Neffe quotes Einstein: “Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner beauty of the universe itself.”

This “purity” was a key for the physicist. For him, the music had no excesses. Indeed, as biographer Walter Isaacson weighs in, Einstein experienced the music of Mozart as if it were “plucked from the universe rather than composed.” This viewpoint hints at a similarity in how Einstein thought about music and about physics.

We know that Einstein’s favorite work by Mozart was the Sonata for Piano and Violin in E Minor, a keenly calibrated, poignant, two-movement piece.

Another favorite composer was JS Bach. The physicist seems to have felt almost humbled by the Baroque composer’s mastery, once remarking: “This is what I have to say about Bach’s life work: listen, play, love, revere — and keep your moth shut.” The physicist often played Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins.

He was moved by Schubert, whom he felt possessed a “superlative ability to express emotion.”

Beethoven proved more difficult. Neffe notes that Einstein had an affinity for some of Beethoven’s chamber works, but was overwhelmed by the composer’s “weighty symphonies.” Einstein was unsettled by the composer’s fervor. Isaacson notes that Einstein once remarked that “I feel uncomfortable listening to Beethoven. I think he is too personal, almost naked. Give me Bach, rather, and then more Bach.”

He was also known to enjoy the music of Vivaldi and Haydn. One correspondence with his son, Eduard, saw the physicist chiding his son’s disdain for Haydn: “I don’t think it’s right that you should despise the Haydn sonatas, you scoundrel.”

Eduard’s taste skewed more Romantic; generally, his father’s did not. He did not enjoy Brahms or Mendelssohn.

He also found Wagner “downright repugnant,” Neffe says, perceiving his ornateness to be without substance. And to Einstein, Strauss was gifted “but without inner truth,” Isaacson says.

Modernists fared no better by the physicist’s estimation. He disliked Hindemith, Schoenberg, and Weill.

Passionate Player

Einstein’s love of playing the violin continued throughout his life.

There are a wide range of appraisals of Einstein’s playing, but one thing is beyond question — the physicist played frequently. He practiced his violin every day. He would play in a string quartet at least weekly in the early 1900s.

Neffe details that Einstein understood his playing to be “for the soul, not for the intellect.”

But some believe that playing served a professional purpose as well. Clark describes the physicist’s violin practice as a “psychological safety valve.” Clark quotes Hans Albert, the physicist’s son: “he would take refuge in music, and that would usually resolve all his difficulties.” Einstein himself reflected that “Music does not influence research work, but both are nourished by the same sort of longing.”

In terms of his actual skill level, accounts differ. Some described his playing as “sparkling” or “beautiful.” Others remarked on an innate musicality (albeit accompanied by a lack of technical skill). Neffe surfaces one less encouraging review, from a housekeeper: “Einstein’s fiddling was pathetic… His bowing reminded me of a woodcutter.”

But regardless of how you felt about it, if you were in Albert Einstein’s professional or personal circle, you would probably hear his playing. He often gathered friends and colleagues to play and listen together. The invitation list ranged from German physicist Max Planck to Queen Elisabeth of Belgium, a friend of Einstein.

He also performed in more public arenas. In particular, he gave several benefit concerts to raise money for Jewish charities and other causes in the US and in Germany.

A Family Matter

By most accounts, it was not easy to be related to Albert Einstein. His relationships with his children, particularly after his separation from his first wife, Mileva, were often fraught.

One thing that the relatives could share in does seem to have been music.

Albert’s first son, Hans Albert, became a respected engineer in his own right. He was known as a private person, very reluctant to talk about his father. One thing he did talk about, however, was music. Along with sailing, Highfield notes, music was the only non-professional subject that Hans Albert would broach.

Even more musically engaged was Albert’s second son, Eduard. The younger son had trouble relating to his father, and displayed a knack for the arts. Unlike his father, Eduard favored the Romantic composers, with a particular fondness for Chopin and Reger. He was a “fluent pianist,” according to Highfield.

In his early 20s, Eduard would be diagnosed with schizophrenia. The relationship with his father was largely broken, but Einstein did visit his son’s treatment center at least once, where they played music together. This shared activity, Isaacson details, allowed the father and son to express “emotions with their music in ways they could not with words.”

Later Years

As he aged, Einstein was forced to all but give up his violin. By the 1940s, the exertion of the instrument and the dexterity demanded were simply too great.

He maintained a practice in music, though, taking back up the piano. He was not as strong of a piano player as a violinist, but it let him continue to make music.

Neffe recounts a story where the physicist was visited by one of the preeminent chamber ensembles — the Juilliard String Quartet — at his home in Princeton. Einstein played along with the group, one of the few times he retrieved his violin in his later years. The quartet played under tempo so that Einstein could keep up.

He also took to listening to music. Understanding his legendary passion for music, colleagues gifted him a record player. Towards the end of his life, he repeatedly listened to Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. Isaacson notes the curiosity of this — Einstein, who had never fully connected with Beethoven’s music, was also not formally religious. Nonetheless, the work became an important part of Einstein’s last days. Perhaps it was another reflection of the scientist’s avid curiosity: the longing for discovery, in music and in other fields, that carried through to the end of his life.