Malcolm Frager; Pianist Found Composers’ Manuscripts

Malcolm Frager, 56, concert pianist who frequently performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. The St. Louis native majored in Russian at Columbia University, but studied piano privately. He launched his international career as a concert pianist when he won the Queen Elisabeth of Belgium International Competition. Frager was also a student of old musical manuscripts, and won the Golden Mozart Medal in 1987 for his 1978 discovery of more than 1,000 manuscripts by Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Schumann and Mendelsohn. The treasure had been seized from Berlin by the Polish government during World War II, and Frager found it hidden in Krakow. On Thursday in Lenox, Mass., after a yearlong illness.