4 pianists, 2025
This Week in Classical Music: April 14, 2025. 4 Pianists. It has been a very long time since we’ve written in regards to the instrumentalists: the town of Naples and composers of be aware have taken up all of our time. Happily, this week presents us with the chance to deal with this drawback, as 4 pianists have their birthdays this week. Two of them had been born within the Soviet Union (neither nonetheless lives there), and each turned well-known after successful a Tchaikovsky competitors. One is Grigory Sokolov, the opposite — Mikhail Pletnev. Sokolov was born to a Jewish father and Russian mom on April 18th of 1950 in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg (we be aware the nationalities due to the persistent and official insurance policies of antisemitism within the Soviet Union). Sokolov was 16 when, in 1966, he was awarded the primary prize amongst pianists on the Third Tchaikovsky competitors. It was fairly sudden (Misha Dichter was the general public’s favourite that yr), and no person took Sokolov’s win critically. Who might think about then that this teen would flip into some of the profound pianists of his era? For some time, Sokolov’s profession didn’t go anyplace, regardless that he was allowed to play concert events internationally. Someday round 1988, he left Russia (he’s a Spanish citizen and lives in Italy), and it wasn’t till the 2000s that his profession actually took off. Since 2006, he has carried out solely solo concert events; he performs principally in continental Europe, the place he’s well-known. Sokolov eschews concert events within the UK and the US due to the visa necessities, which he deems Soviet-like. He not often makes studio recordings however permits his stay concert events to be recorded. Right here is one among them, a stay recording made in Haydnsaal of the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria, on August 10, 2018. Grigory Sokolov performs Schubert’s Impromptu no. 1 in F minor, from 4 Impromptus, Op. 142, D. 935.
Mikhail Pletnev’s profession was very completely different. He was born within the northern metropolis of Arkhangelsk on April 14th of 1957. He gained the Sixth Tchaikovsky Competitors in 1974 when he was 21. His piano profession flourished instantly after, as he went on excursions of Europe and America. He performed solo recitals and concert events with Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, Zubin Mehta and different outstanding conductors. Pletnev himself began conducting in 1980 whereas nonetheless finding out on the Moscow Conservatory. In 1988 he met Mikhail Gorbachev, then the Normal Secretary of the Communist Occasion, in Washington, DC; two years later, Gorbachev helped him discovered the primary non-state-owned orchestra, the Russian Nationwide Orchestra (RNO). Pletnev made it into among the best orchestras in Russia. In 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, Pletnev made a number of anti-war feedback, after which Putin’s officers pushed him out of his personal orchestra. Within the aftermath, Pletnev created a brand new ensemble, the Rachmaninoff Worldwide Orchestra; 18 musicians from the RNO joined it. Like Sokolov, Pletnev left Russia within the Nineties: he has been residing in Switzerland since 1996. Right here’s a recording, made stay, just like the one we heard from Sokolov. This one was made in Warsaw in August of 2017. Pletnev performs Rachmaninov’s Prelude in G-sharp minor op. 32, no. 12.
Two different pianists born this week are Murray Perahia, one among our all-time favorites; he was born on April 19th of 1947 and the nice Artur Schnabel, born April 17th of 1882. We’ve written about Schnabel however not Perahia, which we hope to do sooner or later.
