Wilhelm Backhaus. Vladimir Sofronitsky. Vladimir Vladimirovich Sofronitsky (or Sofronitzky; Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Софрони́цкий, Vladimir Sofronitskij; May 8 [O.S.
April 25] 1901 – August 26, 1961) was a Soviet-Russian classical pianist, best known as an interpreter of the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, whose daughter he married. Biography[edit] Vladimir Sofronitsky was born in St. Petersburg to a physics teacher father and a mother from an artistic family. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli. Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli (Italian: [arˈtuːro beneˈdɛtti mikeˈlandʒeli]; 5 January 1920 – 12 June 1995) was an Italian classical pianist.
He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. Biography[edit] Born in Brescia, Italy, he began music lessons at the age of three, initially with the violin, but quickly switched to the piano. At ten he entered the Milan Conservatory. Walter Gieseking. Walter Wilhelm Gieseking (5 November 1895 – 26 October 1956) was a French-born German pianist and composer.
Career[edit] Born in Lyon, France, the son of a German doctor and lepidopterist, Gieseking first started playing the piano at the age of four, but without formal instruction. His family travelled frequently and he was privately schooled. From 1911 to early 1916, he studied at the Hanover Conservatory. There his mentor was the director Karl Leimer, with whom he later co-authored a piano method. During World War II Gieseking continued to reside in Germany, while continuing to concertize in Europe.
Alfred Cortot. Alfred Denis Cortot (26 September 1877 – 15 June 1962) was a Franco-Swiss pianist and conductor.
He is one of the most renowned 20th-century classical musicians, especially valued for his poetic insight in Romantic period piano works, particularly those of Chopin and Schumann. Early life and education[edit] French organ school. The French organ school formed in the first half of the 17th century.
It progressed from the strict polyphonic music of Jean Titelouze (ca 1563–1633) to a unique, richly ornamented style with its own characteristic forms that made full use of the French classical organ. Instrumental in establishing this style were Louis Couperin (ca 1626–1661), who experimented with structure, registration and melodic lines, expanding the traditional polyphonic forms, and Guillaume-Gabriel Nivers (1632–1714), who established the distinct forms and styles of what was to become the French organ tradition. Characteristic forms and nomenclature[edit] French organ composers cultivated four major genres: masses, hymns, suites and noëls. Noëls are variations on Christmas carols, whereas the first three genres were all realized as collections of brief pieces in various characteristic forms. Récit: a piece in which a single voice emerges soloistically above all others by means of special registration.
Arthur Rubinstein. A photograph of Rubinstein on the front cover of Wisdom Magazine in March 1957.
Arthur Rubinstein, KBE (January 28, 1887 – December 20, 1982) was a Polish-American classical pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music written by a variety of composers and many regard him as the greatest Chopin interpreter of his time.[1][2] He was described by The New York Times as one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century.[1] He played in public for eight decades.[3]
Wilhelm Kempff. Wilhelm Walter Friedrich Kempff (25 November 1895 – 23 May 1991) was a German pianist and composer.
Although his repertoire included Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms, Kempff was particularly well known for his interpretations of the music of Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert, by both of whom he recorded complete sets of their piano sonatas.[1][2] He is considered to have been one of the chief exponents of the Germanic tradition during the 20th century.[3] Early life[edit] As a pianist[edit] Wilhelm Kempff recorded over a period of some sixty years. Daniel Barenboim. Daniel Barenboim, KBE (Hebrew: דניאל ברנבוים; born 15 November 1942) is an Israeli Argentine-born pianist and conductor.
He has served as music director of several major symphonic and operatic orchestras and made numerous recordings. Currently, he is general music director of La Scala in Milan,[2] the Berlin State Opera, and the Staatskapelle Berlin; he previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris.
Barenboim is also known for his work with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a Seville-based orchestra of young Arab and Israeli musicians, and as a resolute critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. Glenn Gould. Glenn Gould Glenn Herbert Gould[fn 1][fn 2] (25 September 1932 – 4 October 1982) was a Canadian pianist who became one of the best-known and most celebrated classical pianists of the 20th century.[1] He was particularly renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard music of Johann Sebastian Bach.
His playing was distinguished by remarkable technical proficiency and capacity to articulate the polyphonic texture of Bach's music. Gould was also known as a writer, composer, conductor, and broadcaster. He was a prolific contributor to musical journals, in which he discussed music theory and outlined his musical philosophy. His career as a composer was less distinguished. Vladimir Horowitz. Vladimir Horowitz Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz (Ukrainian: Володи́мир Самiйло́вич Го́ровиць, Volodymyr Samijlovich Gorovitz; October 1 [O.S.
Artur Schnabel. Artur Schnabel, about 1906 Artur Schnabel (April 17, 1882 – August 15, 1951) was an Austrian classical pianist, who also composed and taught. Schnabel was known for his intellectual seriousness as a musician, avoiding pure technical bravura. Among the 20th century's most respected and most important pianists, his playing displayed a vitality, profundity and spirituality in the Austro-German classics, particularly the works of Beethoven and Schubert.
His performances of these compositions have often been hailed as models of interpretative penetration, and his best-known recordings are those of the Beethoven piano sonatas. Claudio Arrau. Claudio Arrau León (February 6, 1903 – June 9, 1991)[1] was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning from the baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Brahms. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the twentieth century. Great Pianists of the 20th Century – Martha Argerich II. Great Pianists of the 20th Century – Martha Argerich II is the third volume of the Great Pianists of the 20th Century box set and is the second of two volumes dedicated to her. The album features music by the composers Frédéric Chopin, Franz Liszt, and Robert Schumann. Featured works[edit] Frédéric Chopin[edit] Prelude in C sharp minor, Op. 45Polonaise in A flat, Op. 61 'Polonaise Fantasie'3 Mazurkas, Op. 59Scherzo No. 3 in C sharp minor, Op. 3924 Preludes, Op. 28Scherzo No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 31Polonaise in A flat, Op. 53 'Heroic'Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58 Robert Schumann[edit] Piano Sonata No. 2 in G minor, Op. 22.
Alfred Brendel. Alfred Brendel, 2010 Alfred Brendel KBE (born 5 January 1931) is an Austrian pianist, poet, and author.[1] He is widely considered to be one of the greatest pianists of all time. [2] Biography[edit] Brendel was born in Wiesenberg (now Loučná nad Desnou, Czech Republic) to a non-musical family. They moved to Zagreb, Yugoslavia (now Croatia), when Brendel was six, and later to Graz, Austria. Towards the end of World War II, the 14-year old Brendel was sent back to Yugoslavia to dig trenches. After the war, Brendel composed music, as well as continuing to play the piano, to write and to paint.
Brendel gave his first public recital in Graz at the age of 17.[1] He called it "The Fugue in Piano Literature", and as well as fugal works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Johannes Brahms and Franz Liszt, it included a sonata of Brendel's own composition. Brendel recorded extensively for the Vox label, providing them his first of three sets of the complete Beethoven sonatas. Brendel has been married twice. Sviatoslav Richter. Richter in approximately 1935 Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter (Russian: Святослав Теофилович Рихтер Sviatosláv Teofílovich Ríkhter, Russian pronunciation: [svʲjətəsˈlaf tʲɪəˈfʲiləvʲɪtɕ ˈrʲixtər], Ukrainian: Святослав Теофілович Ріхтер; March 20 [O.S. Great Pianists of the 20th Century. Great Pianists of the 20th Century was a 200-CD box set released by Philips Records in 1999 and sponsored by Steinway & Sons.
The box set comprised 100 volumes featuring 72[1] pianists of the 20th century, each volume with two CDs and a booklet about the life and work of the featured pianist. The set contains a variety of composers from different eras, from Baroque to Contemporary classical. The material was the result of a collaborative association between Philips (who had access to the Polygram Records back catalogue) and a number of other labels, notably EMI Classics, as no single label possessed a representative set of recordings for every pianist considered to be significant.
Material from Warner Classics and Sony Classics was also used. The majority of the pianists feature on one set only, with sixteen appearing on a second set. Perceptive pianophiles have pointed out various errors in the set, including misattributed recordings and use of unauthorized takes. Paul Wittgenstein. Paul Wittgenstein at the piano. Paul Wittgenstein (May 11, 1887 – March 3, 1961) was an Austrian-born concert pianist who became known for commissioning new piano concerti for the left hand alone, following the amputation of his right arm during the First World War. He devised novel techniques, including pedal and hand-movement combinations, that allowed him to play chords previously regarded as impossible for a five-fingered pianist. He was the older brother of the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein.