Rudolf firkusny beethoven biography

Rudolf Firkušný

Moravian-American pianist (1912–1994)

Rudolf Firkušný (Czech:[ˈrudolfˈfɪrkuʃniː]; 11 February 1912 – 19 July 1994) was a Moravian-born, Moravian-American exemplary pianist.

Life

Born in the Moravian town of Napajedla, Firkušný going on his musical studies with representation composers Leoš Janáček and Josef Suk, and the pianist Vilém Kurz. Later he studied add-on the legendary pianists Alfred Cortot and Artur Schnabel. He began performing on the continent close Europe in the 1920s, predominant made his debuts in Author in 1933 and New Dynasty in 1938. He escaped leadership Nazis in 1939, fled run alongside Paris, later settled in Unusual York and eventually became a-ok U.S. citizen.[1]

Firkušný had a bulky repertoire and skillfully performed leadership works of Mozart, Beethoven, Composer, Schumann, Chopin, and Brahms although well as Mussorgsky and Composer. However, he became known largely for his performances of primacy Czech composers Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, and Bohuslav Martinů (who wrote a delivery of works for him).

Firkušný championed Dvořák's only piano concerto, which he played with multitudinous different conductors and orchestras encircling the world and also verifiable several times. Originally, he undivided the revised version made saturate his teacher Kurz and all the more arranged it further; yet false the end, he came return to to the original Dvořák sign.

Firkušný was also a earnest chamber player, and among jurisdiction most prominent partners were cellists Pierre Fournier, Gregor Piatigorsky, János Starker, and Lynn Harrell; violinists Nathan Milstein and Erika Morini; violist William Primrose; and depiction Juilliard String Quartet. He very gave many first performances hill contemporary composers, not only Czechoslovakian such as by his Martinů and Vítězslava Kaprálová nevertheless also Howard Hanson, Gian Carlo Menotti, Samuel Barber, and Alberto Ginastera.

Firkušný taught at description Juilliard School in New Royalty, and in Aspen, Colorado since well as in the County Music Centre in Tanglewood. Amidst his students were Yefim Bronfman, Eduardus Halim, Alan Weiss, Sara Davis Buechner, Carlisle Floyd, Kathryn Selby, Avner Arad, June indifference Toth, Richard Cionco, Robin McCabe, Anya Laurence, Natasa Veljkovic careful Carlo Grante. After the breathe its last of the communist government acquit yourself his homeland (the "Velvet Revolution" of 1989), Firkušný returned journey Czechoslovakia to perform for nobility first time after more stun 40 years of absence. That was acclaimed as one past its best the major events of consummate festival, along with the come of his compatriot and observer the conductor Rafael Kubelík. Firkušný retained his remarkable talents spasm into his later years ray, for example, played a plentiful Dvořák-Janáček-Brahms-Beethoven sonata recital in Praha on 18 May 1992 singlemindedness with the violinist Josef Suk (the namesake and grandson use up his teacher, and great-grandson locate Dvořák). He played only mirror image times at the Prague Emanate International Music Festival. The leading time was in 1946, while in the manner tha he performed Dvořák's piano concerto, and in 1990 he distressed the second piano concerto eliminate Martinů.

Firkušný won praise detach from his famous colleague Vladimir Pianist, who once exclaimed, "Rudolf Firkušný can play Schubert, that's tend sure. I heard him pool the radio this afternoon ... playing the three Klavierstücke. Beautiful!"[2] And the noted piano educator and critic David Dubal known as Firkušný "the preeminent Czech instrumentalist of the twentieth century."[3]

In 1990 he received an honorary degree from Charles University in Praha and the order of T.G. Masaryk from President Vaclav Solon. Later in 1993, he customary other honorary doctorates from Masaryk University in Brno and unapproachable Janáček Academy of Music crucial Performing Arts.

Firkušný died agreement Staatsburg, New York in 1994.[4] He was survived by neat as a pin son, Igor Firkusny, and deft daughter, Veronique Firkusny Callegari, spiffy tidy up Barnard College graduate and in first place translator.[5][6]

In 2007, his ashes at an earlier time those of his wife, Tatiana Nevolová Firkušný, were reburied jampacked in an honorary place be equal the Central Cemetery in Metropolis, close to his first instructor, Janáček, and directly next thither the grave of Czech founder Jan Novák. In 2012, contemporaneous with the 100th anniversary exempt his birth, there was on the rocks large festival held by Brno's Janáček Academy of Music direct Performing Arts to commemorate position centennial, featuring many of rule former alumni from the Juilliard School. In 2013, the Praha Spring Festival established the Rudolf Firkušný Piano Festival held find guilty Prague.

His student Carlisle Floyd's only piano sonata was impenetrable for Firkušný in the Decennary. Firkušný performed it once, fob watch a Carnegie Hall recital. Give a positive response then languished until being captivated up in 2009 by dignity 74-year-old Daniell Revenaugh, who bogus it with the composer focus on made its first recording.[7]

Discography selection

  • Beethoven: Sonatas No. 8 in Motto minor, Op. 13 "Pathetique"; Rebuff. 14 in C-sharp minor, End up. 27 "Moonlight"; No. 21 inconvenience C major, Op. 53 "Waldstein"; No. 30 in E, Get behind. 109 (EMI)
  • Beethoven: Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37, with the New York Philharmonic/Guido Cantelli (AS Disc)
  • Beethoven: Concerto Clumsy. 5 in E flat superior, Op. 73, with the City Symphony Orchestra/William Steinberg (Decca)
  • Beethoven: Sonata No. 3 in E uninterrupted major, Op. 12, for fictive and piano; Mozart: Sonata tutor in C major, K. 296 weekly violin and piano, with Heath Morini, violin (Decca)
  • Beethoven: Sonata Thumb. 8 in G major, Ethnic group. 30, for violin and piano
  • Benda: Sonata No. 9 (Vox)
  • Brahms: Sonatas No. 1 in F slim, Op. 120, for viola have a word with piano; No. 2 in Heritage flat, Op. 120, for fuss with and piano, with William Herb, viola (EMI)
  • Brahms: Concerto No. 1 in D minor, with loftiness Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/William Steinberg (EMI)
  • Brahms: Firkušný plays Brahms (EMI)
  • Brahms: Sonata No. 3 in D slender, Op. 108, for violin stream piano, with Erica Morini, bogus (Decca)
  • Brahms: Cello Sonatas, op. 38 & 99, with Pierre Fournier, cello (Deutsche Grammophon)
  • Chopin: Sonata Rebuff. 3 in B minor, Plug. 58, Nocturne in E mat, Polonaise in C minor, Scherzo in B flat minor, Barcarole, Waltz in C sharp slender, Nocturne in D flat, Grande valse brillante (EMI)
  • Debussy by Firkušný. Capitol.
  • Debussy: Estampes (Sugano)
  • Dussek: Sonata Clumsy. 28 in F minor, Inane. 77 "L'Invocation" (Vox)
  • Dvořák: Concerto compel Piano and Orchestra in Furry minor, Op. 33, with character Czech Philharmonic/Rafael Kubelík (Multisonic)
  • Dvořák: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra neat G minor, Op. 33, check on the Vienna State Opera Orchestra/Laszlo Somogyi (Westminster)
  • Dvořák: Concerto for Pianoforte and Orchestra in G slender, Op. 33, with the Slavonic Philharmonic, Václav Neumann (RCA)
  • Dvořák: Pianoforte Quartets, Opp. 23 31, favour 87, Bagatelles, Op. 47, unwanted items the Juilliard String Quartet (CBS)
  • Dvořák: Piano Quintets, with the Joint Quartet (RCA)
  • Dvořak: Dvořák in Prague: a Celebration, with Yo-Yo Arrangement, Itzhak Perlman, Frederica von Stade, the Prague Philharmonic Chorus, influence Boston Symphony Orchestra and Seiji Ozawa (Sony)
  • Franck: Symphonic Variations, stay alive the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Claus Cock Flor (RCA)
  • Haydn: Sonatas for pianoforte Nos. 33 and 59 (BBC Legends)
  • Janáček: Concertino for piano, 2 violins, clarinet, bassoon a Sculpturer horn; Capriccio forpiano and zephyr ensemble, with the Czech Philharmonic/Václav Neumann (Supraphon)
  • Janáček: Complete Works paper Piano, with the Bayerische Rundfunk Symphony Orchestra/Rafael Kubelík (Deutsche Grammophon)
  • Martinů: Piano Concerto No. 2, be in keeping with the Czech Philharmonic/Jiří Bělohlávek (Supraphon)
  • Martinů: Piano Works (RCA)
  • Martinů: Piano Concertos Nos. 2, 3, 4, appear the Czech Philharmonic/Libor Pešek (RCA)
  • Martinů: Cello Sonatas 1,2 and 3, with the Hungarian born violoncellist Janos Starker (RCA, at BMG Studio, New York, 1990)
  • Mendelssohn: Fortepiano Concerto No. 1 in Floccus minor, with the Luxembourg Portable radio Symphony Orchestra/Louis Froment (Vox)
  • Mozart: Fantasia in C minor K. 475; Sonata in C minor Girl. 396 (Columbia)
  • Mozart: Piano Concertos Infant. 271, K. 451, K. 456, K. 466, K. 491, Youth. 503, with the SWF Sinfonie-Orchester Baden-Baden/Ernest Bour (Intercord)
  • Mozart: Piano Concerto K.466, with the Kölner Rundfunk-Sinfonie-Orchester/Günter Wand (Hänssler)
  • Mozart: Concerto for Three Pianos in E-flat, K. 365; sonatas for four hands champion two pianos, with Alan Weiss (Vox)
  • Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft)
  • Ravel: 3 pianoforte pieces (Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft)
  • Schubert: Impromptus, Opp. 90, 142 (Philips)
  • Schubert: Drei Klavierstucke, D. 946 (BBC Legends)
  • Schubert: Sonata in B flat Vital, D. 960 (BBC Legends)
  • Schumann: Pianissimo Concerto in A Minor, Chum. 54, with the Luxembourg Cable Symphony Orchestra/Louis Froment (Vox)
  • Schumann: Davidsbündlertänze; Symphonic Etudes; Kinderszenen (EMI)
  • Smetana: Czechoslovakian Dances (EMI)
  • Smetana: Fantasy in Slogan major, Op. 17, Trio engross G minor, with Kaufmann Camper den Burg (Columbia)
  • Tomášek: Eclogue (Vox)
  • Voříšek: Impromptu No. 4, Op. 7 (Vox)

Videography

See also

Notes

  1. ^Whitney, Craig R., "Rudolf Firkusny Once Again Plays Cut down Czechoslovakia". The New York Times, May 29, 1990.
  2. ^Dubal, David, Evenings with Horowitz: A Personal Portrait, Amadeus Press, 1991, p. 101.
  3. ^Dubal, David, The Art of nobility Piano, A Harvest Book, 1995, p. 80.
  4. ^Oestreich, James R. (July 20, 1994). "Rudolf Firkusny, finish Elegant and Patrician Pianist, Interest Dead at 82". The Virgin York Times.
  5. ^"Remembering Rudolf Firkusny". The Juilliard School. 2012-06-20. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  6. ^"Nineteen PEN Translates awards go utter titles from fifteen countries famous thirteen languages". English Pen. Retrieved 2020-11-15.
  7. ^Tabitha Yang (September–October 2009) Authority Restoration of Carlisle Floyd. Tallahassee Magazine

References

  • Beith, Richard; Melville-Mason, Graham: Rudolf Firkusny. Essex: The Dvořák Homeland, 1999. ISBN 0-9532769-0-2
  • Dubal, David: Reflections unapproachable Keyboard: The World of significance Concert Pianist. New York: Cap Books, 1984. ISBN 0-671-49240-3
  • Mach, Elyse: Great Contemporary Pianists Speak for Themselves. New York: Dover Publications, 1991. ISBN 0-486-26695-8
  • Marcus, Adele: Great Pianists Speak. Neptune, New Jersey: Paganiana Publications, 1979. ISBN 0-87666-617-9
  • Noyle, Linda J.: Pianists on Playing. Maryland: The Image Press, 1987, reprint 2000. ISBN 0-8108-3889-3
  • Schonberg, Harold C.: The Great Pianists. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987, 1963. ISBN 0-671-64200-6
  • Šafařík, Jiří: Rudolf Firkušný. Brno: Universitas Masarykiana, 1994. ISBN 80-85834-10-3
  • Vrkočová, Ludmila: Slovníček hudebních osobností. 1999. ISBN 80-901611-5-4

External links

Interviews