Alexis Weissenberg

Alexis Weissenberg, 1947

Alexis Sigismund Weissenberg ( Bulgarian / Cyrillic written Алексис Сигизмунд Вайсенберг, born  July 26, 1929 in Sofia ; †  January 8, 2012 in Lugano , Switzerland ) was a Bulgarian pianist and composer .

Life

Alexis Weissenberg, an only child from a Jewish family, heard music with his mother every day as a three-year-old and took part in the chamber music she played with her siblings. At about the age of four she gave him his first piano lessons , half an hour a day. A little later Pancho Vladigerov became his teacher, also of composition . In his house he got to know many important musicians, including the pianist Dinu Lipatti .

Weissenberg gave his first concert when he was ten. In it he played three inventions by Johann Sebastian Bach , some pieces from Robert Schumann's  " Album for the Young ", op. 68, by Ludwig van Beethoven  " The Anger Over the Lost Groschen ", op. 129, an improvisation by Pantscho Wladigerow and one himself composed an etude in G major, of which he was particularly proud and which he transposed to E flat major at the last moment because it sounded better to him.

In 1941, living conditions in Bulgaria became so difficult due to the war and increasing anti-Semitism that the mother wanted to flee with Alexis to Turkey , where one of her brothers lived. With very little luggage and an accordion , they set out on the journey. Their forged papers were discovered by German inspectors and they had to spend three months in a camp. Weissenberg's musical talent saved him and his mother from deportation to Poland and thus from death. A guard discovered the accordion and had Weissenberg play Schubert for him every day . This guard helped them to escape across the Turkish border so that they could get to Istanbul . There they waited for months for valid papers to travel on to Haifa in Palestine , where their mother's relatives took them in.

Only when they moved to Jerusalem did Weissenberg get good piano lessons again at the Jerusalem Music Academy with Professor Schröder. He was now 14 years old and very soon played Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto with the “Palestine Broadcasting Service Orchestra” from Jerusalem. The following year he was invited to his first major concert tour through South Africa with fifteen concert evenings, on which he played five different piano concerts and four different solo programs. Back in Jerusalem, the war had just ended, he was invited by Leo Kestenberg , then director of the Palestine Orchestra , to play one of the season concerts every year. The third was conducted by Leonard Bernstein . This experience with this conductor motivated him to go to New York for further studies , equipped with letters of recommendation from Kestenberg to Arthur Schnabel and Vladimir Horowitz .

1946–1949 he studied at the Juilliard School with Wanda Landowska , Artur Schnabel and Olga Samaroff . Horowitz advised him to take part in the international Leventritt competition, and he won first prize in 1947. Then he won the Youth Competition in Philadelphia . He gave his first major concerts with George Szell and Eugene Ormandy as conductors.

His first recordings on the Lumen label also attracted international attention. His interpretations of the B minor Sonata of Liszt and its Petrarca - sonnets , one Nocturnes or Etude for the Left Hand by Scriabin leave his perfect technique and incisive analyzes of the works heard, as his sleek, crystal clear sound, eg. B. in Carl Czerny's "La Ricordanza".

After a concert break between 1956 and 1965, during which he expanded his repertoire , he made a comeback in Paris and the USA ( Carnegie Hall in New York ), which was followed by an international career in Europe and Japan. He became the concert partner u. a. for Lorin Maazel , Herbert von Karajan , Seiji Ozawa and Carlo Maria Giulini .

Alexis Weissenberg with François Weigel during a master class in Engelberg , 1995

In the later years of his life, the pianist had to retire from the concert business due to illness, but continued to work as a teacher. a. at master classes in Engelberg Abbey in Switzerland, and was a member of the jury at international music competitions for many years.

In May 2007 Alexis Weissenberg received an honorary doctorate from the National Music Academy “Prof. Pantscho Wladigerow “ awarded.

Alexis Weissenberg lived in Switzerland. In his master classes he adjusted to the individual talents of the students; they shouldn't take a preconceived interpretation, because for him there wasn't one.

He was married once. The daughters Maria Weissenberg de Reparaz and Cristina Weissenberg de Reparaz emerged from this marriage. Cristina was married to Gregorio Marañón y Bertrán de Lis, the current Marqués de Marañón , and lives near Madrid.

The pianist

Statements about Weissenberg's art

Weissenberg says about himself:

“Two aspects of my personality determine everything I do in music, and they are completely contrary: my soul is logical, but my body is spirited. Emotionally I am a Slav: I go through ups and downs, I am moody and can be very sentimental and longing. With this longing I mean an adventurous journey in body and head, more tangible than just an interpersonal relationship or a love experience. The cause is the land that you miss - the whole climate and topography - or another person, the aura of another person who has done something for you and who is simply missing in life. Longing can be dangerous for an artist because it can easily get out of hand. It can tear you apart. "

Critics described his virtuosity as “cool”, “intellectual” and Weissenberg as a “calculating pianist with absolutely flawless technique”.

Vladimir Horowitz once said after hearing Weissenberg's 3rd Piano Concerto in D minor by Rachmaninoff , which he himself particularly valued and of which his interpretation was considered exemplary:

"If anyone can follow me, it's Alexis Weissenberg."

After a piano recital in New York's Carnegie Hall on December 2, 1970, Harold C. Schonberg wrote in the New York Times :

"Mr. Weissenberg plays in a class of its own. He could make a world career just with the interpretation of Chopin 's Sonata in B minor . It is a power plant. "

After returning to the big concert stages, Weissenberg recorded a number of Chopin works: The Nocturnes, the B minor and B minor sonatas, the two piano concertos and all other works for piano and orchestra.

Glenn Gould heard a new picture of Chopin in it, dusted of all the usual salon sweetness. In several of his radio programs, he said:

“That Weissenberg fascinated him through his art himself with works to which he actually had no access. In addition to Weissenberg's Chopin, he cited Robert Schumann's 'Carnaval' as an example. "

It says:

"His interpretation of the ' Pictures at an Exhibition ' by Modest Mussorgsky was only achieved by Horowitz and Swjatoslaw Richter in terms of sound splendor, sharp rhythmic contrasts and an almost inconceivable increase in the 'Great Gate of Kiev' ."

In a conversation recorded by the SR before a public television concert, etc. a. with Chopin's B minor sonata, said Alexis Weissenberg in response to a question from interviewer Peter Rocholl ... “It has to be very topical again when you play Chopin. If you play it like 50 years ago, it becomes unbearable. I'm sure of that (...) Actually, you should never believe in tradition. Tradition is a guarantee of the death of music. I am convinced of that."

Record recordings

• Weissenberg has recorded Chopin's four Scherzi and his third piano sonata op. 58 for RCA / BMG, in addition to some works by Claude Debussy .
• In the second half of the 1960s he played his first interpretation of the Goldberg Variations , all Partitas and the Chromatic Fantasia and Fugue (BWV 903), the »Ouverture française« (BWV 831) and the Italian Concerto (BWV 971) by EMI Johann Sebastian Bach a. In 1981 he recorded the Goldberg Variations a second time - Weissenberg later assessed the result as extremely unsatisfactory.
• In 1981 Alexis Weissenberg recorded the songs "Lullaby for Adults" with the then 16-year-old Anke Engelke (music: Alexis Weissenberg; text: B. Boca / F. Lacombrade; German text: Th. Woitkewitch; arr .: P. Herbolzheimer) and "One-two-three (The Forgotten Waltz)" from: "La Fugue" on.
• Like Wladimir Horowitz, Alexis Weissenberg is an important Schumann interpreter. His recordings of the C major Fantasy, Op. 17, the Children's Scenes , Op. 15 - a work that Weissenberg particularly loves -, the Carnaval , Op. 9, his interpretation of the humoresque , the Davidsbündlertänze , Op. 6 or the rendering of the Album for the Young , op. 68, are an expression of Weissenberg's ability to empathize with the finest psychological nuances of these works.
• There are three recordings of Sergei Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto in D minor , conducted by Georges Prêtre , Seiji Ozawa and Leonard Bernstein .
• With Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker he recorded Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto in C minor .
• Rachmaninov's »Mélodies« (= songs) with the tenor Nicolai Gedda , which even the very critical Jürgen Kesting liked.
• Weissenberg's rendition of all of Rachmaninov's »Preludes« is one of the few recordings that has never been removed from the international catalogs. They have cult status and were one of Herbert von Karajan's favorite recordings.
• Also with Herbert von Karajan César Franck's “Symphonic Variations”, Tchaikovsky's B flat minor concerto and Beethoven's five piano concertos. The recording of the 4th Beethoven Concerto is particularly appreciated.
• Alexis Weissenberg recorded three sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven: the "Pathétique" without any hollow and false pathos, the "Moonlight Sonata" and an "Appassionata" that avoids all false heroisms and is played with cool passion.
• In the area of ​​chamber music there are the three violin sonatas by Brahms and the A major sonata by César Franck with Anne-Sophie Mutter (EMI, 1982). Alexis Weissenberg promoted the young Anne-Sophie mother like Karajan and his manager and long-time friend Michel Glotz from Paris.

When Weissenberg switched to the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft , he recorded four more CDs:

• Debussy: various piano works, Scarlatti: Sonatas (selection), Rachmaninoff: Sonatas No. 1 & 2 as well as Bach: Partitas No. 4 & 6 and the Italian Concerto
• In 2004 the 4 CD box "Les Introuvables d'Alexis Weissenberg" (EMI) was launched, including Weissenberg's interpretation of Ravel's piano concerto in G major and Sergei Prokofiev's third piano concerto (both with Seiji Ozawa as conductor) .
• One of these CDs also includes Ravel's “Valses nobles et sentimentales”, which suggest a comparison with the recordings of Vlado Perlemuter, a friend of Ravel, or the Ravel specialist Robert Casadesus , the B minor sonata by Franz Liszt, now in stereo , and on the second CD the Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor by Johannes Brahms (with Riccardo Muti and the Philadelphia Orchestra). In all cases, these are reference recordings of works such as the 2nd Piano Sonata, in B flat minor, by Frédéric Chopin.
• He has recorded two Mozart piano concerts with Carlo Maria Giulini , the Jeunehomme Concerto, KV 271 and the Piano Concerto in C major, KV 467 , the Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor by Johannes Brahms.
• Worth mentioning in Weissenberg's discography are the accompaniments of the soprano Montserrat Caballé and the baritone Hermann Prey .

filming

There is a film adaptation of Alexis Weissenberg's piano playing "Trois Mouvements de Pétrouchka " by Stravinsky - director: Åke Falck . Weissenberg plays on a silent piano using the playback method for his own recording from 1964. There are also other film documents, such as B. the Piano Concerto in B flat minor by Tchaikovsky and the 2nd Piano Concerto in C minor by Rachmaninov (both with Herbert von Karajan and the Berliner Philharmoniker, also directed by Åke Falck - 1973).

In April 2008 a DVD with the title »Weissenberg« was released. In addition to the famous Petrushka film, this includes the complete Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, op.83 by Johannes Brahms (with Georges Prêtre and the Orchester de l'ORTF), works by Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, JS Bach and a longer one , more recent interview with Alexis Weissenberg in French (with English subtitles) about the Petrushka film. Michel Glotz wrote the preface to Weissenberg and the DVD.

The composer

Alexis Weissenberg's own compositions for piano solo, including a "Sonate en état du jazz", have been recorded in full by the British pianist Simon Mulligan (label: Nimbus).

In 2007 Marc-André Hamelin recorded the "Sonate en état de jazz" again and has since played it regularly in his concert programs with exceptional success (label: Hyperion).

The first performance of the composition Nostalgie took place on October 22nd, 1992 at the Staatstheater Darmstadt . The Jazz - Musical dispensed with an orchestra stage game is musically supported by two pianos. Weissenberg described the work itself, which consists of “scenes and images that play in the present, past and future without a recognizable chronology” as a “ surrealist musical”.

literature

• Gustl Breuer (Author), Henno Lohmeyer (Ed.): Alexis Weissenberg. A kaleidoscopic portrait . Rembrandt Verlag, Berlin 1977; ISBN 3-7925-0231-3 .
• Lettre d'Alexis Weissenberg à Bernard Gavoty, 1966.
• Michel Glotz: La note bleue. Une vie pour la musique . Lattès, Paris 2002; ISBN 978-2709620079 .
• Weissenberg - Three interviews - 2012, Sofia

Web links

• Literature by and about Alexis Weissenberg in the catalog of the German National Library
• Alexis Weissenberg in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Weissenberg's official website (English)
• Interview about the master classes

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jürgen Kesting : On the death of Alexis Weissenberg. Madame Sand's cobwebs. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , January 10, 2012, accessed November 30, 2015 . 
2. ↑ Tom Huizenga: Pianist Alexis Weissenberg Dies At 82. NPR Music, December 31, 2012, accessed on December 15, 2015 (English). 
3. ↑ Michel Glotz: La note bleue. Une vie pour la musique . Lattès, Paris 2002; ISBN 978-2709620079 .
4. ↑ Eckhard Roelcke: ... "Nostalgia" by Alexis Weissenberg in Darmstadt: The crash. Die Zeit , October 23, 1992, accessed November 30, 2015 .