Felicja flower valley

Felicja Blumental (born December 28, 1908 in Warsaw , † December 31, 1991 in Tel Aviv ) was a Polish - Brazilian pianist .

The Felicja Blumental Music Center and Library building in Tel Aviv

Life

Felicja Blumental grew up as the daughter of a violinist in a musical family. She began taking piano lessons at the age of five and made her debut as a pianist at the age of ten. She studied at the Conservatory of the Warsaw Music Academy and took piano lessons from Joseph Goldberg and Zbigniew Drzewiecki , a founder of the Frédéric Chopin International Piano Competition . She was taught how to read compositions by the composer Karol Szymanowski . She later took private lessons in Switzerland with Józef Turczyński , a well-known Chopin interpreter and teacher.

In 1938 she moved with her husband Markus Mizne first to Luxembourg , then to Nice ; In 1942 she went on to Brazil with her daughter to escape the increasing persecution of Jews in Europe . She became a Brazilian citizen. A successful debut in Rio de Janeiro was followed by tours in Latin America with over 100 concerts. In the rest of her life she stood up for the music and composers of her adopted country.

In 1954 she returned to Europe, where she made her debut at Wigmore Hall . Yehudi Menuhin congratulated her on her extraordinary success in Zurich . She later lived in Milan (from 1962) and then in London (from 1973).

Felicja Blumental died in Tel Aviv in 1991 during one of her many concert tours in Israel . Her grave is in the Kiryat Shaul Cemetery in Tel Aviv.

Her daughter, the classical singer ( soprano ) Annette Celine , is the artistic director and organizer of the Felicja Blumental International Music Festival, which takes place annually in Tel Aviv .

The Tel Aviv Museum of Art houses the portrait of Felicja Blumental, painted in 1957 by Tsuguharu Foujita .

repertoire

Felicja Blumental's repertoire was wide-ranging and eager to experiment; from Portuguese Baroque to contemporary South American works. Her numerous recordings include many concerts by forgotten composers such as Carl Czerny , Ferdinand Ries and John Field . Heitor Villa-Lobos wrote his Piano Concerto No. 5 for you. She was the soloist for the world premiere with the Philharmonic Orchestra under Jean Martinon on May 8, 1956 at the Royal Festival Hall , London . The concert was also performed in Paris , with the composer as conductor. Krzysztof Penderecki dedicated his partita for harpsichord and orchestra to her . Your recording of this work received the 1975 record award of the French Académie Charles Cros .

Her concert recordings included a summary of Beethoven's complete works for solo piano and orchestra, including two early works without opus numbers , and also Beethoven's arrangement for piano for the violin concerto .

Above all, Felicja Blumental will be unforgettable as an important interpreter of Frédéric Chopin . Delicate in stature, she was a pianist with considerable expressiveness. Her recordings of Chopin's mazurkas in particular are unique interpretations.

literature

• Nehama Guralnik among others: The Mizne-Blumental Collection. Tel Aviv Museum of Art, cat 1/1995, OCLC 35955334 , p. 12 ff.

Web links

• Felicja Blumental International Music Festival with CV and photos of Felicja Blumental (English)
• Portuguese Piano Music - Claudio Records Review / Information (English)