Grigori Lipmanowitsch Sokolow

Grigory Sokolov (2015)

Chart positions Explanation of the data

Albums

The Salzburg Recital   DE 32 01/30/2015 (5 weeks)   AT 25th 01/30/2015 (3 weeks) Schubert // Beethoven   DE 36 01/22/2016 (3 weeks)   AT 39 01/29/2016 (1 week) Mozart - Rachmaninov: Concertos & A Conversation That Never Was   DE 83 03/17/2017 (1 week) Beethoven · Brahms · Mozart   DE 48 05/15/2020 (1 week)   CH 91 05/17/2020 (1 week)

Grigori Lipmanowitsch Sokolov ( Russian Григорий Липманович Соколов , scientific transliteration Grigorij Lipmanovič Sokolov ; born April 18, 1950 in Leningrad ) is a Russian pianist . He is considered one of the most important pianists of our time.

Life

Grigori Sokolow during a concert in the Kongresshaus Stadthalle Heidelberg (2015)

The graduate of the Leningrad Conservatory gained notoriety by winning the 3rd Moscow Tchaikovsky Competition in 1966, which was awarded to him after an intervention by the jury chairman Emil Gilels to great public protest.

Although Sokolow made an impressive career in the former Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s , he was only rarely allowed to travel to concerts abroad, which made him known only slowly in the West. He is also reluctant to give interviews, does not make recordings in studios and does not perform with an orchestra because the rehearsal times for orchestral concerts are too short for him. Sokolow performs exclusively on Steinway grand pianos, model D-274 . His meticulous way of having the tuning of the instrument corrected shortly before the start of the concert is feared.

In the meantime, Sokolow has given over 1,000 concerts, which have often received rave reviews, including in Carnegie Hall in New York and in the Vienna Musikvereinssaal . The cautious artist released recordings with the small French label Opus 111 , which belongs to the independent label Naïve Records . These include works by Bach , Beethoven , Brahms and Chopin .

His program compilations are reminiscent of the great times of the Russian virtuoso school. a. goes back to Anton Rubinstein . Sokolov is by no means shy of starting an evening with Froberger and ending it with Scriabin .

In January 2015, Deutsche Grammophon published a recording of Sokolow's Salzburg Festival Concert in summer 2008 under the name The Salzburg Recital . The publication received extremely positive reviews in the press and was awarded the Echo Klassik in October 2015 in the solo recording of the year category. In September 2015, Sokolow caused a stir when he rejected the Italian music prize Cremona Music Award before it was awarded, which he justified in the form of a handwritten note on his website.

The music critic Julia Spinola (* 1962) wrote in 2010 after a concert in the Heidelberg city hall: “Grigorij Sokolov is unique. A pianist whose genius seems to burst the possibilities of categorization, stylistic comparison and metaphorical description in such a radical way that when attempting to approximate his size, one initially feels painfully thrown back on the unrealizable necessity for this pianistic phenomenon having to invent your own language first. A gap opens up between the cosmos of what is heard and the world of the concept, as soon as the last note has died away in the concert hall. ”In 2015, music critic Dorothea Walchshäusl (* 1985) praised Sokolov's“ flawless, brilliantly virtuoso technique ”, which“ the sound full and full […], but never massive ”and thus enables“ exposure of the highest musicality ”.

Sokolov is widowed and lives in Saint Petersburg and Verona .

Quote

Art is a parallel universe to reality. (Grigori Sokolow in an interview with Christine Lemke-Matwey / Die Zeit / January 28, 2016)

Awards and honors

• 1966: 1st prize at the Tchaikovsky Competition (youngest ever winner)
• 2010: Ruhr Piano Festival - Honorary Award for his extraordinary achievements
• 2015: DaCapo KlassiK Award - Pianist of the Year
• 2016: Echo Klassik in the Instrumentalist of the Year category , piano for the Schubert / Beethoven recording
• 2016: Annual German Record Critics' Award for Schubert / Beethoven
• 2016: Induction into the Gramophone Hall of Fame .

Recordings (selection)

Sound carrier

• Johann Sebastian Bach : Goldberg Variations BWV 988, Partita No. 2 in C minor BWV 826 , Suite No. 2 in A minor BWV 807 . Double CD, Melodija / Naxos 2013. Live recordings of the Partita BWV 826 in 1975, the Goldberg Variations 1982 and the English Suite BWV 807 1989 in the concert hall of the Saint Petersburg Conservatory .
• Schubert // Schumann // Chopin // Skriabin // Stravinsky // Prokofiev . Franz Schubert : Piano Sonata No. 14 in A minor, D 784, op.posth. 143, Robert Schumann : Carnaval, op.9 , Frédéric Chopin : Mazurka in A minor, Op. 17, No. 4, Etude in F major, op. 10, No. 8 , Etude in A minor, Op. 25 No. 11 , Alexander Scriabin : Etude in D flat major, Op. 8 No. 10 , Piano Sonata No. 9, Op. 68 ("Black Mass"), Igor Stravinsky : Three movements from Petrushka , Sergei Prokofjew : Piano Sonata No. 7 in B flat major, Op. 83, Piano Sonata No. 8 in B flat major, Op. 84. Double CD, Melodija 2014. Recordings: Chopin Etude in A minor and Scriabin Etude - at the Third International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1966; Schumann - 1967; Schubert, Chopin Mazurka and Etude in F major, Prokofiev Sonata No. 7 - 1969; Stravinskiy - 1974; Scriabin Piano Sonata - live in the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic [today: Saint Petersburg] on March 25, 1984; Prokofiev Sonata No. 8 - live there on March 26, 1988.
• The Salzburg Recital . WA Mozart : Sonata No. 2 in F major KV 280 and Sonata in F major KV 332, Frédéric Chopin : 24 Preludes op.28 , Mazurka No. 2 in A minor op.68, Mazurka No. 3 in C sharp minor, op.63 , Alexander Scriabin : Poème No. 1 op. 69, Jean-Philippe Rameau : Les Sauvages, Johann Sebastian Bach: I call to you, Lord Jesus Christ. Double CD, also double LP (180g Heavyweight Vinyl), Deutsche Grammophon 2015. Live recording on July 30, 2008 at the Salzburg Festival .
• Schubert // Beethoven . Franz Schubert : Impromptus D 899 , 3 piano pieces D 946, Ludwig van Beethoven : Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major op.106 , Jean-Philippe Rameau : Les Tendres Plaintes, Les Tourbillons, Les Cyclopes, La Follette, Les Sauvages, Johannes Brahms : Intermezzo No. 2 in B flat minor, Op. 117 . Double CD, Deutsche Grammophon 2016. Live recording by Schubert in May 2013 in the concert hall of the National Philharmonic in Warsaw, the Beethoven, Rameau and Brahms recordings were made in August 2013 at the Salzburg Festival Hall.
• Chopin : Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Munich Philharmonic under Witold Rowicki . CD, Sony Music 2016. Recorded in November 1977 in the Bürgerbräukeller Munich.
• WA Mozart: 23rd Piano Concerto in A major, KV 488 with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Trevor Pinnock (recorded in 2005 during the Salzburg Mozart Week); Sergei Rachmaninow : 3rd Piano Concerto op. 30 in D minor with the BBC Philharmonic under the direction of Yan Pascal Tortelier (recorded in 1995 during the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall ). Double CD, Deutsche Grammophon 2017.

DVD

• Grigory Sokolov - Live in Paris. Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata No. 9 in E major, Op. 14, No. 1 , Sonata No. 10 in G major, Op. 14, No. 2 , Piano Sonata No. 15, Op. 28 , Komitas Vardapet : Six dances for piano, Sergei Prokofiev : Sonata No. 7 in B flat major op.83, Frederik Chopin: Mazurka No. 3 in c sharp minor op.50, Mazurka No. 4 in F minor op 68, François Couperin : Soeur Monique, Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude No. 10 B flat minor BWV 855a. Concert film , 123 min. Director: Bruno Monsaingeon , Production: Idéale Audience 2009, recording on November 4, 2002 at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées . Excerpt provided by EuroArtsChannel.
• Grigory Sokolov - Live at the Berlin Philharmonie. Franz Schubert: Impromptus D 899 op. 90 , Three Piano Pieces D 946; Beethoven: Hammerklavier Sonata No. 29 in B flat major op. 106 ; Rameau: Suite in D major , Les sauvages; Brahms: Intermezzo op.117 No. 2 . Concert film, 144 min. Director: Bruno Monsaingeon, Production: Idéale Audience 2014. Recording on June 5, 2013 in the Berlin Philharmonic . Table of contents at EuroArts.
• Bach, Beethoven, Schubert. Johann Sebastian Bach: Partita No. 1 in B flat major BWV 825, Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata No. 7 in D major op.10 No. 3 , Franz Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 16 in A minor op.42 D 845 and Moments musicaux op.94 D 780 . Concert film 150 min. Director: Bruno Monsaingeon, Production: Hélène Le-Coeur in coproduction with Idéale Audience and Museec / Medici.tv 2015. Recording on August 18, 2015 at the Grand Théâtre de Provence during the Aix-en-Provence Festival de piano de la Roque d'Anthéron . Synopsis at Idéale Audience.
• Grigory Sokolov: A conversation that never was. Documentary, 52 min. Director: Nadia Zhdanova, Production: Production Center Styline 2015. Synopsis at EuroArts.

literature

• Carsten Dürer: Grigory Sokolov: From the freedom of the artist. (4/2000) In Carsten Dürer (Ed.): Conversations with pianists. Staccato-Verlag, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-932976-18-5 , pages 368 to 376.
• Jan Brachmann: Grigori Sokolow is 70. The irretrievable as a celebration . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , April 18, 2020.

swell

1. ↑ Chart sources: Germany - Austria - Switzerland
2. ↑ For Christine Lemke-Matwey he is even "the most important pianist in the world"; see. their contribution to Grigory Sokolov. "The music never stops" , in: Die Zeit , April 30, 2015 ( online )
3. ^ Tom Service: The drama continues at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. The Guardian , June 29, 2011, accessed January 15, 2016 . 
4. ↑ Alessandra Stanley: Musical Tradition of Acrimony. The New York Times , June 2, 1994, accessed January 15, 2016 . 
5. ↑ James Rhodes: The greatest living pianist. The Spectator , March 2011, accessed January 10, 2016 . 
6. ↑ I play everything I love. (PDF) Steinway Magazine for Friends of Steinway in Austria, March 2005, accessed on October 7, 2018 . 
7. ^ Press comments German. Deutsche Grammophon , accessed October 27, 2015 . 
8. ↑ Grigory Sokolov rejects price. Klassik Radio , September 29, 2015, archived from the original on October 2, 2015 ; accessed on October 27, 2015 . 
9. ↑ Julia Spinola: How to Disappear in Music, in: FAZ No. 94, April 23, 2010, p. 37.
10. ↑ Dorothea Walchshäusl: The fabulous, idiosyncratic, wondrous world of Grigory Sokolov , in: crescendo, February 2015.
11. ↑ Andreas Kunz, Mario-Felix Vogt: The Magician. Fono Forum , February 2015, accessed January 10, 2016 . 
12. ↑ Managing Migration: Point-Based System, Thirteenth Report of Session 2008-09, Volume II . House of Commons , 2009 ( full text in Google Book Search).
13. ↑ Harriet Smith: Icons - Grigory Sokolov. Gramophone , March 22, 2016, accessed June 2, 2016 . 
14. ^ Stephen Wigler: Pianist mistakes his slow style for profundity. The Baltimore Sun , July 14, 1992, accessed January 15, 2016 . 
15. ↑ Volume 2016. Prize of the German Record Critics , accessed on December 10, 2016 . 
16. ↑ Gramophone Hall of Fame. Gramophone , accessed October 31, 2017 . 
17. ↑ Werner Theurich: exceptional pianist Sokolov: Nix for cowards. Spiegel Online , February 9, 2014, accessed January 13, 2016 . 
18. ↑ Werner Theurich: exceptional pianist Sokolov: completely renovated Schubert, ludicrous Beethoven. Spiegel Online , January 10, 2016, accessed January 13, 2016 . 
19. ↑ Meret Forster : Piano Concerto No. 1 by Frédéric Chopin. BR-Klassik , April 2, 2016, accessed June 1, 2016 . 

Web links

Commons : Grigori Lipmanowitsch Sokolow  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Website about Grigory Sokolov
• Grigori Sokolow on the website of Konzertdirektion Schmid
• Works by Grigori Lipmanowitsch Sokolow in the catalog of the German National Library
• I play everything i love . Interview with Sokolow in Steinway magazine in Austria. Piano house on Opernring , issue 4, March 2005.