György Sebők
György Sebők [ ɟørɟ ˈʃe: bœk ] (born November 2, 1922 in Szeged , Hungary , † November 14, 1999 in Bloomington , Indiana , USA ) was a Hungarian pianist and piano teacher.
life and career
Even at the age of five, György Sándor, who was ten years his senior, was a corresponding student at the Budapest Franz Liszt Academy , where he was taught pianistically by Arnold Székely and Imre Keéri-Szanto (who was also Géza Anda's first teacher ) from 1938 onwards Zoltán Kodály and Leó Weiner were trained in the subjects of composition and chamber music. At the age of ten Sebők performed for the first time with a piano concerto by Mozart and at the age of 14 with the 1st piano concerto in C major op. 15 by Beethoven under the direction of Ferenc Fricsayon; at the Conservatory he formed a piano trio with two fellow students, the violinist Ferenc Ákos and the cellist János Starker . After the war Sebők made his debut in Bucharest in 1945 with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor KV 466 under the direction of George Enescu and gave successful concerts in Eastern Europe including the Soviet Union . From 1949 he taught himself at the Liszt Conservatory, but emigrated to Paris a year after the Hungarian uprising . In France he recorded a number of records over the next few years, both as a soloist and as a chamber music partner of his friend Starker and (in the 1970s) of violinist Arthur Grumiaux . In 1962 Sebők took up a professorship for piano at the Music School of Indiana University Bloomington , which he held until his death. In 1974 he founded a summer academy in the Swiss municipality of Ernen ( Wallis ) and in 1987 a festival of the future ; Today's Festival Musikdorf Ernen emerged from these initiatives .
After the death of Sebők's wife Eva (1926-2010), the couple's remains were scattered in front of the Chapel of the Holy Family in the neighboring village of Mühlebach .
Awards
Sebők received the Liszt Prize of the Hungarian State in 1952, the Grand Prix du Disque in 1957 and the Culture Prize of the Canton of Valais (Prix de Consecration) in 1996; in the same year he was appointed Chevalier de l'ordre des arts et des lettres . György Sebők is also the third honorary citizen in the history of Ernen.
Pedagogical work and artistic understanding
György Sebők is considered one of the most important piano teachers of the second half of the 20th century, who, in addition to his lessons in Bloomington, regularly holds master classes all over the world (e.g. at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam , the Canadian Banff Center of the Arts, the Berlin University of the Arts and the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo ). Sebők's conception of piano playing corresponds to the ideal of Hungarian pianistics since Ernst von Dohnányi , to develop an equally stylish and individual interpretation from a strictly factual basis, which is based on the analysis of the musical text and the compositional content of the respective work. At Sebők, technical virtuosity is always at the service of the musical statement, whose chamber music transparency and linguistic-rhetorical persuasiveness his recordings with works by Bach , Beethoven, Chopin , Schumann , Mendelssohn Bartholdy , Liszt , Brahms , Tchaikovsky , Franck , Debussy and Bartók testify.
literature
- Barbara Alex (Ed.): György Sebök. Words From a Master. Carpe Diem Books, Portland, OR 2010, ISBN 978-0-9713555-4-5 .
- Ingo Harden , Gregor Willmes: Pianist Profiles. 600 performers: their biography, their style, their recordings. Bärenreiter, Kassel 2008, ISBN 978-3-7618-1616-5 , pp. 659-660 [article by Peter Seidle].
- Thaddeus E. Carhart: The Piano Shop on the Left Bank. The Hidden World of a Paris Atelier. Chatto & Windus, London 2000, ISBN 0-70-116874-9 , pp. 191-198. German edition under the title: A piano in Paris. An unusual friendship. Kindler, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-463-40419-2 , pp. 267-276.
Movies
- György Sebők, la musique comme langue maternelle . Etienne Blanchon / altomedia (France 2010).
- György Sebők, une leçon de musique . Etienne Blanchon / altomedia, Idéale Audience International (France 1998).
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Sebők, György |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Hungarian pianist and piano teacher |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 2, 1922 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Szeged , Hungary |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 14, 1999 |
| Place of death | Bloomington , Indiana , USA |