Josef Bulva

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Josef Bulva (born January 9, 1943 in Brno , Czechoslovakia ; † August 12, 2020 in Monte-Carlo , Monaco ) was a Luxembourg pianist .

Life

Josef Bulva was born in 1943 in what was then German-occupied Czechoslovakia , now the Czech Republic . From 1950 he attended the music school in Napajedla , where his parents had been resettled. Bulva took lessons from the music teacher Václav Lanka and soon achieved the virtuosity that earned him the reputation of a child prodigy . Already with 12 years he played Liszt - Etudes and Mozart - piano concertos . At the age of 13 he played Brahms ' demanding Paganini Variations. Supported by a state scholarship from the ČSSR, Bulva first attended the Kroměříž Conservatory , later the Brno Conservatory and finally the Bratislava Conservatory , where he was accepted into the Academy of Arts at the age of 17 . Bulva completed his training with distinction and the so-called red diploma. At the age of 21, Bulva was named a state soloist of the ČSSR.

Bulva's concert activities were abruptly interrupted in 1971 by a serious mountain accident with over fifty broken bones. After almost a year in hospital, he performed again and in 1972 used his first foreign tour to emigrate to Luxembourg . In the former ČSSR he was charged with high treason. Bulva became a citizen of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and at the same time found his second artistic home in Munich . When visiting his adopted home, he resides as a permanent guest in the Munich Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten . The emigration and the new beginning as a pianist opened the international concert halls, the radio stations and the record studios to Josef Bulva. Bulva presented himself to the music world with the first recording of Sergei Prokofiev's ballet cycle op. 75, Romeo and Juliet , in the arrangement for piano, for the record company Teldec . In addition to this dramaturgical contribution, his recording of the cycle of Grandes études de Paganini by Franz Liszt caused a sensation. Bulva was celebrated by international experts. Despite his success, Bulva increasingly withdrew from concert activities in the following years.

On March 22, 1996, while visiting family in his homeland, he fell on an icy road and was injured by a broken glass hidden under the snow. His left hand was supposedly irreparably damaged. His pianistic career was thus over. He retired to Monaco in order to build up a new purpose in life. There, Bulva was professionally and financially involved as a financial investor .

Bulva underwent a number of operations and trained his hand to move around on a daily basis. After years of healing, the hand was able to play again. In 2009 Bulva returned to the concert halls after a 13-year absence. He continued his recording work for the phonograms industry at RCA Red Seal .

Piano art

Josef Bulva's piano playing followed his personal credo: natural musicality, taste, knowledge of his "profession" and discipline. Bulva would have nothing else in mind than to interpret the musical text respectfully, faithfully and without extravagance. In doing so, the obviousness of the technical standard and the infallibility in questions of the sense of style were fully available to him.

Bulva became a kind of pioneer of piano playing through his own use of the sostenuto pedal . In an interview with Christian Buchmann, he explained how this middle pedal opened up another creative sanctuary and also added clarity to the polyphonic passages. Bulva's use of the third pedal set him apart from other pianists. Of Steinway & Sons , he was therefore called "pianist among pianists", as he this for 140 years patented invention implemented as far Only the mechanical possibilities in the design of his interpretation.

criticism

The music critic Joachim Kaiser called him “the pianist of the scientific age” and attested him: “Masterworks appear in a new guise”, the Steinway Owners' Magazine acknowledged that “his playing reflects the credo of Steinway & Sons”. In 2009, in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Wolfgang Schreiber praised Bulva's interpretation as “virtuoso, precise and mature”. The interpretation of the first movement of the moonlight sonata as a three-part invention - which Beethoven's notation dictates - is perceived as the standard today. His analytical interpretation of Chopin's works also led to surprises or even rejection from audiences and media who were used to rubato-intensive reproductions.

Works

Bulva has recorded with the following record companies: Supraphon , Teldec , Orfeo , Mediaphon-Madacy and RCA . Some of the recordings are still available on the market, including:

Oreikon later published The Art of Josef Bulva , a book edition with 7 CDs whose recordings were authorized by Josef Bulva. The edition includes u. a. the following works:

The recording of Charles-Auguste de Bériot , Scène de Ballet op.100 , recorded in May 2018 with violinist Markus Wolf (on a Vollrath Stradivarius from 1722) is on the CD Klangraum, a special edition for the German Foundation for Monument Protection , in November 2018 . published.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Josef Bulva - Obituary notice. Süddeutsche Zeitung, accessed on August 22, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Josef Bulva - concert pianist | SWR1 people night. SWR, accessed on October 17, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Josef Besser ulva in conversation, NDR Kultur, March 17, 2012
  4. ↑ Karl Forster: This pianist has lived in the hotel for 45 years. Süddeutsche Zeitung, June 18, 2018, accessed on June 18, 2018 .
  5. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOKK4WtaRlQ
  6. ↑ https://www.sonyclassical.de
  7. ^ Klaus Seidel: The Art of Josef Bulva. Oreikon, 2008, page 115.
  8. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C32GBMTlQZE&t=18s
  9. ↑ http://www.haz.de/Sonntag/Tipps-Kritik/Tipps/Der-vehinderte-Weltstar-Ausnahmepianist-Josef-Bulva
  10. ↑ http://www.josefbulvasociety.com/pr1A.html
personal data
SURNAME Bulva, Josef
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Luxembourg pianist
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Brno , Czech Republic
DATE OF DEATH August 12, 2020
Place of death Monte-Carlo , Monaco