Passed away last night in Italy.

koji (STSD)

Another great-a giant-is gone tho he remains immortal thru his legend. A truly mind-blowing pianist who rendered some of the greatest Liszt (esp. the Transcendental Etudes) ever.

RIP

Liszt is buying Berman a drink about now...

RIP.

Truly sad news. A great loss to the pianistic world.

I never cared for the troublesome Scriabin Fantasy until I heard Berman's recording.

He will be missed by many.

That is bad news.

His Annees de Pelerinage is unmatched IMO.

OH!

Great pianist!! Great musician!!. His Liszt is one my favs in conjunction with Arrau

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B...6805921-3902555

One of the best recitals I've heard (contains the Scriabin Andrew mentions), and at $7 it's a ridiculously good deal. Although it seems to not be in stock anymore.

Koji, how old was he and what's the official cause of death?

That's IT! jefflube, you nailed it. This is one of my most cherished disc by Berman. The Rach Moment Musicaux is such an outstanding set. Priceless!

Just watch out though. This recital has been re-pressed so many times by some obscure labels the sound quality could be the issue depending on whether you get a good press or not. Mine was excellent on Ermitage.

This is produced by Aura and is the only version I've heard. But I was VERY impressed by the sound...could've passed for a new DG studio recording.

I also second your opinion on the Rachmaninov Moments. All 6 together can be hard to find, and played at this quality is really something special.

A phenomenal Liszt player. Agree with Brendan about his Annees being a great recording. I heard his debut North American recital at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Unfortunately, it was held in a cavernous sports arena. A terrible place for a piano recital. But, I was really impressed by his performance. I think a few days earlier he played the 1st Transcendental Etude on the Today Show. You could tell he was a little nervous, but heck, having to play that piece at 7 AM on national TV would make anyone nervous!

Can someone help by translating this? I do not read Italian. Thanks in advance!

06 feb 17:54 Musica: morto il pianista Lazar Berman

FIRENZE - E' morto all'eta' di 75 anni nella sua casa di Firenze il
pianista russo Lazar Berman. Il musicista era residentenella citta'
toscana da anni e aveva preso la cittadinanza italiana. Era
considerato uno dei piu' grandi pianisti viventi. (Agr)[/b]

My recollection is that Berman's career started out with a big bang but for whatever reason he became less popular. Is this correct, and if so, what do you think the reasons for his ecline in popularity were?

I heard him a long time ago in NYC but only remember that he played Ruins of Athens as an encore.

My Italian's not so great but:

The Russian pianist Lazar Berman died at the age of 75 in his house in Florence. The musician was a resident of this Tuscan city for years and was a naturalized Italian citizen (I think). He was considered one of the greatest living pianists.

On a side note, I believe he taught at the Imola conservatory.

koji (STSD)

And in Weimar as well, although I'm not sure if he has been there in recent years. A studio-mate spent two years with him and said that his ideas about Liszt were as phenomenal as his recordings.

I heard his Chicago debut in the 70s, and later heard him in the Brahms 1st with the CSO. I have an LP of his Chopin octave etude, an absolutely phenomenal performance. (And you may remember that Richter once described Berman as "a phenomenon.") If i can get it digitized, I'll post it as an MP3.

Thanks Thracozag for the translation.

Thanks Brendan for the link info.

Classical Pianist Lazar Berman Dies

By Associated Press

February 8, 2005, 6:54 AM EST

FLORENCE, Italy -- Russian classical pianist Lazar Berman, internationally acclaimed for his technical prowess and the energy of his performances, has died at age 74, his agent said Tuesday.

Berman died Sunday of a heart attack in Florence, where he had resided since 1995, Ornella Cogliolo said.

Berman performed with some of the greatest conductors in recent history, from Herbert von Karajan to Leonard Bernstein. His recording of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 under von Karajan was considered one of his greatest performances.

Born in Leningrad in the former Soviet Union -- now St. Petersburg -- Berman was introduced to the piano by his mother, and studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow under the great pedagogue Alexander Goldenweiser.

By age 10, Berman was performing with the Moscow Philharmonic, but it was only in the 1970s, when the Soviet government allowed him to play abroad, that his international career started.

His 1976 U.S. debut was followed by several international tours, during which he often played in Paris, London and at New York's Carnegie Hall.

In 1980, Soviet authorities again refused to let him travel abroad after banned American literature was found in his luggage. He left Moscow in 1990 to teach in Norway and Italy.

Berman performed under the direction of Bernstein, Claudio Abbado and Daniel Barenboim and played with ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Berman received several awards during his career. He won the 1956 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, Belgium, and in 1977, his recording of Liszt's "Transcendental Studies" earned him the Franz Liszt Prize in the composer's native Hungary.

Berman devoted the last decade of his life to teaching and supporting talented young musicians. He sometimes performed with his son, Pavel, a violinist.

Survivors also include his wife, who is also a pianist.

Copyright © 2005, The Associated Press

First classical CD I ever bought was Berman's. RIP, he was one of the first I ever knew.

Thanks for that, Andrew

Thanks for posting this--I hadn't heard. I can't believe he was already 75--and koji, thanks for hazarding the translation.

Let's hope that his biography in German will soon be translated into English...

From NY Times:

==============================================================================================
Lazar Berman, Pianist Known for Powerful Style, Dies at 74[/b]

By ALLAN KOZINN[/b]

Published: February 9, 2005


Lazar Berman, a Russian pianist with a huge, thunderous technique that made him a thrilling interpreter of Liszt and Rachmaninoff and a representative of the grand school of Russian Romantic pianism, died on Sunday at his home in Florence, Italy. He was 74.
The cause was a heart attack, said Leonid Fleishaker, a friend and manager of Mr. Berman.


A pianist with a bearlike build, a shock of sandy hair and a disarming smile, Mr. Berman had a gentle manner that seemed at odds with his often-muscular approach to the piano. His repertory, though, was broader than his reputation would suggest. It ran from Bach and Handel, through Mozart, Clementi and Beethoven, to Scriabin and Shostakovich. Although Mr. Berman was best known for the grandeur of his Liszt, Chopin, Prokofiev and Rachmaninoff playing, he played Mozart and early Beethoven, for example, with a light touch that could surprise listeners who had typecast him as a firebrand.
He also proved a supportive and deferential chamber music collaborator in recitals with his son, the violinist Pavel Berman, in the early 1990's. His son survives him, as does his wife, Valentina Berman, who is also a pianist.
Lazar Naumovich Berman was born in Leningrad on Feb. 26, 1930. His mother, Anna Makhover, began teaching him to play the piano when he was 2. After a year, he became a student at the Leningrad Conservatory, and when the family moved to Moscow in 1939, he enrolled at the Central Children's Music School, where he studied with Alexander Goldenweiser, a renowned Russian pianist who remained Mr. Berman's teacher at the Moscow Conservatory in the 1940's and 1950's.
Mr. Berman made his professional debut at age 10, playing a Mozart concerto with the Moscow Philharmonic. By the mid-1950's, he had won several competitions in the Soviet Union, as well as prizes at the Queen Elisabeth Competition and at the Franz Liszt competition. A European tour and a legendary recording of Liszt's "Transcendental Études" for the Melodiya label, in 1959, helped solidify his reputation as a virtuoso player. So did a glowing report from Emil Gilels, one of the greatest Russian pianists of the time, who called Mr. Berman "the phenomenon of the music world."
When Harold C. Schonberg, then the chief music critic of The New York Times, heard Mr. Berman in Moscow in 1961, he wrote that the pianist had 20 fingers and breathed fire.
Soviet authorities, however, prevented Mr. Berman from traveling to the United States until 1976, when he was 45. When he made his New York debut, playing the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with Lukas Foss and the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Schonberg wrote that "he may be that rarest of musicians - a real, true blue Romantic, one who understands the conventions and has the ability to put them into effect."
Still, Mr. Berman left the piano world deeply divided. Just as he was idolized by fans of titanic Romanticism, other listeners faulted him for perceived deficits in subtlety or stylistic variety. At any rate, his American career was short-lived. After a flurry of performances between 1976 and 1979, he was again prevented from touring by the Soviet authorities after American books were discovered in his luggage.
By the time he could travel again in 1990, Mr. Berman had largely tired of the concert stage, preferring to devote himself to teaching and to judging competitions, with occasional performances on his own or with his son. He moved to Florence in August 1990 and was granted Italian citizenship in 1994.

Amen.

Anyone have his recording of the transcriptions from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet? My teacher kept recommending it to me when I was learning these but I never got a chance to hear it.

Thought I saw it on amazon.