|
Welcome to the Piano World Piano Forums Over 3 million posts about pianos, digital pianos, and all types of keyboard instruments. Over 100,000 members from around the world.
Join the World's Largest Community of Piano Lovers
(it's free)
It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!
|
|
66 members (bobrunyan, anotherscott, AaronSF, apianostudent, beeboss, brdwyguy, benkeys, 15 invisible),
2,196
guests, and
389
robots. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 36,808
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
|
OP
Yikes! 10000 Post Club Member
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 36,808 |
There is a very interesting and lengthy article about him in today's NY Times. Perhpas someone could post it.
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 2,506
2000 Post Club Member
|
2000 Post Club Member
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 2,506 |
From NY Times:
December 15, 2007 A Star Who Plays Second Fiddle to Music By ANNE MIDGETTE When a star pianist comes into a huge hall wearing a three-piece orange suit, “self-effacing†is not the description that comes to mind. But when Yefim Bronfman lumbered into Grand Central Terminal in October for a free morning concert to benefit the Food Bank for New York City wearing the organization’s colors, he presented a contradictory image: that of a virtuoso making a striking public entrance and that of someone who would have preferred not to be drawing so much attention to himself.
Mr. Bronfman, 49, who will play a recital at Carnegie Hall on Monday night as part of his Perspectives series there, is certainly one of the greatest pianists active today. He also bucks the stereotype of the Russian soloist as merely a technical wizard of large sound and emphatic personality.
He has technique to burn, but he also has a chameleonlike ability to subsume himself in the music. Rather than a cult of personality, his approach is about doing what the composer wants, so much so that his performances sometimes seem understated.
“I don’t want to show me,†Mr. Bronfman said in an interview over breakfast in a restaurant near the Upper West Side apartment where he has lived in since the late 1970s, when he studied at Juilliard. “I am very shy when it comes to showcasing myself. I’d rather be second fiddle in many ways.â€
Just as he is steered by the music, he also seems steered by the demands of an unwieldy career. Even finding time to practice can be a challenge. When interviewed on the eve of a tour, he had just received the music for a new work scheduled for Monday’s recital, “XI Humoresken†by Jörg Widmann, and he was not sure how he was going to learn it except by practicing at night, after concerts.
He mentioned the piano concerto that the conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen had written for him, which had its first performance at the New York Philharmonic in February and which, unusually for a new work, he is still performing frequently thanks to considerable demand from leading orchestras.
“Salonen also gave me the score like four, five weeks before the premiere,†he said. “It’s a great concerto. I’m so excited to have it. But the only way for me to learn it was to finish the recital and then go practice till 2, 3 in the morning.â€
In the end, Mr. Widmann’s piece was postponed to the final Perspectives concert in May, a program that was supposed to focus on Mr. Bronfman’s collaborations with other performers. But the piece would also have changed the focus of Monday’s recital on “Fantasies†by different composers: shortly before sending it, Mr. Widmann told Mr. Bronfman that the commissioned “Fantasie†had turned into “Humoresques.â€
“With this Perspectives, I don’t have much perspective,†Mr. Bronfman said. His orchestral performances at Carnegie this season were also largely in place before the series was planned.
But his self-effacing manner can be misleading. In the case of Perspectives, it seems his artistic dreams were so big that it was impossible to realize them in a mere seven concerts.
“He originally came up with thousands of ideas,†said Clive Gillinson, the executive director of Carnegie Hall. “It would have been a takeover of Carnegie.†What survived, Mr. Gillinson said, “gives him a chance to show at least a glimpse of all the aspects of his career.â€
Mr. Bronfman’s first teacher was his mother, a pianist. His father, a violinist, gave lessons to his sister, 12 years older. His father’s performing career was interrupted by World War II, when he became a German prisoner of war, escaped and walked about 600 miles to Moscow, only to be arrested as a spy and tortured in Russian prisons for eight months before the authorities were convinced of his innocence.
After the war he eventually found work in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, where Mr. Bronfman was born. He has not returned there since his family left.
A seminal event in Mr. Bronfman’s life was an invitation to the Marlboro Festival in Vermont in 1976, which fostered his love of chamber music (unusual for a Russian piano soloist). He had hoped to study with one of the institute’s guiding spirits, Rudolf Serkin, at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. But shortly after Mr. Bronfman got there, Mr. Serkin stopped teaching, and Mr. Bronfman eventually found a new teacher and mentor, Leon Fleisher.
“He has an extraordinary insight into most every style,†Mr. Fleisher said recently. “His willingness to use his head as well as his heart always impressed.†But within “that mien of seriousness,†he added, “there really rests the soul of a clown.â€
He recalled an evening among friends at the Aspen Music Festival when Mr. Bronfman (known to his friends as Fima), with his customary air of total, serious dedication, gave a ballet performance in a pink tutu and heavy stage makeup.
Personal warmth and deadpan humor are not qualities that tend to be showcased in the life of a concert pianist. Branding an artist is more common than exploring his idiosyncrasies. Sony Classical, long Mr. Bronfman’s exclusive record label, pushed him as a Prokofiev specialist from the 1980s on.
“Recording companies were so powerful when I started recording that they could make you a Prokofiev specialist overnight,†he said. “I didn’t necessarily want to. I actually learned a lot of the repertory just to make recordings. I mean, no complaining. It’s great music.â€
Now the former recording giants are far less powerful, and Mr. Bronfman, having recently recorded a fine account of the Brahms violin sonatas with Nikolaj Znaider, and Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto with Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, no longer seemed certain that he was still an exclusive Sony artist. But Sony flexed its muscle a few months ago by blocking a release a lot of people would have liked to hear: a live recording of Mr. Bronfman playing Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and its future music director, Gustavo Dudamel, for download from DG Concerts, part of Universal Classics.
“I already chose the takes and everything,†Mr. Bronfman said.
An artist, it turns out, may ultimately have little control over his career. Yet Mr. Bronfman’s personality still comes through in his playing, from the intelligence and sparkle of Salonen to the heavy, shy sweetness of Brahms.
“It’s such a journey to be one of the world’s greatest artists,†Mr. Gillinson said. “There’s a tendency for people to be self-absorbed, but with Fima there’s never any sense of that, as if he just floated to the top through sheer breathtaking talent.â€
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 1,651
1000 Post Club Member
|
1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 1,651 |
Great! I'm going to see him on Monday.
Do or do not. There is no try.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 855
500 Post Club Member
|
500 Post Club Member
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 855 |
And this is what it's all about--a very nice article, as always, by Anne Midgette.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 3,919
3000 Post Club Member
|
3000 Post Club Member
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 3,919 |
Originally posted by AndrewG: From NY Times:
...His father’s performing career was interrupted by World War II, when he became a German prisoner of war, escaped and walked about 600 miles to Moscow, only to be arrested as a spy and tortured in Russian prisons for eight months before the authorities were convinced of his innocence.... This was the crime Ivan Denisovich (In Solzhenitsyn's One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich) was sent to prison for, collaborating/spying for the Germans. The thought was, "The Germans don't let anyone escape. You must be a collaborator." I guess Solzehnitsyn was right.
There is no end of learning. -Robert Schumann Rules for Young Musicians
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 1,651
1000 Post Club Member
|
1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 1,651 |
Wow! Can't wait to hear the critics Gaspard and Islamey were out of site. Those are some hard pieces. Played only two encores and then had to go sign CD's. I'll leave it at the for now.
Do or do not. There is no try.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,117
1000 Post Club Member
|
1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,117 |
You're lucky Ralph ! I've got the Brahms sonatas with Nicolaj Znaider (since I'm in the Brahms mood this year...). I have heard Znaider live a few times, he is great, and Bronfman on the piano matches him perfect and they play a quite "gypsy-like" Brahms that I love.
Thanks for the interesting article !
Ragnhild
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,759
1000 Post Club Member
|
1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,759 |
What interests ME the most is the Salonen concerto -- gosh I hope it gets recorded, since that's the only possible way I could listen to the piece at the moment. Salonen is a very interesting composer (I actually prefer him as a composer rather than as a conductor), but certainly not the most approachable.
Die Krebs gehn zurucke, Die Stockfisch bleiben dicke, Die Karpfen viel fressen, Die Predigt vergessen.
Die Predigt hat g'fallen. Sie bleiben wie alle.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 1,651
1000 Post Club Member
|
1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 1,651 |
Do or do not. There is no try.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,759
1000 Post Club Member
|
1000 Post Club Member
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,759 |
Die Krebs gehn zurucke, Die Stockfisch bleiben dicke, Die Karpfen viel fressen, Die Predigt vergessen.
Die Predigt hat g'fallen. Sie bleiben wie alle.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:34 PM
|
Piano
by Gino2 - 04/17/24 02:23 PM
|
|
Forums43
Topics223,408
Posts3,349,457
Members111,637
|
Most Online15,252 Mar 21st, 2010
|
|
|
|
|
|