Born: July 26, 1929; Sofia, Bulgaria
Died: January 8, 2012; Lugano, Switzerland
If one wanted to make a biographical feature film about a classical musician, the life of the Bulgarian-American-French pianist Alexis Weissenberg would furnish ideal subject material. Born in Sofia in 1929, Weissenberg was taught to play the piano by his mother. Several members of her family were Vienna Conservatory-trained musicians, and Weissenberg grew up in an environment where the sight-reading of chamber music was as common as watchingRead more television is for most children today. His second piano teacher was a disciplinarian dentist, his third Bulgaria's top composer and pedagogue, Pancho Vladigerov, at whose house Weissenberg heard Dinu Lipatti perform.
At age 10, Weissenberg gave his first recital, performing, among other works, an etude of his own composition. Shortly thereafter, Weissenberg and his mother attempted to flee Bulgaria for Turkey as fascist terror deepened. They were caught and thrown in a concentration camp. "Only three elements remained constant," Weissenberg recalled. "Silence, singing, and crying." What saved the pair was an accordion Weissenberg had been given as a gift by an aunt. A German guard who liked music let Weissenberg play and after three months put the Weissenbergs on a train to Istanbul, throwing the accordion into their compartment through an open window as they left.
They made their way to Turkey and then to Israel, where Weissenberg studied at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and performed with the Israel Philharmonic under the baton of Leonard Bernstein. He left his accordion with a group of children after playing an outdoor concert and departed for the U.S. in 1946. Weissenberg enrolled at the Juilliard School of Music, studying with Olga Samaroff and at times with Artur Schnabel, and making contact with Vladimir Horowitz, who urged Weissenberg to enter the Leventritt Award competition. Weissenberg won the award in 1947, and his career was launched. His U.S. debut came with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by George Szell, and for the next ten years he toured the U.S. and Europe.
In 1956 Weissenberg moved to Paris, eventually becoming a French citizen. For a decade beginning around that time, he took a hiatus from performing, subjecting himself to a reconstruction of his keyboard technique. His performances of Chopin, Rachmaninov, and Prokofiev were especially notable, and the Bach Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue was a staple of his recital programming. His recordings of the 1960s and 1970s remained well represented in reissues on the EMI label as of the early 2000s, and he remained active into old age. Read less
Label: Emi Classics
Catalog: 4768862
Release Date: 08/16/2005
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Ludwig van Beethoven
Performer:
Alexis Weissenberg,
Mstislav Rostropovich,
David Oistrakh,
Sviatoslav Richter
Conductor:
Herbert von Karajan
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Recommendation
Label: Emi Classics Encore
Catalog: 74959
Release Date: 03/25/2003
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Frédéric Chopin
Performer:
Alexis Weissenberg
Conductor:
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Orchestre de la Société du Conservatoire Paris
Recommendation
Label: Decca
Catalog: 472589
Release Date: 11/12/2002
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Dmitri Shostakovich,
George Gershwin,
Sergei Prokofiev,
Béla Bartók
...
Performer:
Olli Mustonen,
Werner Haas,
Martha Argerich,
Zoltán Kocsis
...
Label: Emi Classics Special Import
Catalog: 67681
Release Date: 01/08/2002
Number of Discs: 2
Composer:
Giuseppe Verdi,
Giacomo Puccini,
Vincenzo Bellini,
Xavier Montsalvatge
...
Performer:
Elisabeth Bainbridge,
Montserrat Caballé,
Matteo Manuguerra,
Agostino Ferrin
...
Conductor:
Anton Guadagno,
Sir Charles Mackerras,
Carlo Maria Giulini,
Riccardo Muti
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra,
London Symphony Orchestra,
Royal Opera House Covent Garden Orchestra
...
Recommendation
Label: Rca
Catalog: 68788
Release Date: 04/15/1997
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Sergei Rachmaninov
Performer:
Leonard Pennario,
Kathryn Stott,
Byron Janis,
Alexis Weissenberg
...
Conductor:
Arthur Fiedler,
Charles Munch,
Eugene Ormandy,
Leopold Stokowski
...
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Boston Pops,
Boston Symphony Orchestra,
Philadelphia Orchestra
...
Label: Emi Classics
Catalog: 64897
Release Date: 10/12/1993
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Erik Satie,
Frédéric Chopin,
Robert Schumann,
Christoph W. Gluck
...
Performer:
Tzimon Barto,
Alexis Weissenberg,
Christopher Parkening,
Nancy Allen
...
Conductor:
Michel Plasson,
Sir Charles Groves,
Sir Neville Marriner,
Roger Wagner
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Toulouse Capitole Orchestra,
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra,
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
...
Label: Emi Studio
Catalog: 69112
Release Date: 10/25/1990
Number of Discs: 1
Composer:
Camille Saint-Saëns
Performer:
Yehudi Menuhin,
Nathan Milstein,
Alexis Weissenberg,
Aldo Ciccolini
...
Conductor:
Pierre Dervaux,
Sir Eugene Goossens,
Georges Prętre,
Walter Susskind
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Paris Orchestra,
Philharmonia Orchestra,
Paris Opera Orchestra
...