|
Ballades (Chopin)
Frédéric Chopin's Four Ballades are single- movement pieces for solo piano, composed between 1831 and 1842. They are considered to be some of the most important and challenging pieces in the standard piano repertoire. Form Chopin used the term ballade in the sense of a balletic interlude or dance piece, equivalent to the old Italian ''ballata''. However, the term may also have connotations of the medieval heroic ballad, a narrative minstrel song, often of a fantastical character. There are dramatic and dance-like elements in Chopin's use of the genre, and he is a pioneer of the ballade as an abstract musical form. The four ballades are said to have been inspired by a friend of Chopin's, poet Adam Mickiewicz. The exact inspiration for each ballade, however, needs to be clarified and disputed. Though the ballades do not conform precisely to sonata form, the "ballade form" created by Chopin for his four ballades is a variant of sonata form with specific discrepancies, such as ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Dominant (music)
In music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ..., the dominant is the fifth degree (music), scale degree () of the diatonic scale. It is called the ''dominant'' because it is second in importance to the first scale degree, the tonic (music), tonic. In the Solfège#Movable do solf%C3%A8ge, movable do solfège system, the dominant note is sung as "So(l)". The Triad (music), triad built on the dominant note is called the dominant chord. This chord is said to have dominant Function (music), function, which means that it creates an instability that requires the tonic (music), tonic for resolution (music), resolution. Dominant triads, Seventh chord, seventh chords, and Ninth chord, ninth chords typically have dominant function. Leading-tone triad, Leading-tone triads and Leadin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Krystian Zimerman
Krystian Zimerman (born 5 December 1956) is a Polish concert pianist, conductor and pedagogue who has been described as one of the greatest pianists of his generation. In 1975, he won the IX International Chopin Piano Competition. Following the success at the Chopin Piano Competition, he began his collaboration with the Berlin Philharmonic and has since performed with leading orchestras around the world as well as many prominent conductors such as Leonard Bernstein, Pierre Boulez, Herbert von Karajan, Claudio Abbado and Simon Rattle. He is especially known for his performances of compositions by Mozart, Chopin, Brahms and Beethoven. He is also the recipient of many awards and honours including Léonie Sonning Music Prize (1994), Legion of Honour (2005), Order of Polonia Restituta (2013) and Praemium Imperiale (2022). Biography Zimerman was born in Zabrze, Southern Poland, and started to play the piano at the age of five encouraged by his father, who was also a pianist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Murray Perahia
Murray David Perahia ( ; born April 19, 1947) is an American pianist and conductor. He has been considered one of the greatest living pianists. He was the first North American pianist to win the Leeds International Piano Competition, in 1972. Known as a leading interpreter of Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann, among other composers, Perahia has won numerous awards, including three Grammy Awards from a total of 18 nominations, and 9 Gramophone Awards in addition to its first and only "Piano Award". Early life Murray (Moshe) was born in the Bronx borough of New York City to a family of Sephardi Jewish origin. According to the biography on his Mozart piano sonatas CD, his first language was Judaeo-Spanish, or Ladino. The family came from Thessaloniki, Greece. His father moved to the United States in 1935. Perahia began studying the piano at age four, with a teacher, he said, who was "very limiting" because she made him play a single piece until it wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Seong-Jin Cho
Seong-Jin Cho (; born May 28, 1994) is a South Korean concert pianist. He was the winner of the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition, the first from the country. Since then, he has regularly performed recital programs in major venues and with the world's foremost orchestras as a soloist. Cho signed with Deutsche Grammophon in 2016, under which he has released seven studio albums and one live recording. He is the Artist in Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic for the 2024–25 season. Early life and education Cho was born in Seoul, South Korea, the only child of non-musical parents; his father was an engineer. At six years old, he began studying both the piano and the violin. Though he appeared to have more natural facility on the latter, he developed a stronger liking for the piano, and gave his first public piano recital at age eleven. After being identified through a musical prodigy development program at the Seoul Arts Center, he began studying under Sook-Ryeon Park ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Yundi Li
Yundi Li ( zh, s=李云迪, t=李雲迪, p=Lǐ Yúndí; born 7 October 1982), also known simply as Yundi (stylized as YUNDI), is a Chinese classical concert pianist. Yundi is considered one of the greatest contemporary interpreters of Chopin and is also especially known for his interpretations of Liszt and Prokofiev. Yundi rose to fame for being the youngest pianist, at the age of eighteen, to win first prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2000. In 2015, he also served as the competition's youngest-ever juror. In recognition to his contribution to Chopin pieces, the Polish government awarded Yundi with the world's first Chopin passport (''Chopinowskie paszporty''). Yundi is also the first Chinese recipient of both Silver (2010) and Gold (2019) Medal for Merit to Culture - Gloria Artis issued by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Polish government, in regards to his contribution to both music and Polish culture. Yundi has promoted Chinese nati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Andrei Gavrilov
Andrei Gavrilov (in Russian Андрей Гаврилов; born September 21, 1955) is a Russian-Swiss pianist. Early life and music career Andrei Gavrilov was born into a family of artists in Moscow. His father was Vladimir Gavrilov (May 30, 1923 – December 4, 1970), one of the eminent Russian painters during the middle of the 20th century, through whom Gavrilov also has German ancestors. His mother was the Armenian pianist Assanetta Eguiserian (December 20, 1925 – November 29, 2006), who had studied with Heinrich Neuhaus and gave Gavrilov his first piano lessons at age 2. In 1961 he was inducted at the Moscow Central Music School and became a student of Tatyana Kestner, who had studied with Alexander Goldenweiser. He completed his studies with another Neuhaus disciple, Lev Naumov, at the Moscow Conservatory. By the age of 18, after one semester at the conservatory, he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1974 and rose to international fame when, at the Salzb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Emanuel Ax
Emanuel "Manny" Ax (born June 8, 1949) is a Grammy Award-winning American classical pianist. He is known for his chamber music collaborations with cellist Yo-Yo Ma and violinists Isaac Stern and Young Uck Kim, as well as his piano recitals and performances with major orchestras in the world. Starting at age 12, Ax studied piano under Mieczysław Munz of the Juilliard School. He won honorable mention at the VIII International Chopin Piano Competition in 1970, third place at the Vianna da Motta International Music Competition in 1971, seventh place at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 1972, and first prize in the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in 1974. Ax has been a faculty member at the Juilliard School since 1990. Early life Ax was born into the Polish-Jewish family of Joachim and Hellen Ax in Lviv, Ukraine, formerly part of the Soviet Union. Both parents were Nazi concentration camp survivors. Ax began to study piano at the age of six; his father ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Martha Argerich
Martha Argerich (; ; born 5 June 1941) is an Argentine classical concert pianist. Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argerich gave her debut concert at the age of eight before receiving further piano training in Europe. At an early age, she won several competitions, including the VII International Chopin Piano Competition and the Ferruccio Busoni Competition and has since recorded numerous albums and performed with leading orchestras worldwide. She is widely considered to be one of the greatest pianists of all time. Early life and education Argerich was born in Buenos Aires. Her paternal ancestors were Spaniards from Catalonia who had been based in Buenos Aires since the 18th century. Her maternal grandparents were Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire, who settled in Colonia Villa Clara in Argentina's Entre Ríos Province, one of the colonies established by Maurice de Hirsch, Baron de Hirsch and the Jewish Colonisation Association, Jewish Colonization Association. The prove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Sviatoslav Richter
Sviatoslav Teofilovich Richter ( – August 1, 1997) was a Soviet and Russian classical pianist. He is regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time,Great Pianists of the 20th Century and has been praised for the "depth of his interpretations, his virtuoso technique, and his vast repertoire". Biography Childhood Richter was born in Zhytomyr, Volhynian Governorate, in the Russian Empire (modern-day Ukraine), the hometown of his parents. His father, (1872–1941), was a pianist, organist and composer born to Germans, German expatriates, who from 1893 to 1900 studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Vienna Conservatory. His mother, Anna Pavlovna Richter (née Moskaleva; 1893–1963), came from a Russian nobility, noble Russian landowning family, and at one point had studied under her future husband. In 1918, when Richter's parents were in Odessa, the Russian Civil War, Civil War separated them from their son, and Richter moved in with his aunt Tamar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Dinu Lipatti
Constantin "Dinu" Lipatti (; 2 December 1950) was a Romanian classical pianist and composer whose career was cut short by his death from effects related to Hodgkin's disease at age 33. He was elected posthumously to the Romanian Academy. He composed few works, all of which demonstrated a strong influence from Hungarian composer Béla Bartok. A relentless perfectionist, Lipatti often prepared many years for major performances, such as four years for Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 and three for Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1. He left a small number of recordings, and they are well-regarded, particularly that of ''Alborada del gracioso'' from Ravel's ''Miroirs'' suite. In his short lifetime he was highly acclaimed by many musical figures of the 20th century, namely Yehudi Menuhin, Alfred Cortot, Nadia Boulanger, and Francis Poulenc. Biography Early life Constantin Lipatti (from childhood called by the diminutive "Dinu") was born in Bucharest into a musical family: his ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Vladimir Ashkenazy
Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (, ''Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazi''; born 6 July 1937) is a Soviet-born Icelandic pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. Ashkenazy has collaborated with well-known orchestras and soloists. In addition, he has recorded a large repertoire of classical and romantic works. His recordings have earned him seven Grammy Awards and Iceland's Order of the Falcon. Early life and education Vladimir Ashkenazy was born in Gorky, Soviet Union (now Nizhny Novgorod, Russia), to pianist and composer David Ashkenazi and to actress Yevstolia Grigorievna (born Plotnova). His father was Jewish and his mother came from a Russian Orthodox family. Ashkenazy was christened in a Russian Orthodox church. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
