RIP Lazar Berman

[steinwaymodeld]

RIP Feb 07,05.

[maxy]

 

He was awesome.

[minorkeyed]

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...

[sidoze]

Yes, he was both a giant man and musician. What's so amazing is that he could give such seemingly definitive performances of both something as extrovertedly virtuosic as Liszt's TEs and something so introvertedly virtuosic, so to speak, as Liszt's Schubert Transcriptions, or the Rachmaninoff MMs. He was a master of his art.

[stormx]

I have recently watched him on TV performing many of Chopin Polonaises (i do not know the date, but it was probably from many years ago), and really liked it.
He deeply impressed me.

What a sad loss...

[lenny]

its a shame there arent more replies, he was truly one of the last great pianists of the 'golden age' of russian pianism.

at his best he was as good as richter and gilels.

[brewtality]

well, i replied on another forum, suffice to say my reply went something like:
sheet! he was a true pregnant cat!

[steinwaymodeld]

its a shame there arent more replies, he was truly one of the last great pianists of the 'golden age' of russian pianism.

at his best he was as good as richter and gilels.

Gilels once said

"Even if I play 4 hand with Richter, we will still be outplayed by Lazar Bermen."

Obviously it's a overstatement, but still.

[sidoze]

Yes the Russian pianists were incredibly friendly to each other for such a bunch of giant talents. Sofronitsky however excelled them all, as Richter readily admitted.

[lenny]

Gilels once said

"Even if I play 4 hand with Richter, we will still be outplayed by Lazar Bermen."

Obviously it's a overstatement, but still.

yes, but does gilels mean technically?

because in musical terms berman is undoubtedly equal to either of them at best.

[steinwaymodeld]

yes, but does gilels mean technically?

because in musical terms berman is undoubtedly equal to either of them at best.

Gilels speak very generously
so i think it's really a overstatement.

[lenny]

lol, gilels was a very funny guy - when critics praised him when he made his US debut, all he could say was 'thanks, but wait till you hear richter!'

lol, almost PERVERSE humility!

[frederic]

Yeah that's very sad. how old was he and what was the reason of his death? And another thing, is Boris Berman related to Lazar? they both look quite alike. He is a brilliant pianist too. Heard him play some Prokofiev recently. Wonderful

[mla]

Frederic,
just type Lazar Berman @google

https://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-berman9feb09,1,4128966.story?coll=la-news-obituaries&ctrack=1&cset=true

[mla]

Sorry Frederic,
eventually I checked the link that I provided above...
I accessed it withou any registration or password. Don't know what happened.
Here is the article that covers a bit more than previous one:

Lazar Berman, Pianist Known for Powerful Style, Dies at 74
By ALLAN KOZINN


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.