Elisabeth Leonskaja |

Elisabeth Leonskaja

Elizaveta Leonskaya is one of the most revered pianists of our time. She was born in Tbilisi to a Russian family. Being a very gifted child, she gave her first concerts at the age of 11. Soon, thanks to her exceptional talent, the pianist entered the Moscow Conservatory (class of Ya.I. Milshtein) and during her student years she won prizes at prestigious international competitions named after J. Enescu (Bucharest), named after M. Long-J. Thibault (Paris) and Belgian Queen Elisabeth (Brussels).

The skill of Elizabeth of Leon was honed and largely influenced by her creative collaboration with Svyatoslav Richter. The master saw in her an exceptional talent and contributed to its development not only as a teacher and mentor, but also as a stage partner. The joint musical creativity and personal friendship between Sviatoslav Richter and Elizaveta Leonska continued until Richter’s death in 1997. In 1978 Leonskaya left the Soviet Union and Vienna became her new home. The sensational performance of the artist at the Salzburg Festival in 1979 marked the beginning of her brilliant career in the West.

Elizaveta Leonskaya has soloed with almost all the leading orchestras in the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles, Cleveland, London Philharmonic, Royal and BBC Symphony Orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Zurich Tonhalle and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Orchester National de France and Orchester de Paris, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Czech and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Radio Orchestras of Hamburg, Cologne and Munich under such eminent conductors as Kurt Masur, Sir Colin Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Christoph von Dochnanyi, Kurt Sanderling , Maris Jansons, Yuri Temirkanov and many others. The pianist is a frequent and welcome guest at prestigious music festivals in Salzburg, Vienna, Lucerne, Schleswig-Holstein, the Ruhr, Edinburgh, at the Schubertiade festival in Hohenems and Schwarzenberg. She gives solo concerts in the main musical centers of the world – Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, ​​London, Munich, Zurich and Vienna.

Despite a busy schedule of solo performances, chamber music occupies a special place in her work. She often collaborates with many famous musicians and chamber ensembles: Alban Berg Quartet, Borodin Quartet, Guarneri Quaret, Vienna Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble, Heinrich Schiff, Artemis Quartet. A few years ago, she performed in the concert cycle of the Vienna Konzerthaus, performing piano quantets with the world’s leading string quartets.

The result of the pianist’s brilliant creative achievements are her recordings, which were awarded such prestigious awards as the Caecilia Prize (for the performance of Brahms’ piano sonatas) and the Diapason d’Or (for the recording of Liszt’s works), the Midem Classical Award (for the performance of Mendelssohn’s piano concertos with the Salzburg Camerata ). The pianist has recorded piano concertos by Tchaikovsky (with the New York Philharmonic and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra conducted by Kurt Masur), Chopin (with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy) and Shostakovich (with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra), chamber works by Dvorak ( with the Alban Berg Quartet) and Shostakovich (with the Borodin Quartet).

In Austria, which became Elizabeth’s second home, the brilliant achievements of the pianist won wide recognition. The artist became an Honorary Member of the Konzerthaus of the city of Vienna. In 2006, she was awarded the Austrian Cross of Honor, First Class, for her contribution to the country’s cultural life, the highest award in this field in Austria.