Konstantin Yakovlevich Lifschitz |
Konstantin Lifschitz
“Genius”, “miracle”, “phenomenon”, “erudite” – this is how reviewers and critics from different countries call Konstantin Lifshitz. “Brilliant”, “exceptional”, “extraordinary”, “impressive”, “passionate”, “insightful”, “inspirational”, “unforgettable” – such epithets characterize his art. “Undoubtedly, one of the most highly gifted and powerful pianists of modern times,” the Swiss press wrote about him. His game was highly appreciated by Bella Davidovich and Mstislav Rostropovich. The pianist has played in almost all the musical capitals of Europe, as well as in Japan, China, Korea, the USA, Israel, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, South Africa…
Konstantin Lifshits was born in 1976 in Kharkov. His musical abilities and passion for the piano manifested themselves very early. At the age of 5, he was admitted to the MSSMSH them. Gnesins, where he studied with T. Zelikman. By the age of 13, he had an extensive list of concert performances in various cities of Russia.
In 1989, he gave a significant solo concert in the October Hall of the House of Unions in Moscow. It was then, thanks to the overwhelming success of the audience, which filled the hall to capacity, and the laudatory reviews of critics, Livshits gained a reputation as a bright and large-scale artist. In 1990, he became a scholarship holder of the New Names program of the Russian Cultural Foundation and made his debut in London, after which he began to actively give concerts in Europe and Japan. Soon, V. Spivakov invited Konstantin to play Mozart’s Concerto No. 17 with the Moscow Virtuosi, followed by a tour with the Virtuosos in Japan, where the young pianist performed Bach’s Concerto in D minor, and performances in Monte Carlo and Antibes with Chopin’s Concerto No. 1 ( with the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra).
In 1994, at the final exam at the MSSMSH them. The Gnessins performed by K. Lifshitz performed Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Denon Nippon Columbia recorded the 17-year-old pianist’s deeply felt performance of his favorite composer’s music. This recording, released in 1996, was nominated for a Grammy Award and praised by the New York Times music critic as “the most powerful pianistic interpretation since Gould’s performance.”
“More than any other composer, with the exception of some contemporaries, it is Bach who continues to lead and guide me in my sometimes exhausting, but at the same time so joyful and exciting search,” says the musician. Today, Bach’s compositions occupy one of the central places in his repertoire and discography.
In 1995, K. Lifshitz entered the London Royal Academy of Music to H. Milne, an outstanding student of G. Agosti. At the same time he studied at the Russian Academy of Music. Gnesins in the class of V. Tropp. Among his teachers were also A. Brendle, L. Fleischer, T. Gutman, C. Rosen, K.-U. Schnabel, Fu Cong, and R. Turek.
In 1995, the pianist’s first disc was released (Bach’s French Overture, Schumann’s Butterflies, pieces by Medtner and Scriabin), for which the musician was awarded the prestigious Echo Klassik award in the Best Young Artist of the Year nomination.
With solo programs and accompanied by orchestras, K. Lifshitz played in the best halls of Moscow, St. Petersburg, Berlin, Frankfurt, Cologne, Munich, Vienna, Paris, Geneva, Zurich, Milan, Madrid, Lisbon, Rome, Amsterdam, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Montreal, Cape Town, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Seoul and many other cities in the world.
Among the ensembles with which the pianist has performed and performs are the orchestras of the Moscow and St. Petersburg Philharmonics, the State Orchestra of Russia. E. F. Svetlanova, Russian National Orchestra, Symphony Orchestras of Berlin, London, Bern, Ulster, Shanghai, Tokyo, Chicago, San Francisco, New Zealand, Academy of St. Martin in the Fields Orchestra, Philharmonic Orchestra. G. Enescu, Lucerne Festival Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven Festival Orchestra (Bonn), Sinfonietta Bolzano, New Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Florida Philharmonic, New Japan Philharmonic, Moscow Virtuosi, Venice Soloists , Prague Chamber Orchestra,
UK Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra (Salzburg), European Union Youth Orchestra and many others.
He collaborated with such conductors as B. Haitink, N. Merriner, K. Hogwood, R. Norrington, E. Inbal, M. Rostropovich, D. Fischer-Dieskau, Y. Temirkanov, M. Gorenstein, V. Sinaisky, Yu Simonov, S. Sondeckis, V. Spivakov, L. Marquis, D. Sitkovetsky, E. Klas, D. Geringas, A. Rudin, M. Yanovsky, M. Yurovsky, V. Verbitsky, D. Liss, A. Boreiko , F. Louisi, P. Gulke, G. Mark …
Partners of Konstantin Lifshitz in chamber ensembles were M. Rostropovich, B. Davidovich, G. Kremer, V. Afanasiev, N. Gutman, D. Sitkovetsky, M. Vengerov, P. Kopachinskaya, L. Yuzefovich, M. Maisky, L. Harrell , K. Vidman, R. Bieri, J. Vidman, G. Schneeberger, J. Barta, L. St. John, S. Gabetta, E. Ugorsky, D. Hashimoto, R. Bieri, D. Poppen, Talih Quartet Shimanovsky Quartet.
The musician’s vast repertoire includes more than 800 works. Among them are all clavier concertos by J. S. Bach, concertos by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, compositions for piano and orchestra by Franck, de Falla, Bartok, Martin, Hindemith, Messiaen. In solo concerts, K. Lifshitz performs compositions from English virginalists and French harpsichordists, Frescobaldi, Purcell, Handel and Bach to compositions by representatives of the “mighty bunch”, Scriabin, Rachmaninov, Schoenberg, Enescu, Stravinsky, Webern, Prokofiev, Gershwin, Ligeti, his own transcriptions , as well as works by contemporary composers created specifically for the pianist. Konstantin Lifshits also plays the harpsichord.
K. Lifshitz became famous for his monographic “marathon” programs, in which he performs complete cycles of works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Debussy, Shostakovich in series of several concerts, as well as at festivals around the world.
The pianist has recorded more than two dozen CDs of Bach’s compositions, including “Musical Offering” and “St. Anne’s Prelude and Fugue” BWV 552 (three Frescobaldi toccatas are recorded on the same CD; Orfeo, 2007), “The Art of Fugue” ( October 2010), a complete cycle of seven clavier concertos with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra (November 2011) and two volumes of the Well-Tempered Clavier (DVD released by VAI, live recording from the Miami Festival 2008) . Recordings of recent years include a piano concerto by G. von Einem with the Austrian Radio and Television Orchestra conducted by K. Meister (2009); Concert No. 2 by Brahms with the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra with D. Fischer-Dieskau (2010) and Concerto No. 18 by Mozart with the Salzburg Mozarteum also conducted by maestro D. Fischer-Dieskau (2011). In total, K. Lifshitz has more than 30 CDs on his account, most of which received high recognition from the international press.
Recently, the musician has increasingly acted as a conductor. He has collaborated with such ensembles as Moscow Virtuosos, Musica Viva, as well as with orchestras from Italy, Austria, Hungary and Lithuania. He performs a lot with singers: in Russia, Italy, France, the Czech Republic, the USA.
In 2002, K. Lifshitz was elected an associate member of the Royal Academy of Music in London, and in 2004 became its Honorary Member.
Since 2008, he has been teaching his own class at the High School of Music in Lucerne. He gives master classes all over the world and takes part in various educational programs.
In 2006, Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia awarded Konstantin Lifshitz with the Order of Sergius of Radonezh III degree, and in 2007 the artist was awarded the Rovenna Prize for outstanding contribution to the performing arts. He is also the recipient of several other awards for creative and charitable work.
In 2012, the pianist gave concerts in the cities of Russia, Switzerland, the USA, Sweden, the Czech Republic, England, Germany, Italy, Taiwan, and Japan.
In the first half of 2013, Konstantin Lifshits played a concert with violinist Yevgeny Ugorsky in Maastricht (Holland), performing violin sonatas by Brahms, Ravel and Franck; toured Japan with Daishin Kashimoto (12 concerts, Beethoven’s violin sonatas in the program), performed with cellist Luigi Piovano. As a soloist and conductor, he played the 21st concerto of Mozart with the Langnau Chamber Orchestra (Switzerland), took part in the Miami Piano Festival, presenting programs from the works of Debussy, Ravel, Messiaen. Conducted master classes and a series of concerts in Taiwan (Volume II of Bach’s HTK, the last three sonatas by Schubert and the last three sonatas by Beethoven). He gave solo concerts in Switzerland, Germany, the Czech Republic, France, Italy, master classes in France and Switzerland. Repeatedly performed in Russia. With D. Hashimoto he recorded the third CD of a complete cycle of Beethoven’s violin sonatas in Berlin. In June, he took part in the Kutná Hora Festival in the Czech Republic (with a solo performance, in an ensemble with violinist K. Chapelle and cellist I. Barta, as well as with a chamber orchestra).
K. Lifshitz began the 2013/2014 season by participating in a number of festivals: in the Rheingau and Hitzacker (Germany), Pennotier and Aix-en-Provence (France), gave master classes in Switzerland and at the chamber music festival in the cities of Japan (where he performed works by Mendelssohn, Brahms, Glinka Donagni and Lutoslavsky).
The artist’s immediate plans include performances at festivals in Yerevan, Istanbul and Bucharest, and in the second half of the season – concerts in the cities of Germany, Switzerland, Italy, the Czech Republic, England, France, Spain, the USA, Japan, and Taiwan. A concert is also planned at the Moscow International House of Music.
In the coming season, the pianist will release new releases: another recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, an album of French piano music, the second and third discs of the collection of Beethoven’s violin sonatas recorded with D. Hashimoto at EMI.
