Vladimir Sofronitsky
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| Vladimir Sofronitsky | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Vladimir Vladimirovich Sofronitsky |
| Born | May 8 [O.S. April 25] 1901 St Petersburg, Russia |
| Died | August 26, 1961 (aged 60) Moscow, Russia |
| Genre(s) | Classical |
| Occupation(s) | Pianist |
| Instrument(s) | Piano |
| Years active | 1918-1961 |
Vladimir Vladimirovich Sofronitsky (or Sofronitzky, Russian: Владимир Владимирович Софроницкий, Vladimir Sofronitskij; May 8 [O.S. April 25] 1901 – August 26, 1961) was a Russian pianist, best known as an interpreter of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin.
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[edit] Biography
Vladimir Sofronitsky was born to a physics teacher father and a mother from an artistic family. In 1903 his family moved to Warsaw, where he started piano lessons with Anna Lebedeva-Getcevich (a student of Nikolay Rubinstein), and later (from age nine) with Alexander Michalowski.
From 1916 to 1921, Sofronitsky studied in the Petrograd (Leningrad) Conservatory under Leonid Nikolayev, where Dmitri Shostakovich, Maria Yudina, and Scriabin's eldest daughter Elena Scriabina were among his classmates. He met Ms. Scriabina in 1917 and married her in 1920.
He gave his first solo concert in 1919, and his only foreign tour in France between 1928 and 1929. The only other time he performed outside the Soviets was at the Potsdam conference in 1945, when he was suddenly sent by Stalin to play for the allied leaders.
Sofronitsky taught at the Leningrad Conservatory from 1936 to 1942, and then at the Moscow Conservatory till his death.
[edit] Repertoire
As Scriabin's posthumous son-in-law, Sofronitsky never met the composer in public or private. Nevertheless, the composer's wife vouched that the pianist was the most authentic interpreter of her late husband's works. Indeed, his Scriabin recordings are considered by many to be unsurpassed.
The other composer for whom Sofronitsky held the most affinity is Chopin. He once told an interviewer: "A love for Chopin has followed me through the course of my entire life." Beyond Chopin and Scriabin, Sofronitsky held a wide repertoire spanning major composers from J.S. Bach to Nikolai Medtner, with focus on 19th-century Romantic composers and early 20-century Russians.
[edit] Recognition and Recordings
Little known in the Western Hemisphere due to almost complete absence of concert tours and recordings, Sofronitsky was held to the highest regards in his native land. Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels looked up to Sofronitsky as their master, and famously, when Sofronitsky once drunkenly proclaimed the former to be a genius, Richter toasted him to be a god. Gilels was reputed to say that "The greatest pianist in the world has died" upon hearing Sofronitsky's death.
Few of Sofronitsky's recordings are available in the West. One noteworthy release, in BMG's "Russian Piano School" series, contains a complete concert, including a wonderful, dreamy, mercurial account of Robert Schumann's Piano Sonata No. 1, Op. 11. His issue in Phillips's Great Pianists of the Twentieth Century features Chopin Mazurkas and Waltzes on the first CD, and some of his legendary Scriabin on the second, including the 9th and 10th sonatas and a staggering Vers la Flamme. Denon Classics' Japanese Vladimir Sofronitsky Edition is a series of 15 CDs, 10 of which remain in print.
