Description

JOSEF LHÉVINNE (DEC. 13, 1874, ORYOL, RUSSIA — DEC. 2, 1944, NEW YORK, N.Y., U.S.)

 

 

 

 

Joseph Arkadievich Levin (the name was altered in western Europe by a manager who thought “Lhévinne” more distinctive and less Jewish) was born into a Jewish family of musicians in Oryol south of Moscow. He studied at the Imperial Conservatory in Moscow under Vasily Safonov. He made his public debut at the age of 14 with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto in a performance conducted by his musical hero Anton Rubinstein. He graduated at the top of a class that included both Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin, winning the gold medal for piano in 1892. In 1895 Levin won the Second International Anton Rubinstein Competition held in Berlin, emerging as the favoured pianist in a group of thirty-three candidates with his performance of Rubinstein’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major. In 1898 Levin married Rosina Bessie, a fellow Moscow Conservatory student, a pianist and winner of the gold medal for piano in her year. The two began to give concerts together, a practice that lasted until his death. Faced with anti-semitism and the political turbulence of the Russian Revolution, they moved to Berlin in 1907. There Lhévinne gained a reputation as one of the leading virtuosi and teachers of his day. They were declared enemy aliens at the outbreak of World War I and became trapped there. They had lost what money they had saved in Russian banks in the 1917 Revolution and were unable to perform in concerts due to the war. They endured years of hardship, surviving on the poor income from a handful of students. After the war they were at last free to leave Germany, and in 1919 emigrated to New York City in the United States. Lhévinne continued his concert career and also taught piano at the Juilliard School. Regarded as one of the supreme technicians of his day by virtually all of his more famous contemporaries (even Vladimir Horowitz admired his pianistic command), he never achieved their level of success with the public. He may have made his excellence look and sound too easy, but he also enjoyed teaching more than performing. He settled into a life of concert tours and teaching. Lhévinne spent time each summer starting in 1922, at Bonnie Oaks, relaxing from public life and sometimes teaching young musicians. Lhévinne wrote a short book in 1924 that is considered a classic: Basic Principles in Pianoforte Playing. Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest it was lay-VEEN. He died suddenly from a heart attack in 1944 a few days short of his 70th birthday.

 

TRACKLIST

 

 

1296 WELTE-MIGNON DE SCHLOZER – Etude de concert, Op. 1, No. 1, Eb

1297 WELTE-MIGNON CHOPIN – Etude, Op. 25, No. 10, b

1298 WELTE-MIGNON GODARD – En route (On the Way) Op. 107, No. 12, Bb

1299 WELTE-MIGNON MENDELSSOHN – Characterstücke, Op. 7, No. 7, E

1300 WELTE-MIGNON SCRIABIN – Etude, Op. 9, No. 2, Db (For the Left Hand Alone)

1301 WELTE-MIGNON SCHUMANN – Toccata, Op. 7, C

1302 WELTE-MIGNON LISZT – Die Lorelei (The Loreley)

1303 WELTE-MIGNON GLUCK-BRAHMS – Gavotte from the Opera “Iphigénie en Aulide”

1304 WELTE-MIGNON A. RUBINSTEIN – Le bal (The Ball), Fantasie, Op. 14, No. 6

1305 WELTE-MIGNON J. STRAUSS, JR.-SCHULZ-EVLER – “Blue Danube” Arabesques

2430 WELTE-MIGNON CZERNY – Octave-Study, Op. 740, No. 5

2431 WELTE-MIGNON A. RUBINSTEIN – Kamennoi-Ostrow, Op. 10, No. 22, f# Rêve angelique

2433 WELTE-MIGNON SGAMBATI -Vecchio minuetto, Op. 18, No. 2, Db