Josef Lhévinne

Josef Lhévinne (December 13, 1874 – December 2, 1944) was a Russian pianist and piano teacher.

Related Topics:
December 13 - 1874 - December 2 - 1944 - Russian - Pianist

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He was born into a family of musicians in Orel in the present-day Ukraine and studied at the Imperial Conservatory in Moscow under Vasily Ilyich Safonov. His public debut came 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 which included both Sergei Rachmaninoff and Alexander Scriabin, winning the Gold Medal for piano in 1892.

Related Topics:
Orel - Ukraine - Moscow - Vasily Ilyich Safonov - Ludwig van Beethoven - Emperor Concerto - Anton Rubinstein - Sergei Rachmaninoff - Alexander Scriabin

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In 1898 he married fellow Moscow Conservatory student Rosina Bessie, also a pianist and winner of the Gold Medal for piano in her year, and the two began to give concerts together, a practice that lasted until his death. Faced with anti-semitism and the first rumblings of what would become the Russian Revolution, they moved to Berlin in 1907 where Lhévinne gained a reputation as one of the leading virtuosi and teachers of his day. Trapped there as enemy aliens at the outbreak of World War I, having lost what money they had saved in Russian banks in the 1917 Revolution and unable to concertize due to the war, they endured years of considerable hardship surviving on the income from a handful of students.

Related Topics:
Rosina Bessie - Anti-semitism - Russian Revolution - Berlin - 1907 - World War I

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At last free to leave Germany, in 1919 the couple moved to New York City, where Lhévinne continued his concert career and taught piano at the Juilliard School. Regarded as the supreme technical pianist of his day by virtually all of his more famous contemporaries, he never achieved their level of success with the public, perhaps because he made it look and sound so easy, but mostly because he enjoyed teaching more than performing. He settled into a life of concert tours and teaching which continued until his sudden death from a heart attack in 1944 a few days short of his 70th birthday.

Related Topics:
1919 - New York City - Juilliard School

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He left only a handful of acoustic recordings which are truly breathtaking examples of perfect technique and musical elegance. The discs of Chopin Etudes Op. 25. Nos. 6 and 11 and Schulz-Evler's arrangement of Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz are legendary among pianists and connoisseurs. In the words of Harold Schonberg: "His tone was the morning stars singing together, his technique was flawless even measured against the fingers of Hofmann and Rachmaninoff, and his musicianship was sensitive."

Related Topics:
Chopin - Strauss - Harold Schonberg - Hofmann

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Lhévinne wrote a short book in 1924 that is considered a classic: Basic Principles in Pianoforte Playing.

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His wife, pianist Rosina Lhevinne, continued to teach at the Juilliard school after her husband's death, becoming the preiere teacher of concert pianists in the United States until her own death in 1976, aged 96. Among her many pupils were Van Cliburn, John Browning, Tony Han, Jeanneane Dowis, Martin Canin, Howard Aibel, Daniel Pollock, John Williams, James Levine and many others.

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