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ELISSO VIRZALADZE Sunday, April 17 – 3:00 p.m. | Sundin Music Hall Although not widely known in North America, Elisso Virzaladze is a living legend in Europe and Russia. A native of Tbilisi, Georgia, she was born into a family long involved in the arts. Her first teacher was her grandmother, Anastasia Virzaladze, a famous pianist. In Moscow, she studied with Heinrich Neuhaus and Yakov Zak and became steeped in the great tradition of Russian piano pedagogy. In 1962, she won the Third Prize in the International Tchaikovsky Competition and in 1966 took First Prize in the Schumann Compeitition in Zwickau. Today she is a celebrated teacher at the Moscow Conservatory and the Munich Musikhochschule and regularly serves on the juries of major international competitions. In her long career, she has toured extensively in Europe, North America, and Japan with orchestras such as the St. Petersburg and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras and has worked with a host of the world’s leading conductors. In addition to solo recitals, she frequently plays duo concerts with cellist Natalia Gutman and chamber music with the Borodin and Taneyev Quartets. She is deeply committed to the composers of the late 18th and 19th centuries, especially Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin and is considered one of the great contemporary interpreters of Schumann. Her wide-ranging repertoire also includes several modern Russian composers. She is renowned for her impeccable technique and the color and strength of her sound. The former Soviet Union honored her with his highest artistic awards -- the title of People’s Artist of the Georgian SSR in 1971 and People’s Artist of the USSR in 1989.
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“Elisso is an artist of great distinction, perhaps the greatest woman pianist of our time. She is a serious, deeply sincere and unpretentious musician.” —Sviatoslav Richter |
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