IOANA MARIA LUPASCU

Lazar Berman

Who was Lazar Berman?https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazar_BermanLazar Naumovich Berman (Russian: Ла́зарь Нау́мович Бе́рман, Lazarʹ Naumovič Berman; February 26, 1930 – February 6, 2005) was a Soviet Russian classical pianist, Honoured Artist of the RSFSR (1988). He was hailed for a huge, thunderous technique that made him a thrilling interpreter of Liszt and Rachmaninoff and a late representative of the grand school of Russian Romantic pianism. Emil Gilels described him as a "phenomenon of the musical world".BiographyPavel Berman, Lazar Berman's sonBerman was born to Jewish parents in Leningrad. His mother, Anna Lazarevna Makhover, had played the piano herself until prevented by hearing problems. She introduced her son to the piano at the age of two. Berman entered his first competition at the age of three, and recorded a Mozart fantasia and a mazurka that he had composed himself at the age of seven, before he could even read music.Berman was first noticed while participating in city young talents competition. The jury under the chairmanship of Leonid Nikolaev noticed the child's "rare exceptional case of musical and piano skills". Now, after being officially given title "prodigy" at the age of four, he started studying with Leningrad State Conservatory professor, Samariy Savshinsky.In 1939 when Berman was nine, the family moved to Moscow so that he could study with Aleksandr Goldenweiser, first at Central musical school, and then at the Conservatoire, where he graduated in 1953. In 1940, he made his formal debut playing Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 25 with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1941, students, pupils and parents were evacuated to Kuibishev, a city on the Volga, because of World War II. Living conditions were so poor that his mother had to cut the fingers from a pair of gloves to allow him to continue to practise without freezing his hands.He subsequently began to acquire international prominence. At the age of 12 he played Franz Liszt's La campanella to a British audience over the radio. In 1956 became a laureate of two international piano competitions: Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Belgium, with Vladimir Ashkenazy, and Franz Liszt in Budapest, Hungary. As a result of these accomplishments, Berman was offered an international tour, and landed a recording deal, which included recordings of Liszt's sonata and Beethoven's "Appassionata". In 1958, he performed in London and recorded for SAGA.[1]From 1959 to 1971 Berman was not allowed to travel abroad due to his marriage to a French national (the marriage soon fell apart); however, he continued to tour around Soviet Union, and did some recordings at "Melodia" studio, including Liszt's Transcendental etudes. That recording became one of the first soviet recordings done with the use of Stereo technology. From mid 1970s Mr. Berman was again allowed to tour abroad, which he did to high acclaim.In 1968 he married Valentina Sedova and in 1970 their son, Pavel, was born.Lazar and Valentina Berman (2000)Although he was known to international music aficionados who had heard the occasional recording on the Russian Melodiya record label, as well as those who visited the Soviet Union, he was not generally well known outside Russia before his 1975 American tour, organised by the impresario Jacques Leiser. His now legendary New York debut at the 92 Street Y, where he played Liszt's Transcendental Études, struck the music world like lightning. He became an overnight sensation. Before that, he had been generally restricted to the Soviet concert circuit, playing on old and decrepit pianos to audiences of varied degrees of interest. Invitations to tour outside the Soviet Union were ignored by the Soviet state concert agency, Gosconcert. He lived in a tiny two-room apartment in Moscow, with a grand piano occupying an entire room. But after his 1975 tour, he was immediately in great demand, with Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, and CBS vying to record him. He recorded the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto with Herbert von Karajan, as well as broadcasting it on international television with Antal Doráti, to mark United Nations Day in 1976.[2]His playing of Chopin is well documented, in both a concert film and a DGG recording of the polonaises from the 1970s.[3][4]Most of his British appearances came in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In December 1976, he performed music by Sergei Prokofiev and Franz Liszt at the Royal Festival Hall.In 1980, at the height of his popularity, Berman again was barred from leaving Soviet Union. This time it was because a book by an American writer (censored in the USSR) was found in his luggage while he was passing custom in Moscow's airport.In August 1990 Berman left USSR for Norway, followed by final relocation to Italy, where he became a teacher. Four years later he became Italian citizen, and the following year he got invited to Musical School of Weimar, Germany, where he continued teaching until 2000. He often performed along with his son, violinist Pavel Berman.Berman died in 2005, survived by his second wife, Valentina Sedova, also a pianist, and their son, talented violinist and conductor Pavel Berman. His students included Sonya Bach, Italian pianists Giuliano Mazzocante, Maurizio Baglini, Enrico Elisi, and Enrico Pace, Vladimir Stoupel, Ioana Lupascu, Gintaras Januševičius, Vardan Mamikonian, Victor Chestopal [ru], Rueibin Chen, Antonio Formaro and Viktoriya Yermolyeva.Berman is buried at the Cimitero delle Porte Sante in Florence. The epitaph on his burial stone says: "You and your music are always with us".Jump up to:

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Go to my youtube channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCza91N9zz6O55DlTqXhbUBA A concert for Romania's day : Something romantic :Something romanian :Something virtuosistic :Some Liszt  again :Some Beethoven :  A  soundtrack : A duo : A improvisation :

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QMagazine

To LISZT through Berman - the story of pianist Ioana Maria LupascuI live everyday with Joy, wishing and doing my best to fulfill my given mission and doing it as good as I possibly can. I also wish to bring to the audience lot of Joy through my music.Foto Mihail Oprescu, Q MagazineENGLISHTo Liszt through Berman, the story of pianist Ioana Maria LupașcuArticol scris deFloriana JucanPublicat pe data de 04-07-2022 COMENTARIIOn thursday the 7th of April 2022 I went to Ploiesti to listen to Ioana Maria Lupașcu playing at and with the local philharmonic. She has played The first concert in Es moll for piano and orchestra by Franz Liszt, a very difficult work, especially by the technical point of view, full of virtuosity that isn’t at everybody’s ease. That is the reason why we can rarely hear it.“Liszt practically offers to the pianist the whole possibilities of this magnificent instrument, letting the performer shining and demonstrate one’s abilities, but this also can be a test stone that sometimes can be hard to overcome, because all of it comes from the composer that has wished to become the greatest world  piano  virtuoso of all times and has succeeded.” confessed to me the performer, in a dialogue we had after the concert. “The technical barrier is so high that just few pianists are able to really overcome it. But also, the beauty of this music comes to surface only after these technical difficulties are overcome and this isn’t at all easy. Liszt is very profound, but to reach the depth and philosophy of the musical message, one need to consider no more the virtuosity as a problem”, says Ioana Maria Lupascu smiling and having in her smile the relaxation of 5 years of high interpretative requirements set by great pianist Lazar Berman. Apparently, after being his student, nothing seems to her  too difficult or impossibile. BUT WHO WAS BERMAN?His complete name was Lazar Naumovich Berman, and he has begun to study piano with his mother Anna, ( student of  Skriabin and Prokofiev) and when being only 10 years old, he has played as soloist with Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. He has studied at Moscow Conservatory with Alexander Goldenweiser and after that he has received the influence of great Sofronitzky.He was often surnamed “The Last great romantic of russian pianistical world’, and he has very early  become famous for his amazing technical way of playing and he has become a legend with the fact that he could play the last mouvement of Chopin ‘s Sonata no 2 in  less than 50 seconds.  He was the winner of Franz Liszt Competition in Budapest and Queen Elisabeth Competitio in Belgium and he was considered to be “the second Liszt”.In the middle of the 70’s, being very impressed by Lazar Berman’s recording of the 12 Transcedental Etudes by Liszt, an important agent organised for him a great tour in America.At his american debut, the ucrainian Emil Gilels, has declared that the only pianist in this whole world that is better then him is Sviatoslav Richter. After a couple of years, he has changed his oppinion saying that Lazar Berman is better then both of them, and calling him ” the musical world phenomenom “. After he had toured the whole world, Berman had recorded together with Herbert von Karajan, the famous Concert no 1 by Ceaikovsky and he had played together with all great orchestras of the world and with all famous conductors such as Karajan, Eugene Ormandy, Claudio Abbado, Carlo Maria Giulini, Riccardo Mutti, Leygraf and many others.His discography includes over 200 titles and his renditions of  Franz Liszt, Alexander Skriabin, Serghei Rachmaninov, Modest Mussorgski, Prokofiev and  Beethoven remains a reference. In 1990, together with his wife (Valentina Berman, also pianist, that has graduated the Moscow Conservatory  and now being a piano professor at Accademia di Musica di Firenze. ) he has  moved to Italy. He has begun to teach piano at Accademia di Imola and Franz Liszt Conservatory in Weimar, Germany, and since 2000,  he has moved again his teaching class at Accademia Europea di Musica (Erba, Italia).  Since  1995 he has lived in Florence, City where he has  died in 2005.Ioana Maria Lupașcu reveals to me the fact that she admired Lazar Berman, since she was a Child,  but she never hoped to work with him.“After my admission exam at Master Level at Lausanne Conservatory, I saw a poster in the lobby of that building that was announcing a summer masterclass with Berman in Slovakia. There was going to be an audition in that country, because he was going to choose only 12 pianists between those that were wishing to work with him , but I said to myself that it is worth the risk and I was accepted.  After that those two weeks have passed, I came back home. The autumn came and I have started my lessons as master student in Lausanne. I couldn’t get along at all with the teacher and I knew I have to go to study somewhere else. I said to myself that before trying to become student at another conservatory, I can try to see whether there is a chance to work with Berman. I called him and he told me that he was just to end his collaboration with Imola Conservatory and was about to start his piano class at Accademia Europea di Musica, in Erba. I could not go to the admission exam as I did not receive the visa so I called him again. I found out that a place remained unoccupied. We were 100 competitiors for that place and I have entered the last one to play. Immediately after that moment, I was given my first piano lesson as his student there. It seems that that place has waited for me, that that was my destiny to work with him, level that was not reached by any other romanian pianist.The Maestro always had only 12 students and each lesson could be the very last , as he was very exacting and as other 200 pianists were waiting in line to work with him, he didn’t tolerate to lose his time with someone that didn’t level up his extremely high Standards.Everything that I am today, pianistically speaking, i owe it to Lazar Berman. I have learned to approach everything in a whole different way : music, virtuosity, i have learned with every lesson to exceed my limits “, tells me the artist.RUSSIAN SCHOOL Being in this fully rusophobic wave, I have a curiosity and I open it up to Ioana Lupașcu: why are russians so good in music , also as performers but as composers as well?CONTINUE READING : https://www.qmagazine.ro/to-liszt-through-berman-the-story-of-pianist-ioana-maria-lupascu/

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