Vladimir Sofronitsky

Vladimir Sofronitsky in concert

Vladimir Vladimirovich Sofronitsky (or Sofronitzky; Russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Софрони́цкий, Vladimir Sofronitskij; May 8 [O.S. April 25] 1901 – August 29, 1961) was a Russian-Soviet pianist.[1]

Life and education

Vladimir Sofronitsky was born in St. Petersburg. He started piano lessons in Poland after his family moved to Warsaw in 1903. His teachers were Anna Lebedeva-Getcevich[2] and later Aleksander Michałowski.[3] After Poland he went to Petrograd to study in the Conservatory.[4] His classmates were other talented musicians such as Dmitri Shostakovich, Maria Yudina, and Elena Scriabina. In 1920 he married Scriabina.[5]

Career

Sofronitsky gave his first solo concert in 1919,[5] and went on his foreign tour in France in 1928.[6] In 1945, he was sent by Joseph Stalin to play at the Potsdam Conference.[5] That was his only time performing outside the Soviet Union. Sofronitsky was teaching at the Leningrad Conservatory from 1936 to 1942, and then at the Moscow Conservatory until his death in 1961.[7]

In 1942 he was proclaimed an Honored Artist of the RSFSR and awarded a Stalin Prize of the first class in 1943.[8]

Sofronitsky's performed works from Scriabin, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Beethoven, Lyadov, Rachmaninoff, Medtner, Prokofiev, and others. His daughter is the Canadian pianist Viviana Sofronitsky. Sofronitsky recordings document one of the most intense and individual pianistic personalities of the 20th century.[1]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Fanning, David (2001). "Sofronitsky, Vladimir". Grove Music Online. doi:10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.26096. ISBN 978-1-56159-263-0. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  2. ↑ Clavier: A Magazine for Pianists & Organists (44 ed.). Instrumentalist Company. 2005. p. 18. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  3. ↑ Greenfield, Edward; March, Ivan; Layton, Robert (1995). The Penguin Guide to Compact Discs Yearbook, 1995. Penguin Books. p. 499. ISBN 978-0-14-024998-9. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  4. ↑ The Shostakovich Wars. Ho and Feofanov. p. 90. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 International Piano Quarterly: IPQ. Gramophone Publications. 1998. p. 56. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  6. ↑ Russian Life. Rich Frontier Publishing Company. 2001. p. 14. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  7. ↑ Prokofiev, Sergey; Shlifstein, S. (2000). S. Prokofiev: Autobiography, Articles, Reminiscences. The Minerva Group, Inc. p. 332. ISBN 978-0-89875-149-9. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  8. ↑ USSR Information Bulletin. Embassy of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics. 1943. Retrieved 16 July 2021.

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