András Schiff
András Schiff (Hungarian pronunciation: [ˌɒndraːʃ ˈʃifː]) (born December 21, 1953) is a Hungarian-born British classical pianist, who has won a number of awards including the Grammy and made numerous recordings.
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[edit] Biography
Schiff was born in Budapest into a Jewish family and began piano lessons at the age five with Elisabeth Vadasz. He studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and in London with George Malcolm. He emigrated from Hungary in 1979[1] and has been a British citizen since 2001. He is married to the violinist Yuuko Shiokawa, and resides in London, England, and Florence, Italy.[2]
In 1999 he formed an occasional chamber orchestra, which he named the Cappella Andrea Barca, with the name coming from an Italian translation of his last name (Barca and Schiff both mean "boat"), although he has provided a humorous pseudo-biography of the fictional Barca.[3] He has appeared as a conductor with several major orchestras, including regular appearances with Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
Schiff is one of the most renowned interpreters of Bach, Mozart, Schubert and Schumann. His many recordings for the Decca label include the complete piano sonatas of Mozart and Schubert and much of the keyboard music of Bach, as well as the complete Mozart piano concertos with the Camerata Academica Salzburg led by Sándor Végh. His recordings for the Teldec label include the complete Beethoven piano concertos with the Staatskapelle Dresden led by Bernard Haitink. For the ECM label Schiff has recorded the music of Janáček and Sándor Veress, and made live recordings in the Zurich Tonhalle of all of Beethoven's piano sonatas. (The Beethoven cycle won the Italian prize, Premio della critica musicale Franco Abbiati.) He gave a series of lecture-recitals on the complete Beethoven sonatas in London.[4] His live concert recordings for ECM also include his second traversals of the Bach Partitas and Goldberg Variations.
For G. Henle, he provided fingerings for new editions of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier (published in 2006) and fingerings and missing cadenzas for a new edition of the Mozart piano concertos (begun in 2007).
He plays a Bösendorfer piano rather than the more widely used Steinway, and when possible travels and performs with his own instrument. He has also recorded Mozart using Mozart's own piano.
[edit] Political views
Schiff has made public statements about politics in Austria,[5] and more recently, Hungary. On January 1, 2011, Schiff published a letter in the Washington Post questioning whether "Hungary is ready and worthy to take on" the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, as it did that day,[6] because of "racism, discrimination against the Roma, anti-Semitism, xenophobia, chauvinism and reactionary nationalism," and "the latest media laws" (referring to new media laws passed by the government of Viktor Orbán). On January 16, 2011, Schiff told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that he had become "persona non grata" in Hungary and would probably never perform there again "or even visit"[2] On January 17 he joined Hungarian conductor Ádám Fischer and six other Hungarian intellectuals and artists in publishing an open letter "To the artists of Europe and the World" protesting "racism against Roma, with homophobia and with antisemitism" and saying that "the freedom of the media, of the arts and artists, and of those who could most effectively act against such tendencies is more and more curtailed." The letter appeared in German and in English,[7] with a note of support from Daniel Barenboim appended.
[edit] Awards and recognitions
- Finalist in Leeds International Pianoforte Competition (1975)
- Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance (without orchestra): English Suites by Bach (Grammy Awards of 1990)
- Claudio Arrau Memorial Medal (1994)
- Kossuth Prize (1996)
- Léonie Sonning Music Prize (1997)
- Royal Academy of Music/Kohn Foundation Bach Prize (2007)[8]
- The Wigmore Hall medal.[9]
[edit] References
- ^ Stephen Moss (1999-05-14). "Bach to the future". The Guardian (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/friday_review/story/0,,296686,00.html. Retrieved 2007-08-28.
- ^ a b Vanessa Mock (2011-01-16). "Hungary's artists take fury at media law to Brussels". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. http://www.faz.net/s/Rub4D7EDEFA6BB3438E85981C05ED63D788/Doc~E25CEB91162734423B81753EBA198D67. Retrieved 2011-01-23.
- ^ http://www.lucernefestival.ch/en/ensembles/cappella_andrea_barca/
- ^ "Andras Schiff: the lectures". The Guardian (London). http://music.guardian.co.uk/classical/page/0,,1943867,00.html.
- ^ Kate Connolly (2000-02-11),Freedom fighters, The Guardian
- ^ Andras Schiff (2011-01-01). "Hungary's E.U. role questioned". The Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/01/AR2011010102177.html. Retrieved 2011-01-23.
- ^ András Schiff, Ádám Fischer, András Adorján, Béla Tarr, Ágnes Heller, Géza Komoróczy, László Rajk, Miklós Jancsó (2001-01-17). "An die Künstler in Europa und der ganzen Welt". http://haydnphil.org/en/fischer.htm. Retrieved 2011-01-23.
- ^ "Royal Academy of Music / Kohn Foundation Bach Prize is awarded to John Butt". http://www.ram.ac.uk/whatsnew/Pages/RoyalAcademyofMusicKohnFoundationBachPrizeisawardedtoJohnButt.aspx. Retrieved 2010.
- ^ Wigmore Hall website - 110th anniversary and medal presentation
[edit] External links
- Andras Schiff: Beethoven Lecture-recitals at Wigmore Hall, London
- National Public Radio Article
- In Concert on National Public Radio
- Andras Schiff biography at the Pittsburgh Symphony
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- 1953 births
- Living people
- Grammy Award winners
- Hungarian classical pianists
- Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts
- Hungarian Jews
- Jewish classical musicians
- Jewish classical pianists
- Alumni of the Franz Liszt Academy of Music
- Prize-winners of the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition
- Honorary Members of the Royal Academy of Music
