Berezovsky | Engerer
A | EE | diverse
Brigitte Engerer
In 1982, Brigitte Engerer saw her name cross the borders, earning a reputation for excellence that she would never fail to uphold: she was the sole young French artist invited to participate in the centennial celebrations of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. In addition to appearing as soloist in two concerts conducted by Rostropovich, she participated in the jubilee concert conducted by Seiji Ozawa alongside Yehudi Menuhin, Gidon Kremer, Alexis Weissenberg and two other young soloists: Anne-Sophie Mutter and Krystian Zimerman.

Even though she was still a very young woman at the time, the distance that Brigitte Engerer had already covered was considerable, as she had come to music at an early age. She began her musical studies at the age of four and climbed up on stage to give her first concert when she was six. At 11, she enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire in the class of Lucette Descaves, obtaining a premier prix in piano when she was 15, becoming a prize-winner at the Marguerite Long Competition the following year. At 17, she took a great leap into the unknown: this native of Tunis accepted the invitation from the Moscow Conservatory and set off to study in Russia.

‘Brigitte Engerer is one of the most brilliant and most original pianists of her generation. Her playing is characterised by her artistic sense, her romantic spirit and range, the perfection of her technique, as well as an innate skill of connecting with the audience.’ So said Stanislas Neuhaus, who was her professor for five years. The lessons of this great master and magnificent pianist would mark her indelibly and influence her entire career and musical thinking.

Winner of the Tchaikovsky and Queen Elisabeth Competitions, in 1980 she came to the attention of Herbert von Karajan, who invited her to play with the Berlin Philharmonic then participate in the famous celebrations of the Orchestra’s centenary. After that, Daniel Barenboim asked her to perform with the Orchestre de Paris, and Zubin Mehta with the New York Philharmonic. Thus began a fabulous international career with brilliant debuts in Berlin, Paris, Vienna and New York, where she triumphed at Carnegie Hall.

Invited by the most prestigious orchestras (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, London, Vienna, Montreal, Toronto and Detroit, Minnesota Orchestra, NHK Symphony of Tokyo, Belgian National Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Orchestra of Radio Luxembourg, etc.), she has played under such conductors as Kondrashin, Neumann, Bender, Krivine, Casadesus, Bertini, Chailly, Rowicki, Leitner, Foster, López-Cobos, Lombard, Fedosseyev, Simonov, Plasson, Judd, Salonen, Kitaenko, Temirkanov, Herbig, Sado, Zollman, Jarvi…
But Brigitte Engerer also likes to share and cannot imagine her life as a pianist without chamber music. Her partners have included pianists Boris Berezovsky, Oleg Maisenberg and Hélène Mercier, violinists Olivier Charlier and Dmitri Sitkovetzky, cellists Henri Demarquette, David Geringas and Alexander Kniazev, violist Gérard Caussé and even Laurence Equilbey and the Accentus Chamber Chorus. The bonds she has created with these artists are so strong and intimate that music seems to spring up spontaneously between them, for the great pleasure of the audience, and in particular at the Pianoscope Festival, which she has organised in Beauvais every October since 2006, ‘for it is necessary to feel close so that music open up the heavens, as Baudelaire dreamt’ (Brigitte Engerer).

Sharing also means passing on the precious teaching that she received, through master classes that she gives regularly in Berlin, Nice, Birmingham, Paris and Tokyo.

Throughout her career, she has recorded numerous discs for prestigious labels such as Philips (Schumanns’s Carnaval, Op. 9 and Carnival of Vienna, awarded the Grand Prix du Disque), Denon, Warner (L’invitation au Voyage with Henri Demarquette, ‘Choc’ du Monde de la Musique, and Hymne à la nuit, ‘RTL d’Or’). To this untiring quest of musical verity she brings the sum of her talents; between digital Infallibility and the instability of feelings, Brigitte Engerer plays the tightrope walker… to perfection: she is an artist.

Brigitte Engerer is a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, Officer of Merit and Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. She is also a corresponding member of the Institut de France’s Académie des Beaux-Arts.

Boris Berezovsky

Boris Berezovsky has established a great reputation, both as the most powerful of virtuoso pianists and as a musician gifted with a unique insight and a great sensitivity.

Born in Moscow, Boris Berezovsky studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Eliso Virsaladze and privately with Alexander Satz. Subsequent to his London debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1988, The Times described him as an artist of exceptional promise, a player of dazzling virtuosity and formidable power. Two years later, he won the Gold Medal at the 1990 International Tchaïkovsky Competition in Moscow.

Boris Berezovsky is regularly invited by the most prominent orchestras including the Philharmonia of London, the New York Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, the Oslo Philharmonic, the Danish National Radio Symphony, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the NDR Hamburg Orchestra, the Residentie Orkest, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Orchestre National de France…

Boris Berezovsky is often invited to the most prestigious international recitals series : The Berlin Philharmonic Piano serie, Concertgebouw International piano serie and the Royal Festival Hall Internatinal Piano series in London, to the great stages as the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Palace of fine Arts in Brussells, the Konzerthaus of Vienna, the Megaron in Athena… and to the most famous internatonal festivals in Verbier, Salzbourg, la Roque d’Anthéron… His partners in Chamber Music are Brigitte Engerer, Vadim Repin, Dmitri Makhtin, and Alexander Kniazev.

With Teldec, Boris Berezovksy has recorded works of Chopin, Schumann, Rachmaninov, Mussorgsky, Balakirev, Medtner, Ravel and the complete Liszt Transcendental Studies. His recording of the Rachmaninov sonatas was awarded the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and his Ravel disc was recommended by Le Monde de la Musique, Diapason, The BBC Music Magazine and the Sunday Independent. Boris Berezovsky also won the BBC Music Magazine Awards in March 2006 as Best Instrumentalist. In August 2004, the DVD of The Tchaïkovsky Pieces for piano, violin and cello and Trio Elegiaque “A La Mémoire d’un grand artiste” recorded by the Trio B.Berezovsky, D.Makhtin, A.Kniazev received the Diapason d'Or. The DVD was broadcasted on the TV channels ARTE and NHK in Japan.

In October 2004, with Warner Classics International, Boris Berezovsky, Alexander Kniazev and Dmitri Makhtin recorded the Shostakovitch Trio n°2 and Rachmaninov Trio Elégiaque n°2, which were awarded Choc de la Musique in France, the Gramophone in England, and the Echo Classic 2005 in Germany. His solo live recording Chopin/Godowsky which got released in January 2006, received the Diapason d'Or and the RTL d'Or.

With Mirare Harmonia Mundi, Boris Berezovsky recorded the Rachmaninov Preludes as well as the complete Rachmaninov Piano concertos with the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dmitri Liss, and another CD for two pianos dedicated to Rachmaninov with Brigitte Engerer which received several great prizes. He recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall of London and at La Grange de Meslay in Tours,  a CD devoted to Liszt, which has been released in January 2010. The artist also recorded with his partners Brigitte Engerer and Henri Demarquette Saint-Saëns’s Carnaval des Animaux (CHOC of the year 2010).

In 2010-2011, apart from many recitals he will give in the world greatest halls, Boris Berezovsky will be on an European tour with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra and Antonio Pappano, will play with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Tugan Sokhiev, and with Vadim Repin at the Salle Pleyel. The artist will make his debuts with the Berliner Philharmoniker in Berlin in January 2012.

2011/12

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