Simon Barere plays Chopin Impromptu op.29 no.1

The recording date is unknown.

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Simon Barere (1896 - Odessa / 1951 - New York)

When Simon Barere suddenly passed away on April 2, 1951, on the stage of Carnegie Hall while performing the Grieg A-minor piano concerto with Eugene Ormandy and the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra, the music world lost a colossal figure. Even now, more than fifty years later, the name Simon Barere inspires feelings of awe and admiration.

Barere was born in Odessa, the eleventh of thirteen children. He studied piano and advanced quickly, soon helping to support his family by playing in cinemas and restaurants. At the age of sixteen, he went to St. Petersburg where he overwhelmed the composer Glazunov, who was then the head of the Conservatory. While at the Conservatory, Barere studied with Annette Essipova, a leading teacher of the time. After her death, he studied with Felix Blumenfeld, whose other pupils included Heinrich Neuhaus and Vladimir Horowitz.

Upon graduation, Barere won the prestigious Rubinstein Prize. Barere then began to concertize widely, at the same time teaching at the Kiev Conservatory. He married Helena Vlashek, a fellow Blumenfeld student, who later became a celebrated piano pedagogue, teaching the great pianist Earl Wild, among others.

The economic conditions in Russia were disintegrating. Often, Simon Barere would come home after a recital with a sack of potatoes as concert payment. Conditions became so dreadful that the family was forced to leave Russia and temporarily settle in Riga Latvia where Helen Barere's brother, Franz Vlashek, a cellist, was living.

In 1931, Simon Barere received a promising offer of a lucrative series of concerts to take place in Berlin and it was only in 1932 that Barere was able to move his wife and son to Berlin. As soon as the family arrived, they were informed that all concerts were cancelled due to the rise of the Hitler regime and its sanctions against employment of Jews. The lack of money forced Simon Barere to play the piano on cabarets and vaudeville stages between clown acts and knife throwers. The situation became desperate and the family escaped to Sweden where they stayed from 1933 to 1940.

Simon Barere made his British recital debut in 1934 and his concerto debut, with the conductor Sir Thomas Beecham, playing the Tchaikovsky B-flat minor piano concerto. Barere made his American debut at Carnegie Hall on November 9, 1936, to highest acclaim. In addition to the many Carnegie Hall recitals that followed, he toured Australia, New Zealand, and South America, as well as the United States. Simon Barere performed as a soloist with many orchestras, including the New York, Edinburgh, and Berlin Philharmonics, and the London, Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis, and Stockholm Symphony Orchestras.

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Category:

Music

Tags:

• Simon
• Barere
• Chopin
• Impromptu
• op.29
• Blumenfeld
• Horowitz
• Neuhaus
• Richter
• Gilels

[lbljwj]

to fast



[LaFoBr]

superbe

[PunChopin]

that good I love Chopin