This Week in Classical Music: April 14, 2025. Four Pianists. It has been a long time since we’ve written about the instrumentalists: the city of Naples and composers of note have taken up all of our time. Fortunately, this week presents us with the opportunity to address this problem, as four pianists have their birthdays this week. Two of them were born in the Soviet Union (neither still lives there), and both became famous after winning a Tchaikovsky competition. One is Grigory Sokolov, the other -- Mikhail Pletnev. Sokolov was born to a Jewish father and Russian mother on April 18th of 1950 in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg (we note the nationalities because of the persistent and official policies of antisemitism in the Soviet Union). Sokolov was 16 when, in 1966, he was awarded the first prize among pianists at the Third Tchaikovsky competition. It was quite unexpected (Misha Dichter was the public’s favorite that year), and nobody took Sokolov’s win seriously. Who could imagine then that this youngster would turn into one of the most profound pianists of his generation? For a while, Sokolov’s career didn’t go anywhere, even though he was allowed to play concerts internationally. Sometime around 1988, he left Russia (he’s a Spanish citizen and lives in Italy), and it wasn’t until the 2000s that his career really took off. Since 2006, he has performed only solo concerts; he plays mostly in continental Europe, where he’s famous. Sokolov eschews concerts in the UK and the US because of the visa requirements, which he deems Soviet-like. He rarely makes studio recordings but allows his live concerts to be recorded. Here is one of them, a live recording made in Haydnsaal of the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria, on August 10, 2018. Grigory Sokolov plays Schubert’s Impromptu no. 1 in F minor, from Four Impromptus, Op. 142, D. 935.
Mikhail Pletnev’s career was very different. He was born in the northern city of Arkhangelsk on April 14th of 1957. He won the Sixth Tchaikovsky Competition in 1974 when he was 21. His piano career flourished immediately after, as he went on tours of Europe and America. He played solo recitals and concerts with Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, Zubin Mehta and other prominent conductors. Pletnev himself started conducting in 1980 while still studying at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1988 he met Mikhail Gorbachev, then the General Secretary of the Communist Party, in Washington, DC; two years later, Gorbachev helped him found the first non-state-owned orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra (RNO). Pletnev made it into one of the best orchestras in Russia. In 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, Pletnev made several anti-war comments, after which Putin’s officials pushed him out of his own orchestra. In the aftermath, Pletnev created a new ensemble, the Rachmaninoff International Orchestra; 18 musicians from the RNO joined it. Like Sokolov, Pletnev left Russia in the 1990s: he has been living in Switzerland since 1996. Here’s a recording, made live, like the one we heard from Sokolov. This one was made in Warsaw in August of 2017. Pletnev plays Rachmaninov’s Prelude in G-sharp minor op. 32, no. 12.
Two other pianists born this week are Murray Perahia, one of our all-time favorites; he was born on April 19th of 1947 and the great Artur Schnabel, born April 17th of 1882. We’ve written about Schnabel but not Perahia, which we hope to do in the future.
Four pianists, 2025
This Week in Classical Music: April 14, 2025. Four Pianists. It has been a long time since we’ve written about the instrumentalists: the city of Naples and composers of note have taken up
all of our time. Fortunately, this week presents us with the opportunity to address this problem, as four pianists have their birthdays this week. Two of them were born in the Soviet Union (neither still lives there), and both became famous after winning a Tchaikovsky competition. One is Grigory Sokolov, the other -- Mikhail Pletnev. Sokolov was born to a Jewish father and Russian mother on April 18th of 1950 in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg (we note the nationalities because of the persistent and official policies of antisemitism in the Soviet Union). Sokolov was 16 when, in 1966, he was awarded the first prize among pianists at the Third Tchaikovsky competition. It was quite unexpected (Misha Dichter was the public’s favorite that year), and nobody took Sokolov’s win seriously. Who could imagine then that this youngster would turn into one of the most profound pianists of his generation? For a while, Sokolov’s career didn’t go anywhere, even though he was allowed to play concerts internationally. Sometime around 1988, he left Russia (he’s a Spanish citizen and lives in Italy), and it wasn’t until the 2000s that his career really took off. Since 2006, he has performed only solo concerts; he plays mostly in continental Europe, where he’s famous. Sokolov eschews concerts in the UK and the US because of the visa requirements, which he deems Soviet-like. He rarely makes studio recordings but allows his live concerts to be recorded. Here is one of them, a live recording made in Haydnsaal of the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria, on August 10, 2018. Grigory Sokolov plays Schubert’s Impromptu no. 1 in F minor, from Four Impromptus, Op. 142, D. 935.
Mikhail Pletnev’s career was very different. He was born in the northern city of Arkhangelsk on April 14th of 1957. He won the Sixth Tchaikovsky Competition in 1974 when he was 21. His piano career flourished immediately after, as he went on tours of Europe and America. He played solo recitals and concerts with Claudio Abbado, Bernard Haitink, Zubin Mehta and other prominent conductors. Pletnev himself started conducting in 1980 while still studying at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1988 he met Mikhail Gorbachev, then the General Secretary of the Communist Party, in Washington, DC; two years later, Gorbachev helped him found the first non-state-owned orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra (RNO). Pletnev made it into one of the best orchestras in Russia. In 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, Pletnev made several anti-war comments, after which Putin’s officials pushed him out of his own orchestra. In the aftermath, Pletnev created a new ensemble, the Rachmaninoff International Orchestra; 18 musicians from the RNO joined it. Like Sokolov, Pletnev left Russia in the 1990s: he has been living in Switzerland since 1996. Here’s a recording, made live, like the one we heard from Sokolov. This one was made in Warsaw in August of 2017. Pletnev plays Rachmaninov’s Prelude in G-sharp minor op. 32, no. 12.
Two other pianists born this week are Murray Perahia, one of our all-time favorites; he was born on April 19th of 1947 and the great Artur Schnabel, born April 17th of 1882. We’ve written about Schnabel but not Perahia, which we hope to do in the future.