Pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja chose the title “intuitive pilgrimage” to describe her 70th anniversary box-set. It consists of a 28cm x 28cm book with 48 pages of text (in English and German), private photographs, four CDs with her recordings of Franz Schubert’s late piano sonatas and a DVD with her 1993 Duo Recital with Sviatoslav Richter in Moscow (find the box set at Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and Amazon.fr; Franz Schubert sheet music).
In the book, the artist tells us the story of her life, explains her connection with Franz Schubert and gives us firsthand information about Sviatoslav Richter.
The early life of Elisabeth Leonskaja
Elisabeth Leonskaja (Lisotchka aka Lisa) was born on November 23, 1945 in Tbilisi, the capital of what was then the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic. Both her parents had moved there from Odessa (Ukraine), which had been occupied by German and Romanian forces from 1941 until 1944. In the first months of occupation alone some 280,000 people, many of them Jews, were deported and/or assassinated.
Lisa’s Jewish mother, Raissa Leonskaja (1902-1975), born Rebekka Alter in Chisinau, Moldova, was forced to flee to Georgia, leaving behind little more than a house buried in ashes and carrying all her papers and personal belongings. Her father, Ilija (1892-1969), half Russian and half Polish, also fled from the anti-Semitic crusade. His first wife died in a concentration camp, but their daughter, Luda Leonskaja (1928-2014) survived the camp and was able to return to her father.
Fate brought Lisa’s parents together in Tbilisi, were they married and had a daughter who would become one of the world’s leading pianists. Lisa was a late baby. Her mother was 43, her father 53 when she was born.
Lisa’s father was a lawyer with no musical training but who had sung in a choir as a child. Her mother Raissa had studied piano and singing, but had been forced to give up her studies when she was 18 because her parents had died and she had to support herself.
Lisa was luckier. When she was six and a half, her parents were able to buy her her first upright piano. At 7, she passed the entrance to one of Tbilisi’s sixty music schools. At 11, she gave her orchestral debut with Beethoven’s Concerto No. 3 (Beethoven sheet music), at 13 her first solo recital. At 14, she began an intense four-year period of study at the secondary school with a new piano teacher from Kiev, influenced by the Russian school of piano.
In 1964, Elisabeth Leonskaja won the Enesco International Piano Competition in Bucharest. The judges included the famous composer and conductor Aram Khachaturian and the eminent pianist Arthur Rubinstein. Before the competition, she had played for Jacob Milstein, piano professor at the outstanding Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow. On her way back from Bucharest to Tbilisi, she visited him in the Soviet capital to thank him for his help in the lead-up to the competition and asked him for a place in his class. On her way out, she bumped into the head of the piano department who told her: “You don’t need to pass any exams. Just bring your papers.”
At 18, Elisabeth Leonskaja moved to Moscow. Jacob Milstein became a highly significant figure in her artistic development. For (many) more details about her life, check the book recommended on this page.
Elisabeth Leonskaja. Photo copyright © Marco Borggreve.
Elisabeth Leonskaja and Franz Schubert
Here just a few more remarks based on Elisabeth Leonskaja: Franz Schubert late piano sonatas:
Elisabeth Leonskaja explains that the Russian school of piano differs from others mostly for its repertoire, for its absolute virtuosity and a manual and mental freedom.
Regarding Franz Schubert, she said that his music has a depth that is expressed with lightness. The Largo e Mesto from Opus 10 No. 3, for instance, has a special emotion: sentiment without sentimentality.
According to the pianist, Schubert’s Sonata in A-flat major D 557 sounds like a work by Joseph Haydn. Mozart also comes to ones mind. She explains that, from the first sonatas onwards, Schubert developed the harmony little by little. The emotion is mirrored in the harmony and vice versa. He is a child of the romantic period. His search for a new modes of expression and the expansion of the harmonic language led to a magnification of his works.
For Elisabeth Leonskaja, Franz Schubert’s Sonata in A minor D 784 is like a Sphinx. The tension, the scarcity of the musical material and the frightening power are astounding and apocalyptic. And what he achieves in the finale is unparalleled.
Regarding Franz Schubert’s Sonata in A minor D 845, she says that the first movement is a work by a great master. The second variations movement is the work of a genius. In that Sonata, she considers Schubert’s art of composition to be on the same level as Beethoven’s.
Elisabeth Leonskaja has lived and worked many years in Vienna, where Franz Schubert had lived, composed and died at 31. This has helped her understand his music better, achieve clarity about many things. However, in the end, she can still only hope to reflect his intentions, his thoughts and feelings.
For Elisabeth Leonskaja, Franz Schubert’s late piano sonatas are easier to understand than his early ones. Probably, because the early one are more structural and, therefore, more complicated. It is more difficult to grasp the composer’s central idea. mainly because in some of the early sonatas he was not yet THE Schubert. He found his compositional language over the years.
The pianist describes the composer’s Viennese melancholia as something very different from Schumann’s real sadness. In general Franz Schubert’s music opens the doors to spheres that otherwise could not be reached.
This and much more, including a chapter by Elisabeth Leonskaja about Sviatoslav Richter and another one by her about their 1993 Duo Recital in Moscow, can be found in this fabulous book.
This article is based on the book of the very recommendable box set:Elisabeth Leonskaja: Franz Schubert late piano sonatas. 48-page 28cm x 28cm book, 4 CDs with Leonskaja playing Franz Schubert’s late piano sonatas as well as 1 DVD with Elisabeth Leonskaja and Sviatoslav Richter in a Duo Recital in Moscow in 1993. Order the box set from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and Amazon.fr. Find sheet music by Franz Schubert.
Elisabeth Leonskaja: Franz Schubert late piano sonatas. 48-page 28cm x 28cm book, 4 CDs with Leonskaja playing the late piano sonatas as well as 1 DVD with Elisabeth Leonskaja and Sviatoslav Richter in a Duo Recital in Moscow in 1993. Order the box set from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and Amazon.fr. Find sheet music by Franz Schubert.
Elisabeth Leonskaja: Franz Schubert late piano sonatas. 48-page 28cm x 28cm booklet, 4 CDs with Leonskaja playing the late piano sonatas as well as 1 DVD with Elisabeth Leonskaja and Sviatoslav Richter in a Duo Recital in Moscow in 1993. eaSonus, 2016. Order the box set from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de and Amazon.fr. Order sheet music by Franz Schubert.
Elisabeth Leonskaja: Paris. With music by Maurice Ravel (Valses nobles et sentimentales), George Enescu (Sonate op. 24, no. 1) and Claude Debussy (Préludes pour piano). eaSonus, October 2013. Order the CD from Amazon.com, Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk. Find sheet music by Maurice Ravel, George Enescu and Claude Debussy.
Elisabeth Leonskaja. Photo copyright © Julia Weseley.
