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Alexis WEISSENBERG |
If one examines or compares the biographies of a number of musicians one quickly notices, apart from age, place of birth and certain minor personal details, some particular similarities.
For me, work is the most important part of my life, the essential ingredient, the indispensable centre, my main preoccupation and the focus of my career.
I was born in Sofia where I started my piano and composition studies with Wladigueroff. A few years later in 1946, at the age of 17, I continued my musical education in New York at the Juilliard School of Music under the excellent tuition of Olga Samaroff. Important advice from Schnabel and, above all, numerous and unforgettable examples by Landowska, have influenced the path I have chosen to follow. Although my early career began in my native country and continued with a variety of concerts in Bulgaria, Turkey, Palestine, Egypt and a first concert tour in South Africa, I would consider my true debut to have been at the Carnegie Hall in New York with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of George Szell. This concert followed the International Leventritt Competition in which I won the First Prize.
The same year I won the First Prize in the Philadelphia Youth Competition andwas given the chance to make my debut in Philadelphia under the direction of Eugène Ormandy.
Since then I have had the same experiences as my colleagues: many anxieties and rewards of learning the profession; doubts and joys due to the inevitable tension between instinctive impulse and artistic performance; the enormous individual responsibility resulting from technical skill and creative expression; the monotonous life between suitcases and concert halls; but also, and above all, moments of sheer delight when the communication – that magical interaction between audience and artist, the musical director and soloist, between two sensitive souls, take place.
It is a life where the choices one makes reflect the powerful desire to improve, to perfect, to simplify, to revise and to relearn – these are my greatest motivations and are also the main source of my optimism for the future.
Alexis Weissenberg