Andras Schiff, Piano – NHK Symphony – Wolfgang Sawallisch, Cond. – November 4, 1994 – NHK-FM, Tokyo –
Over to Tokyo this week for a concert by the NHK Symphony, led by Wolfang Sawallisch and featuring Andras Schiff, piano in a concert devoted to the music of Brahms and broadcast live on November 4, 1994.
Only two works on this program – starting with Piano Concerto Number 2 and ending with Symphony Number 4.
András Schiff is world-renowned as a pianist, conductor, pedagogue, and lecturer. He brings masterful and intellectual insights to his performances, which have inspired audiences and critics alike. Born in Budapest, Hungary, in 1953, he studied piano at the Liszt Ferenc Academy with Pal Kadosa, György Kurtág, and Ferenc Rados, and in London with George Malcom. He is the New York Philharmonic’s Mary and James G. Wallach Artist-in-Residence for the 2022–23 season.
András Schiff has performed complete cycles of the Beethoven sonatas as well as projects including the complete works of J.S. Bach, Haydn, Schubert, and Bartók, which constitute an important part of his work. Having collaborated with the world’s leading orchestras and conductors, he now focuses primarily on solo recitals, play-conducting appearances, and exclusive conducting projects. This season in North America he performs eight recitals comprising J.S. Bach’s Goldberg Variations and programs announced from the stage, including one in New York City as one of nine concerts during his New York Philharmonic residency.
Wolfgang Sawallisch began his career at the opera house in Augsburg in 1947. At first, he held the position of répétiteur and later became the principal conductor. In 1949, he was awarded the first prize at the Geneva International Music Competition where he accompanied the violinist Gerhard Seitz. In 1952–53 he was the personal assistant to Igor Markevitch at the International Summer Academy of the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria.
He was only 30 when he conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, where Herbert von Karajan was then the principal conductor. When he debuted at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus conducting Tristan und Isolde in 1957, he was the youngest conductor ever to appear there.
After turning down offers to join the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and the New York Metropolitan Opera, Sawallisch became Principal Conductor of the Vienna Symphony in 1960, a post he held for ten years. In 1961, he started conducting the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra and did this for ten years as well. From 1970 to 1980, he was music director of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
In 1966, Eugene Ormandy, the music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra from 1936 to 1980, had invited Sawallisch to visit him. Sawallisch subsequently made several recordings there, and in 1993 succeeded Riccardo Muti as music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, where he remained until 2003. From 2003 until his death in 2013, he held the title of Conductor Laureate with the orchestra. He was also Honorary Conductor Laureate of the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo and for over 30 years he appeared with the orchestra annually in Tokyo. He was the recipient of a Suntory Music Award in 1993.
Sawallisch died at his home in Grassau on 22 February 2013, aged 89.
On to the concert . . .
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