Felicja Blumental
Felicja Blumental ( born December 28, 1908 in Warsaw, † 31 December 1991 in Tel Aviv) was a Polish- Brazilian pianist.
Life
Felicja Blumental grew up as the daughter of a violinist on in a musical family. She began taking piano lessons at the age of five years and made her debut as a pianist as a ten year old. She studied at the Conservatory of Music Academy in Warsaw and took piano lessons from Joseph Goldberg and Zbigniew Drzewiecki, a founder of the International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition. In the reading of compositions, she was informed by the composer Karol Szymanowski. Later she took in Switzerland privately with Józef Turczyński, a well-known Chopin performer and teacher.
In 1938 she moved with her husband Mark Mizne first to Luxembourg, then to Nice; 1942 with the daughter then on to Brazil to escape the increasing persecution of Jews in Europe. She was Brazilian citizen. A successful debut in Rio de Janeiro was Blumental tours in Latin America follow with over 100 concerts. In her other life, she campaigned for the music and composers of her adopted country.
In 1954 she returned to Europe, where she made her debut at the Wigmore Hall. Her extraordinary success in Zurich congratulated her Yehudi Menuhin. Later she lived in Milan ( 1962 ) and then in London ( from 1973).
Felicja Blumental died in 1991 in Tel Aviv during one of her many concert tours in Israel. Her grave is located in the Kiryat Shaul cemetery in Tel Aviv.
Her daughter, the Classical singer (soprano ) Annette Celine, is the artistic director and organizer of the annual held in Tel Aviv Felicja Blumental International Music Festival.
In the Tel Aviv Museum of Art is located in 1957 painted by Tsuguharu Foujita Portrait of Felicja Blumental.
Repertoire
Her repertoire Felicja Blumental was far -ranging and experiment; of Portuguese Baroque to contemporary South American plants. Her numerous recordings include many concerts of forgotten composers such as Carl Czerny, Ferdinand Ries and John Field. Heitor Villa -Lobos wrote his Piano Concerto No.. 5 for them. She was the soloist at the world premiere with the Philharmonic Orchestra under Jean Martinon on 8 May 1956 in the Royal Festival Hall, London. The concert was also performed in Paris, with the composer as conductor. Krzysztof Penderecki dedicated his Partita for harpsichord and orchestra. Your intake of this work received the 1975 Prize of the French Académie Charles records Cros.
Among her concert recordings was a summary of Beethoven's complete works for solo piano and orchestra, including two early works without opus number, and Beethoven's arrangement for piano for the Violin Concerto.
But above all Felicja Blumental will be memorable as a significant interpreter of Frédéric Chopin. From petite figure, she was a pianist with considerable expressiveness. Especially her recordings of the Mazurkas by Chopin are unique interpretations.