John Lill
John Lill ( born March 17, 1944 in Leytonstone, England ) is an English pianist of classical music.
Lill studied at the Royal College of Music and Wilhelm Kempff. His talent showed itself early, at the age of nine, he appeared in public.
At age 18, he offered Rachmaninoff's 3rd Piano Concerto under Sir Adrian Boult dar. This was followed in 1963 acclaimed debut with Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in the Royal Festival Hall. In 1970 he won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.
Lill made numerous recordings, including the complete piano concertos of Beethoven, Brahms and Rachmaninov as well as the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven and Prokofiev.
Lill played in more than fifty countries, with both a recitalist and as a concert soloist. He worked in the major European cities, including Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Prague, Rome, Stockholm and Vienna, as well as in Russia, the Far East and Australasia (with multiple Australian Broadcasting Corporation tours ). In addition, he entered the United States with the symphony orchestras of Cleveland, New York City, Philadelphia, Dallas, Seattle, Baltimore, Boston, Washington DC and San Diego.
His repertoire includes more than seventy concerts, he is particularly regarded as a leading interpreter of Beethoven, whose complete sonata cycle he played on several occasions in England, the USA and Japan. In England, he worked for more than 30 BBC Proms concerts there and appears regularly with major symphony orchestras. He traveled with the London Symphony, the London Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the City of Birmingham, the Hallé Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Lill took for the German Grammophon, EMI ( the complete Beethoven Piano Concertos with RSNO and Gibson ) and ASV (both Brahms concertos with the Hallé and Loughran ) on as well as the complete Beethoven sonatas and Tchaikovsky I with the LSO and Judd. He recently recorded the complete Prokofiev sonatas for ASV Records. His recent recordings of the complete Beethoven Bagatelles and Piano Concertos with the CBSO and Weller are available on Chandos Records. With the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vernon Handley he took Malcolm Arnold's Fantasy on a Theme of John Field ( dedicated to John Lill ) on for Conifer. He also made recordings of all Rachmaninov concertos and his major solo pieces for piano for Nimbus Records. The latest recordings include works by Schumann Piano for Pleasure label on his 60th birthday and new releases for Signum by Schumann, Brahms and Haydn.
In 2000, he suffered an injury of both hands during an attempted robbery. The injuries to the tendons, however, were not quite as severe. Lill soon recovered and was able to continue his career.
John Lill lives in London and was admitted to the OBE in 1978. For his services to the music he was raised to Commander ( CBE) in 2005.