Steven Isserlis
Steven Isserlis CBE ( born December 19, London, 1958 ) is a British cellist and author. His grandfather is the Russian composer Julius Isserlis, his family tree can be traced back to Felix Mendelssohn. In 1998, he was honored for his work as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire ( CBE).
Life
Steven Isserlis began his studies 1969-1976 in Jane Cowan at the International Cello Centre. During his studies, he came up with written works such as Goethe's Faust in contact, so as to be able to ( in this case, Beethoven) to better understand and express the music of each era.
Between 1976 and 1978 studied Isserlis cello at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Oberlin with Richard Kapuscinski. During his studies, he made his debut in 1977 in London.
His wife Pauline, also a musician, died in June 2010 from breast cancer.
Work
Steven Isserlis has already occurred with many different orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles and London Philharmonic Orchestra, under cooperation with conductors such as John Eliot Gardiner, Michael Tilson Thomas, Christoph Eschenbach, Roger Norrington Vladimir Ashkenazy and Colin Davis.
In addition Isserlis is also active as a chamber musician. In 1991 he founded with violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Olli Mustonen a trio. He also plays many concerts with famous musicians like Melvin Tan, Stephen Kovacevich, Tabea Zimmermann, Pamela Frank and Stephen Hough.
Isserlis stood for a long time at Virgin Records, and after its acquisition by EMI artist, but switched to BMG Classics to publish contemporary works for cello there. Isserlis currently plays mainly known as the Marquis de Corberon Stradivarius cello from 1726, which was previously played by Zara Nelsova. In addition, he played throughout his career already several different cellos, including the De Munck from 1730 Stradivari, and a Montagnana cello from 1740 and a Guadagnini from 1745.
For his numerous recordings (including Elgar's cello concertos, Benjamin Britten Symphony for Cello, Bloch's Schelomo and Tchaikovsky's Rococo Variations ) won Isserlis already a Gramophone Award ( for a recording of composed by John Tavener The Protecting Veil piece for him ). In 1992, he won the Piatigorsky Prize and was honored by the Royal Philharmonic Society Musician of the Year. In 2000 he won the Robert Schumann Prize and in 2008 he was awarded the Critics' Prize at Classical BRIT Awards.
In addition to playing the cello itself Isserlis is also committed to writing. He is the author of several children's books, all of which have an editorial context with classical music.
List of Works
- Why Handel peddled with court gossip. And many other stories about the lives of famous composers from the English by Kathrin Balmer fish, Rüffer & Rub, Zurich 2007, ISBN 978-3-907625-36-1.