Jean-Rodolphe Kars
Encyclopedia
Jean-Rodolphe Kars is an Indian-born Austrian pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...

.

Biography

The parents of Jean-Rodolphe Kars were both Viennese Jews is who had fled Austria after the Anschluss
Anschluss
The Anschluss , also known as the ', was the occupation and annexation of Austria into Nazi Germany in 1938....

 in 1938. They met in Calcutta, where Gustav Kars (himself born in 1913 in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

) met Mila, a qualified doctor (who had volunteered to work in a Red Cross hospital in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 after being widowed in New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

). Jean-Rodolphe - Gustav's first child and Mila's second - was born in 1947.

Deciding that Europe would offer their children the possibility of a superior education, the Kars family left India for France. They lived for some years in a small town in the Haute Loire, but eventually settled in Paris where Gustav found employment in a private Jewish school. The family's circumstances were very poor, but Jean-Rodolphe's musical ability was such that he gained entrance to the Paris Conservatoire, where he studied from 1958-64. He also studied with Julius Katchen
Julius Katchen
Julius Katchen was an American concert pianist, possibly best known for his recordings of Johannes Brahms's solo piano compositions.-Early career:...

. From 1974, Jean-Rodolphe Kars studied with the French pianist and pedagog Jean Fassina; the most important and inspiring teaching, according to Kars, in his musical formation.

At the age of 19 Jean-Rodolphe Kars took part in the second Leeds Piano Competition (1966). In somewhat controversial circumstances, Kars received the fourth prize, with the first prize going to the Spaniard Rafael Orozco, the second being awarded jointly to the Russians Viktoria Postnikova
Viktoria Postnikova
Viktoria Valentinovna Postnikova is a Russian pianist.-Biography:Postnikova was born in Moscow into a family of musicians. She entered the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory at age six, studying with E.B. Musaelian. She graduated in 1967, having studied there and in postgraduate...

 and Semion Kruchin, and the third to the Russian Aleksey Nasedkin
Aleksey Nasedkin
Aleksey Nasedkin is a Russian pianist and composer.A recipient of the People's Artist of the Russian Federation title, Nasedkin is the president of Russia's Schubert Society. He's a member of the Composers' Union of the USSR/RF and a professor at Moscow's Conservatory, where he has taught since...

.

Kars' London debut was in 1967; in 1968 he was awarded first prize in the Concours de Piano Olivier Messiaen.

During this time the Kars family lived in a working-class area of Paris called quartier Alésia
Petit-Montrouge
The quartier du Petit-Montrouge is number 55 of the 80 quartiers administratifs in Paris. It lies in the 14th Arrondissement, in the south of the capital. It owes its name to the adjacent commune of Montrouge, of which it formed a part before 1860...

, in an apartment so cramped that the piano had to be kept in the bathroom.

Kars' upbringing had been that of a secular Jew; in 1976, however, he converted to Catholicism and was baptised in Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, Paris, in 1977. In 1981 he put an end to his official career as concert pianist. In 1986 he entered the priesthood, becoming Père Jean-Rodolphe Kars. Since 1986 he has been Chaplain of Paray-le-Monial
Paray-le-Monial
Paray-le-Monial is a commune in the Saône-et-Loire department in the region of Burgundy in eastern France.-History:Paray existed before the monks who gave it its surname of Le Monial, for when Count Lambert of Chalon, together with his wife Adelaide and his friend Mayeul de Cluny, founded there in...

, a town in the Burgundy
Bourgogne
Burgundy is one of the 27 regions of France.The name comes from the Burgundians, an ancient Germanic people who settled in the area in early Middle-age. The region of Burgundy is both larger than the old Duchy of Burgundy and smaller than the area ruled by the Dukes of Burgundy, from the modern...

 region of France.

Though long associated with the music of Debussy and Ravel, Kars has in recent years specialised in the works of Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...

, not merely performing and recording the music, but also lecturing and writing on its spiritual and religious aspects. Having begun to study Messaien's music and writings as long ago as 1966, Kars credits him with playing an important role in his eventual conversion to Catholicism and his vocation as a priest, and considers him his 'first spiritual father'.

Notable Recordings

Debussy: Fantasie for Piano and Orchestra

Jean-Rodolphe Kars (Piano); Sir Alexander Gibson; London Symphony Orchestra (DECCA)

Debussy: Preludes for Piano, Book 1; Book 2

Jean-Rodolphe Kars (Piano) (DECCA)

Delius: Concerto for Piano in C minor

Jean-Rodolphe Kars (Piano); Sir Alexander Gibson; London Symphony Orchestra (DECCA)

Schoenberg: Three Piano pieces Op 11; Six Little Piano Pieces Op 19; Five Piano pieces Op 23; Suite for Piano Op 25; Piano Pieces Op 33a and b

Jean-Rodolphe Kars (Piano) (EMI France, C 065 12870; 1975)

Writings

  • Père Jean-Rodolphe Kars: 'Hommage a Olivier Messaien', in Olivier Messiaen, homme de foi, regard sur son œuvre d’orgue (Trinité Média Communication, 1995).

  • Père Jean-Rodolphe Kars: 'Das Werk Olivier Messiaens und die katholische Liturgie', in Olivier Messiaen. La Cite celeste - das himmlische Jerusalem. Über das Leben und Werk des französischen Komponisten (Köln Wienand Verlag, 1998).

  • Père Jean-Rodolphe Kars: 'The Spirituality of Messiaen's Organ Works', Organists Review, November 2008.
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