Maria Grinberg
Encyclopedia
Maria Grinberg (September 6, 1908 – July 14, 1978), was a Ukrainian
pianist and teacher.
Maria Grinberg was a Russian-born pianist, born in September 6, 1908 in Odessa
, Russian Empire
into a family of the local intelligentsia
. Her father was a Hebrew scholar and her mother taught piano privately. Until the age of 18, Maria took piano lessons from Odessa's noted teacher David Aisberg. Eventually she became a pupil of Felix Blumenfeld
(who also taught Vladimir Horowitz
) and later, after his death, continued her studies with Konstantin Igumnov
at the Moscow Conservatory
. In 1935, she won the Second Prize at the Second All-Union Pianist Competition.
Grinberg become a major figure of the Russian piano school. However, in 1937 both her husband and her father were arrested and executed as "enemies of the people". The pianist was fired by the state-run management and got a job as an accompanist of an amateur choreography group. During that time, she occasionally participated in concert performances playing timpani. Somehow, she later was readmitted as a piano soloist. She became a much-sought after pianist in Moscow
, with concerts in Leningrad
, Riga
, Tallinn
, Voronezh
, Tbilisi
, Baku
and other cities all over the Soviet Union
.
At the age of 50, after Stalin died in 1953, she was allowed to travel abroad. All in all, Grinberg went on 14 performing tours - 12 times in the Soviet bloc countries and twice in Holland where she became a nationally acclaimed figure. Critics compared her performances with those of Horowitz
, Rubinstein
, and Clara Haskil
.
Only at the age of 55, she was granted her first – and last – honorary title of Distinguished Artist of the Russian Soviet Federation. At 61, she was given a professorship at the Gnessin Institute of Music. Among the long list of his pupils are Naum Shtarkman
and Regina Shamvili
.
In 1970, her personal 13-LP album set featuring all Beethoven's 32 sonatas was released. This was the first time a Russian pianist recorded the complete set of the Beethoven piano sonatas. Three months before the pianist died, in 1978, critic Yudenich called these recordings in the Sovetskaya Muzyka magazine "a true feat of art".
When she was in her late 40s, she noticed that her vision had become significantly worse. She addressed the problem, and it turned out that she had a brain tumor which required surgery. Within a few months, she celebrated her 50th anniversary by performing three piano concertos in one evening - Bach
's f minor, Beethoven Third, and Rachmaninoff's Third with Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
.
Maria Grinberg died on the 14 July 1978, in Tallinn
, some ten weeks before her seventieth birthday. When her daughter Nika came to Tallinn's funeral home, the undertaker declined to take money for the last services, as he knew who the deceased lady was. Gnessin Institute's director, chorus master Vladimir Minin (the one who a year before forced Grinberg to resign from her teaching position), refused to hold a mourning ceremony on the Institute's premises, and only thanks to the efforts of Deputy Minister of Culture Kukharsky, the great pianist was given her last honor in a proper way.
Her sense of humor was legendary. Those who knew her recall a story. Her patronymic [the name of the father, customarily used in Russian names] was Israilyevna (that is, "daughter of Israel", the latter being the first name of her father). During the period of heightened hostilities between the Soviet Union and the State of Israel
in 1967, which the Soviets always addressed as "Israeli aggressors," Maria Grinberg always introduced herself as "Maria Aggressorovna."
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
pianist and teacher.
Maria Grinberg was a Russian-born pianist, born in September 6, 1908 in Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, Russian Empire
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was a state that existed from 1721 until the Russian Revolution of 1917. It was the successor to the Tsardom of Russia and the predecessor of the Soviet Union...
into a family of the local intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
. Her father was a Hebrew scholar and her mother taught piano privately. Until the age of 18, Maria took piano lessons from Odessa's noted teacher David Aisberg. Eventually she became a pupil of Felix Blumenfeld
Felix Blumenfeld
Felix Mikhailovich Blumenfeld was a Russian composer, conductor, pianist and teacher.He was born in Kovalevka, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire , the son of Austrian Mikhail Frantsevich Blumenfeld and the Polish Marie Szymanowska, and studied composition at the St...
(who also taught Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-American classical virtuoso pianist and minor composer. His technique and use of tone color and the excitement of his playing were legendary. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Life and early...
) and later, after his death, continued her studies with Konstantin Igumnov
Konstantin Igumnov
Konstantin Nicolayevich Igumnov was a Russian virtuoso pianist and the teacher of many famous Russian pianists.Igumnov studied under Nikolai Zverev, and at Moscow Conservatory under Alexander Siloti and Pavel Pabst. He took theory and composition courses from Sergei Taneyev, Anton Arensky and...
at the Moscow Conservatory
Moscow Conservatory
The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St...
. In 1935, she won the Second Prize at the Second All-Union Pianist Competition.
Grinberg become a major figure of the Russian piano school. However, in 1937 both her husband and her father were arrested and executed as "enemies of the people". The pianist was fired by the state-run management and got a job as an accompanist of an amateur choreography group. During that time, she occasionally participated in concert performances playing timpani. Somehow, she later was readmitted as a piano soloist. She became a much-sought after pianist in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, with concerts in Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
, Riga
Riga
Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia. With 702,891 inhabitants Riga is the largest city of the Baltic states, one of the largest cities in Northern Europe and home to more than one third of Latvia's population. The city is an important seaport and a major industrial, commercial,...
, Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
, Voronezh
Voronezh
Voronezh is a city in southwestern Russia, the administrative center of Voronezh Oblast. It is located on both sides of the Voronezh River, away from where it flows into the Don. It is an operating center of the Southeastern Railway , as well as the center of the Don Highway...
, Tbilisi
Tbilisi
Tbilisi is the capital and the largest city of Georgia, lying on the banks of the Mt'k'vari River. The name is derived from an early Georgian form T'pilisi and it was officially known as Tiflis until 1936...
, Baku
Baku
Baku , sometimes spelled as Baki or Bakou, is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. It is located on the southern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, which projects into the Caspian Sea. The city consists of two principal...
and other cities all over the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
.
At the age of 50, after Stalin died in 1953, she was allowed to travel abroad. All in all, Grinberg went on 14 performing tours - 12 times in the Soviet bloc countries and twice in Holland where she became a nationally acclaimed figure. Critics compared her performances with those of Horowitz
Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-American classical virtuoso pianist and minor composer. His technique and use of tone color and the excitement of his playing were legendary. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Life and early...
, Rubinstein
Rubinstein
Famous people named Rubinstein include:* Anton Rubinstein , a Russian pianist, composer and conductor, brother of Nikolai Rubinstein* Arthur Rubinstein , a famous Polish-American pianist, not related to Anton....
, and Clara Haskil
Clara Haskil
Clara Haskil was a Romanian classical pianist, renowned as an interpreter of the classical and early romantic repertoire....
.
Only at the age of 55, she was granted her first – and last – honorary title of Distinguished Artist of the Russian Soviet Federation. At 61, she was given a professorship at the Gnessin Institute of Music. Among the long list of his pupils are Naum Shtarkman
Naum Shtarkman
Naum Lvovich Shtarkman was a Soviet and Russian classical pianist.He was a disciple of Konstantin Igumnov at the Moscow Conservatory. Shtarkman was awarded a 5th prize at the V Fryderyk Chopin Competition and, most notably, attained the Bronze Medal at the inaugural edition of the Tchaikovsky...
and Regina Shamvili
Regina Shamvili
Regina Shamvili is an American concert pianist and an artist of the United States Department of State, born in Tbilisi, Georgia.Shamvili graduated from both the Tbilisi State Conservatory and the Moscow Conservatory. Studied with such legendary pianists as Maria Grinberg, Yakov Flier and Grigory...
.
In 1970, her personal 13-LP album set featuring all Beethoven's 32 sonatas was released. This was the first time a Russian pianist recorded the complete set of the Beethoven piano sonatas. Three months before the pianist died, in 1978, critic Yudenich called these recordings in the Sovetskaya Muzyka magazine "a true feat of art".
When she was in her late 40s, she noticed that her vision had become significantly worse. She addressed the problem, and it turned out that she had a brain tumor which required surgery. Within a few months, she celebrated her 50th anniversary by performing three piano concertos in one evening - Bach
Bạch
Bạch is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Bai in Chinese and Baek, in Korean.Bach is the anglicized variation of the surname Bạch.-Notable people with the surname Bạch:* Bạch Liêu...
's f minor, Beethoven Third, and Rachmaninoff's Third with Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
The Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra is an orchestra based in Moscow, Russia. It was founded in 1951 by Samuil Samosud, as the Moscow Youth Orchestra for young and inexperienced musicians, acquiring its current name in 1953...
.
Maria Grinberg died on the 14 July 1978, in Tallinn
Tallinn
Tallinn is the capital and largest city of Estonia. It occupies an area of with a population of 414,940. It is situated on the northern coast of the country, on the banks of the Gulf of Finland, south of Helsinki, east of Stockholm and west of Saint Petersburg. Tallinn's Old Town is in the list...
, some ten weeks before her seventieth birthday. When her daughter Nika came to Tallinn's funeral home, the undertaker declined to take money for the last services, as he knew who the deceased lady was. Gnessin Institute's director, chorus master Vladimir Minin (the one who a year before forced Grinberg to resign from her teaching position), refused to hold a mourning ceremony on the Institute's premises, and only thanks to the efforts of Deputy Minister of Culture Kukharsky, the great pianist was given her last honor in a proper way.
Her sense of humor was legendary. Those who knew her recall a story. Her patronymic [the name of the father, customarily used in Russian names] was Israilyevna (that is, "daughter of Israel", the latter being the first name of her father). During the period of heightened hostilities between the Soviet Union and the State of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
in 1967, which the Soviets always addressed as "Israeli aggressors," Maria Grinberg always introduced herself as "Maria Aggressorovna."