Mikhail Rudy
Encyclopedia
Mikhail Rudy is a Russian-born French pianist. He was born on April 3, 1953 in Tashkent
, Uzbekistan
where his family had been deported by the Soviet regime. His grandparents were imprisoned in concentration camps. His family moved from Tashkent
to Siberia
, then to a small village near Voronezh
until they were finally "rehabilitated" in Stalino (Donetsk
), in eastern Ukraine
.
under Yakov Flier
. He greatly impressed the jury at the Marguerite Long
Competition in 1975 through his performance of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata
(regarded as among the most challenging solo works in the entire piano repertoire) in which he won the First Prize.
Rudy made his debut on the occasion of Marc Chagall
's 90th birthday in 1977, performing Beethoven's Triple Concerto
with Mstislav Rostropovitch and Isaac Stern
. From then on Rudy's career included performances with the best orchestras in the world such as the Berlin Philharmonic and renowned conductors such as Lorin Maazel
, Herbert von Karajan
and Michael Tilson Thomas
.
Rudy asked for political asylum and settled down in France in the mid 1970s. He returned to Russia
, his native land in 1989 and toured extensively with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. He also founded and was artistic director of the Festival de St. Riquier in France
.
Mikhail Rudy is an explorative and experimental artist and doesn't restrict himself with being just a concert pianist. He has performed with jazz pianist Misha Alperin with whom he devised a program entitled Double Dream, performing improvised compositions based on the classical repertoire. This included partly rewritten and partly improvised works by Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann
, Chopin, Debussy, Janáček and Scriabin. This program has already been performed in Norway
, France
and Germany
receiving enthusiastic responses from audiences.
Rudy also conveys his interest in the arts through theatrical shows and has written a book, The Novel of a Pianist, published in 2008 by Le Rocher. He has also written and performed a theatrical and musical play after Władysław Szpilman’s book The Pianist
along with French actor Robin Renucci
. The show ran in Paris in 2005 for more than four months and received great acclaim from both audiences and critics alike. A tour of forty-five cities throughout France followed in 2006.
Rudy is a respected television broadcaster and is active in experimental video-filming and writing. He has prepared several series including a BBC
television documentary on the life and works of Tchaikovsky and radio projects for France-Musique highligting the life and works of composers such as Alexander Scriabin
, Johannes Brahms
, Karol Szymanowski
and Leoš Janáček
.
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
, Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan
Uzbekistan , officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia and one of the six independent Turkic states. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south....
where his family had been deported by the Soviet regime. His grandparents were imprisoned in concentration camps. His family moved from Tashkent
Tashkent
Tashkent is the capital of Uzbekistan and of the Tashkent Province. The officially registered population of the city in 2008 was about 2.2 million. Unofficial sources estimate the actual population may be as much as 4.45 million.-Early Islamic History:...
to Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
, then to a small village near 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...
until they were finally "rehabilitated" in Stalino (Donetsk
Donetsk
Donetsk , is a large city in eastern Ukraine on the Kalmius river. Administratively, it is a center of Donetsk Oblast, while historically, it is the unofficial capital and largest city of the economic and cultural Donets Basin region...
), in eastern Ukraine
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...
.
Life and career
Mikhail Rudy's interest in music began at the age of 5 when he heard a neighbor play the violin. Despite difficult living conditions, Rudy began music lessons and pursued his studies in music at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory in MoscowMoscow
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...
under Yakov Flier
Yakov Flier
Yakov Vladimirovich Flier was a Russian concert pianist and teacher.Flier was born in Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Russia. He studied piano at the Moscow Conservatory with Konstantin Igumnov. By the 1930s he had become one of the most prominent Russian concert pianists...
. He greatly impressed the jury at the Marguerite Long
Marguerite Long
Marguerite Long was a French pianist and teacher.Marguerite Marie-Charlotte Long was born in Nîmes. She studied with Henri Fissot at the Paris Conservatoire, taking a premier prix in 1891, and privately with Antoine François Marmontel...
Competition in 1975 through his performance of Beethoven's Hammerklavier Sonata
Piano Sonata No. 29 (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major, Op. 106 is a piano sonata widely considered to be one of the most important works of the composer's third period and among one of the great piano sonatas...
(regarded as among the most challenging solo works in the entire piano repertoire) in which he won the First Prize.
Rudy made his debut on the occasion of Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall
Marc Chagall Art critic Robert Hughes referred to Chagall as "the quintessential Jewish artist of the twentieth century."According to art historian Michael J...
's 90th birthday in 1977, performing Beethoven's Triple Concerto
Triple Concerto (Beethoven)
Ludwig van Beethoven's Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C Major, Op. 56, more commonly known as the Triple Concerto, was composed in 1803 and later published in 1804 under Breitkopf & Hartel. The choice of the three solo instruments effectively makes this a concerto for piano trio and the...
with Mstislav Rostropovitch and Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern was a Ukrainian-born violinist. He was renowned for his recordings and for discovering new musical talent.-Biography:Isaac Stern was born into a Jewish family in Kremenets, Ukraine. He was fourteen months old when his family moved to San Francisco...
. From then on Rudy's career included performances with the best orchestras in the world such as the Berlin Philharmonic and renowned conductors such as Lorin Maazel
Lorin Maazel
Lorin Varencove Maazel is an American conductor, violinist and composer.- Early life :Maazel was born to Jewish-American parents in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France and brought up in the United States, primarily at his parents' home in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. His father, Lincoln Maazel , was...
, Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
and Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas
Michael Tilson Thomas is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is currently music director of the San Francisco Symphony, and artistic director of the New World Symphony Orchestra.-Early years:...
.
Rudy asked for political asylum and settled down in France in the mid 1970s. He returned to Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, his native land in 1989 and toured extensively with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. He also founded and was artistic director of the Festival de St. Riquier in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
.
Mikhail Rudy is an explorative and experimental artist and doesn't restrict himself with being just a concert pianist. He has performed with jazz pianist Misha Alperin with whom he devised a program entitled Double Dream, performing improvised compositions based on the classical repertoire. This included partly rewritten and partly improvised works by Haydn, Beethoven, Schumann
Schumann
Schumann or Schuman most famously refers to Robert Schumann , German composer and critic; it may also refer to the following:- People :* Allan L...
, Chopin, Debussy, Janáček and Scriabin. This program has already been performed in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
receiving enthusiastic responses from audiences.
Rudy also conveys his interest in the arts through theatrical shows and has written a book, The Novel of a Pianist, published in 2008 by Le Rocher. He has also written and performed a theatrical and musical play after Władysław Szpilman’s book The Pianist
The Pianist (memoir)
The Pianist is a memoir of the Polish musician of Jewish origins Władysław Szpilman, written and elaborated by a Polish author Jerzy Waldorff, who met Szpilman in 1938 in Krynica and became a friend of him...
along with French actor Robin Renucci
Robin Renucci
Robin Renucci is a French film and television actor as well as a screen director.-Early life and education:He was born in Le Creusot, Saône-et-Loire, France.-Acting filmography:|1984 || Escalier C || comedie...
. The show ran in Paris in 2005 for more than four months and received great acclaim from both audiences and critics alike. A tour of forty-five cities throughout France followed in 2006.
Rudy is a respected television broadcaster and is active in experimental video-filming and writing. He has prepared several series including a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
television documentary on the life and works of Tchaikovsky and radio projects for France-Musique highligting the life and works of composers such as Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist who initially developed a lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language inspired by the music of Frédéric Chopin. Quite independent of the innovations of Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed an increasingly atonal musical system,...
, Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms
Johannes Brahms was a German composer and pianist, and one of the leading musicians of the Romantic period. Born in Hamburg, Brahms spent much of his professional life in Vienna, Austria, where he was a leader of the musical scene...
, Karol Szymanowski
Karol Szymanowski
Karol Maciej Szymanowski was a Polish composer and pianist.-Life:Szymanowski was born into a wealthy land-owning Polish gentry family in Tymoszówka, then in the Russian Empire, now in Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine. He studied music privately with his father before going to Gustav Neuhaus'...
and Leoš Janáček
Leoš Janácek
Leoš Janáček was a Czech composer, musical theorist, folklorist, publicist and teacher. He was inspired by Moravian and all Slavic folk music to create an original, modern musical style. Until 1895 he devoted himself mainly to folkloristic research and his early musical output was influenced by...
.
Awards
Mikhail Rudy is the recipient of the following awards:- The Liszt First Prize in Budapest for his anthology of piano works by Franz LisztFranz LisztFranz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
. - The Charles CrosCharles CrosCharles Cros was a French poet and inventor. He was born in Fabrezan, Aude, France, 35 km to the East of Carcassonne....
Academy Prize for his Scriabin cycle. - Grand prix du disqueGrand Prix du DisqueThe Grand Prix du Disque is the premier French award for musical recordings. The award was inaugurated by l'Académie Charles Cros in 1948 and offers prizes in various categories. The categories vary from year to year, and multiple awards are often made in any one category in the same year...
for his recital of piano works by Karol Szymanowsky.
Selected Discography
- Rachmaninov: Complete Piano Concertos; Paganini Rhapsody; Tchaikovsy: Piano Concerto No. 1
- with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic conducted by Mariss JansonsMariss JansonsMariss Ivars Georgs Jansons is a Latvian conductor, the son of conductor Arvīds Jansons. His mother, the singer Iraida Jansons, who was Jewish, gave birth to him in hiding in Riga, Latvia, after her father and brother were killed in the Riga Ghetto...
(EMI ClassicsEMI ClassicsEMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....
)- Shostakovich: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
- with the London Philharmonic and Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Mariss JansonsMariss JansonsMariss Ivars Georgs Jansons is a Latvian conductor, the son of conductor Arvīds Jansons. His mother, the singer Iraida Jansons, who was Jewish, gave birth to him in hiding in Riga, Latvia, after her father and brother were killed in the Riga Ghetto...
(EMI ClassicsEMI ClassicsEMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....
)- Janáček: Concertino
- with L'Orchestre de L'Opéra National de Paris conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras (EMI ClassicsEMI ClassicsEMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....
)- Brahms: Complete works for solo piano (EMI ClassicsEMI ClassicsEMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....
) - Chopin: Piano Sonata No. 2 and 24 Preludes (EMI ClassicsEMI ClassicsEMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....
) - Stravinsky: Petrouchka (transcription by Stravinsky/Rudy) (EMI ClassicsEMI ClassicsEMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....
) - Solo piano works by Szymanowski, Ravel, Schubert, LisztLisztLiszt is a Hungarian surname. Notable persons with that surname include:* Franz Liszt , Hungarian composer and pianist* Adam Liszt , father of Franz Liszt* Anna Liszt , mother of Franz Liszt...
and Scriabin (EMI ClassicsEMI ClassicsEMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....
) - Original piano works and partly unpublished transcriptions by Richard WagnerRichard WagnerWilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas...
(EMI ClassicsEMI ClassicsEMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....
)
- Brahms: Complete works for solo piano (EMI Classics