Rudolf Firkusny (piano)
Nathan Milstein (violin)
Erica Morini (violin)
Tossy Spivakovsky (violin)
William Primrose (viola)
Jacob Krachmalnick (violin)
David Madison (violin)
Samuel Lifschey (viola)
Anthony Gigliotti (clarinet)
Sol Schoenbach (bassoon)
Mason Jones (horn)
New York Philharmonic Orchestra
Philharmonia Orchestra
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra
Kolner Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester

Conductors

Rafael Kubelik
Hans Rosbaud
William Steinberg

Works

Beethoven, Ludwig van

Brahms, Johannes

Fantasias (7), op.116

» no.1 Capriccio in D minor

Intermezzi (3), op.117

» no.2 in B flat minor

Klavierstucke (4), op.119
Klavierstucke (6), op.118

» no.6 Intermezzo in E flat minor

Klavierstucke (8), op.76

» no.1 Capriccio in F sharp minor

» no.3 Intermezzo in A flat major

Piano Concerto no.1 in D minor, op.15
Rhapsodies (2), op.79

» no.2 in G minor

Viola Sonata no.1 in F minor, op.120 no.1 (transc. from clarinet sonata)
Viola Sonata no.2 in E flat major, op.120 no.2 (transc. from clarinet sonata)

Chopin, Frederic

Piano Sonata no.3 in B minor, op.58

Debussy, Claude

Children's Corner
Estampes (3)
Suite bergamasque

Dvorak, Antonin

Piano Concerto in G minor, op.33

Franck, Cesar

Violin Sonata in A major

Janacek, Leos

Concertino, JWVII/11
In the Mists
On an Overgrown Path, JWVIII/17

» Book 1

Piano Sonata 1.X.1905 in E flat minor, JWVIII/19 'From the Street'

Martinu, Bohuslav

Piano Concerto no.4, H358 'Incantation'

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus

Fantasia in C minor, K396 (completed Abbe Stadler)
Fantasia in C minor, K475
Piano Sonata no.14 in C minor, K457
Violin Sonata no.33 in E flat major, K481

Mussorgsky, Modest

Pictures at an Exhibition

Schubert, Franz

Impromptus (4), op.90 D899
Impromptus (4), op.142 D935

Schumann, Robert

Fantasie in C major, op.17
Kinderszenen, op.15

» no.7 Traumerei

Artists

Conductors

Rafael Kubelik
Hans Rosbaud
William Steinberg

About

Born in southern Moravia in 1912, Rudolf Firkušný and his mother moved to Brünn (now Brno) after the early death of his father. There he attended the local conservatory, whose teachers included Leoš Janáček. The teenage Firkušný’s unmistakable talent won him numerous scholarships and enabled him to complete his studies in Prague.

His career as a concert pianist began in London in 1933 and he was soon playing in the great centres of music across Europe. He travelled to New York in 1938 and went on to tour North and South America. The German occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1939 prompted him to take refuge in Paris, from where he travelled to the USA by way of Portugal in 1940.

A celebrated concert of 1941 in New York’s Town Hall gave Rudolf Firkušný his own opening to a successful career in the New World. This showed no sign of abating when he returned to his native Czechoslovakia after the end of the war. But soon he felt the growing pressure from the Soviet Union. Back in the United States, he pursued the career of a musical cosmopolitan. He taught at the Juiliard School of Music in New York, and he was on the board of the Berkshire MusicCenter in Tanglewood, Massachusets. Rudolf Firkušný died in Staatsburg in New York in 1994.