Valery Afanassiev (russian: Валерий Павлович Афанасьев, ''Valerij Pavlovič Afanasiev''; born 8 September 1947) is a Russian pianist, writer and conductor.

Life

Valery Afanassiev was born in Moscow. He studied piano at the

Academic Music College Academic Music College, fully Tchaikovsky Academic Music College at the Moscow State Conservatory (russian: Академическое музыкальное училище при Московской государственной консер� ...

and Moscow Conservatory with Emil Gilels and

Yakov Zak Yakov Izrailevich Zak ( uk, Яків Ізраїлович Зак), (russian: link=no, Яков Израилевич Зак), ''Jiakov Israilevič Sak''; Odessa, – Moscow, 28 June 1976) was a Soviet and Russian pianist and pedagogue. People's ...

. He was the winner of the

Bach Competition The International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition (german: Internationaler Bach Wettbewerb Leipzig, links=no) is a music competition in Leipzig, Germany, held by the Bach-Archiv Leipzig. It was founded in 1950 and was held every four years from 1 ...

in Leipzig in 1968, as well as 1st prize recipient at the

Concours Reine Elisabeth Concours may refer to: * Concours d'Elegance, a competition among car owners on the appearance of their cars * EU Concours, a selection process for staff of the EU institutions * A competitive examination * Cadillac Concours, an automobile model * ...

in Brussels in 1971. Shortly after, while touring around Belgium, he decided to seek political asylum, and was eventually granted Belgian citizenship. Afanassiev lives in Versailles.

Work and critical reception

Afanassiev become widely known in the 1980s due to his musical partnership with Gidon Kremer. Their joint recordings of chamber works by

Mozart Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 17565 December 1791), baptised as Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period (music), Classical period. Despite his short life, his ra ...

, Schubert, and Brahms were highly praised. His interpretations of solo piano works by Franz Schubert, Ludwig van Beethoven and the others have aroused controversy on account of Afanassiev's tempi choices and idiosyncratic expressiveness. One review of his recording of Schubert's last three piano sonatas stated: "the perversity encountered here so angered me that I felt I could not dignify what I found here with any kind of coherent analysis". Afanassiev is also a writer of poetry, novels, and drama. He is also an orchestral conductor.

References

External links

Official website of the artist
*

Alain Pâris Alain Pâris (born 22 November 1947) is a French conductor and musicologist. Biography Born in Paris, Alain Pâris was trained as a pianist and has a law degree. He studied conducting with Pierre Dervaux, Paul Paray and Georg Solti and won the ...

: ''Dictionnaire des interpretes et de l'interpretation musicale au XX siecle''. Éditions Robert Laffont, Paris 1989. * Alan Rich: ''Masters of music. Great artists of work''. Capra Press, Santa Barbara, California 1990. Russian classical pianists Male classical pianists 1947 births Living people Prize-winners of the Queen Elisabeth Competition 21st-century Russian conductors (music) Russian male conductors (music) 21st-century Russian male musicians 21st-century classical pianists {{Russia-classical-pianist-stub