Roberto Szidon (21 September 194121 December 2011) was a Brazilian classical
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
who had an international performing and recording career, and settled in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
.
Life and career
Szidon was born in
Porto Alegre
Porto Alegre (, , Brazilian ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Its population of 1,488,252 inhabitants (2020) makes it the List of largest cities in Brazil, twelfth most populous city in the country ...
,
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
in 1941. He gave his first concert at age 9 in his home town. He then studied composition with Karl Faust, and continued his pianistic studies in the United States with
Ilona Kabos
Ilona Kabos (7 December 189327 May 1973) was a Hungarian-British pianist and teacher.
Biography
Kabos was born in Budapest in 1893 (some sources give her year of birth as 1894, 1898 or 1902). She studied at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music under ...
and
Claudio Arrau
Claudio Arrau León (; February 6, 1903June 9, 1991) was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning the baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Bach, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Bra ...
.
Szidon played with many renowned orchestras. In 1977, he completed a Southern Africa tour. He was the soloist at the premiere of
Camargo Guarnieri
Mozart Camargo Guarnieri (February 1, 1907 – January 13, 1993) was a Brazilian composer.
Name
Guarnieri was born in Tietê, São Paulo, and registered at birth as Mozart Guarnieri, but when he began a musical career, he decided his first name ...
's Piano Concerto No. 4, in Porto Alegre, on 6 September 1972.
As a recording artist, Szidon was best known for his complete recording of the 10 Piano Sonatas and the
Fantaisie in B minor by
Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (; russian: Александр Николаевич Скрябин ; – ) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. Before 1903, Scriabin was greatly influenced by the music of Frédéric Chopin and composed ...
and his complete recording of the 19
Hungarian Rhapsodies
The Hungarian Rhapsodies, S.244, R.106 (french: Rhapsodies hongroises, german: Ungarische Rhapsodien, hu, Magyar rapszódiák), is a set of 19 piano pieces based on Hungarian folk themes, composed by Franz Liszt during 1846–1853, and late ...
and the
''Rhapsodie espagnole'' by
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
.
Szidon recorded a prize-winning LP in 1965 of
Heitor Villa-Lobos
Heitor Villa-Lobos (March 5, 1887November 17, 1959) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, cellist, and classical guitarist described as "the single most significant creative figure in 20th-century Brazilian art music". Villa-Lobos has become the ...
's ''
Rudepoêma''. Other Villa-Lobos works in his discography were ''A fiandeira'', ''Saudades dos selvas brasileiras'', ''New York Skyline'' (1957 version), ''Carnaval dos crianças'', ''A lenda do caboclo'', ''Suite floral'', Op. 97 (1949 revision), and 16 ''Cirandas'' and 12 ''Cirandinhas''. He also recorded the works of other Brazilian composers such as
Ernesto Nazareth
Ernesto Júlio de Nazareth (March 20, 1863 – February 1, 1934) was a Brazilian composer and pianist, especially noted for his creative Maxixe and Choro compositions. Influenced by a diverse set of rhythms like the polka, the habanera, and the l ...
,
Francisco Mignone
Francisco Paulo Mignone (September 3, 1897, São Paulo – February 19, 1986, Rio de Janeiro) was one of the most significant figures in Brazilian classical music, and one of the most significant Brazilian composers after Heitor Villa-Lobos. I ...
and
Chiquinha Gonzaga
Francisca Edwiges Neves Gonzaga, better known as Chiquinha Gonzaga (; October 17, 1847 – February 28, 1935) was a Brazilian composer, pianist and the first woman conductor in Brazil.
Chiquinha Gonzaga was the first pianist of " choro" and ...
.
Szidon also recorded
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin (born Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin; 1 March 181017 October 1849) was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic period, who wrote primarily for solo piano. He has maintained worldwide renown as a leadin ...
's 4 Scherzos and 4 Impromptus (Deutsche Grammophon LP 536 378),
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninoff; in Russian pre-revolutionary script. (28 March 1943) was a Russian composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one o ...
's
2nd Sonata,
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''., group=n (27 April .S. 15 April1891 – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, p ...
's
6th Sonata,
as well as
Charles Ives
Charles Edward Ives (; October 20, 1874May 19, 1954) was an American modernist composer, one of the first American composers of international renown. His music was largely ignored during his early career, and many of his works went unperformed f ...
's "
Concord Sonata
The Piano Sonata No. 2, ''Concord, Mass., 1840–60'' (commonly known as the ''Concord Sonata'') is a piano sonata by Charles Ives. It is one of the composer's best-known and most highly regarded pieces. A typical performance of the piece lasts ar ...
",
Edward MacDowell
Edward Alexander MacDowell (December 18, 1860January 23, 1908) was an American composer and pianist of the late Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites ''Woodland Sketches'', ''Sea Pieces'' and ''Ne ...
's Second Concerto and
Gershwin's
Concerto in F
Concerto in F is a composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and orchestra which is closer in form to a traditional concerto than his earlier jazz-influenced ''Rhapsody in Blue''. It was written in 1925 on a commission from the conductor an ...
.
He frequently performed and recorded chamber music with violinist
Jenny Abel
Jenny may refer to:
* Jenny (given name), a popular feminine name and list of real and fictional people
* Jenny (surname), a family name
Animals
* Jenny (donkey), a female donkey
* Jenny (gorilla), the oldest gorilla in captivity at the time of ...
, and accompanied
Thomas Quasthoff
Thomas Quasthoff (born 9 November 1959) is a German bass-baritone. Quasthoff has a range of musical interest from Bach cantatas, to lieder, and solo jazz improvisations. Born with severe birth defects caused by thalidomide, Quasthoff is , and has ...
in
Schumann
Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...
's ''
Dichterliebe
''Dichterliebe'', "A Poet's Love" (composed 1840), is the best-known song cycle by Robert Schumann (Opus number, Op. 48). The texts for the 16 songs come from the ''Lyrisches Intermezzo'' by Heinrich Heine, written in 1822–23 and published as pa ...
'', ''
Liederkreis'', Op. 39, and other songs.
ArkivMusik
/ref> He taught piano at the music academies in Hannover and Düsseldorf, where he was a professor of piano until his death.
Szidon died in December 2011, in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
, Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, of a heart attack, aged 70.
From August 1970 until his death, Szidon shared his life and work with his companion, pianist and composer Richard Metzler.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Szidon, Roberto
1941 births
2011 deaths
Brazilian classical pianists
Male classical pianists
Brazilian expatriates in Germany
German LGBT musicians
Brazilian LGBT musicians
Brazilian people of Hungarian descent
20th-century classical pianists
20th-century German musicians