Sofia Moshevich ( he, סופיה מושביץ'; born 1949) is a Ukrainian-born
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 ...
, teacher and researcher who lived in
Moscow
Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...
,
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
and
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
before emigrating to Canada where she now lives in
Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...
. Since the early 1970s, she has taken a special interest in the Russian composer
Dmitri Shostakovich
Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich, , group=n (9 August 1975) was a Soviet-era Russian composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 (Shostakovich), First Symphony in 1926 and was regarded throug ...
, making a careful analysis of his recorded performances as a pianist. Two books document the results of her work: ''Dmitri Shostakovich, Pianist'' and ''Shostakovich's Music for Piano Solo, Interpretation and Performance''. She also contributed a chapter on piano music to ''A Shostakovich Companion'', edited by Michael Mishra.
Biography
Moshevich was born in
Kharkiv
Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Gnessin Institute in Moscow under the Soviet master
Naum Shtarkman Naum Lvovich Shtarkman (russian: Наум Львович Штаркман; 28 September 1927, Zhitomir - 19 July 2006, Moscow) was a Soviet and Russian classical pianist.
He was a student of Konstantin Igumnov at the Moscow Conservatory. Shtarkman ...
. She emigrated to Israel in 1975, continuing her studies in musicology under Joachim Braun at the Bar Ilan University (1976–78) while teaching at Jerusalem's Rubin Academy. She also gave public performances as a soloist and accompanist, including recordings for the
Israel Broadcasting Authority
The Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA; ) was Israel's public broadcaster from 1948 to 2017.
History
The Israel Broadcasting Authority was an outgrowth of the radio station ''Kol Yisrael'', which made its first broadcast as an independent st ...
. She often played pieces by Shostakovich. She moved to South Africa in 1981, where she studied and taught at the
University of the Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African Public university, public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( o ...
, Johannesburg, and participated in broadcasts for the South African Broadcasting Corporation. She was granted scholarships from the University of Witwatersrand, the Abraham and Olga Lipman Fund and the South African Jewish Board of Deputies Benjamin Newman Bursary (1983–84).
Shostakovich research
Moshevich's interest in Shostakovich goes back to the early 1970s when she was studying at the Gnessin Institute. She was surprised to find that, despite generally accepted views to the contrary, early recordings of his music demonstrated that his piano performances compared favourably with those of the great Soviet pianists. On that basis, she built up and analysed an extensive collection of his recordings. In 1987, while at Witwatersrand, she completed a 120-page doctoral thesis titled "Shostakovich as Interpreter of His Own Music: a Study of Recorded Performances".
In ''Dmitri Shostakovich, Pianist'', Moshevich reviews the composer's recordings as well as the reception of his performances. The book has received mixed reviews. Shostakovich expert David Fanning describes it as "richly rewarding" when considered as "an enthusiastic fact-gathering mission" but criticises it for a failure to develop a "richer critical vocabulary to articulate the strengths in his playing". Writing in ''DSCH Journal'', Nigel Papworth compliments the work on its coverage of important gaps in the composer's biography and its careful attention to detail. By contrast, Mark Mazullo criticizes the work as presenting a "superficial commentary" on the music of Shostakovich although he admits it contains some new reminiscences and quotes which unfortunately are not adequately discussed.
She has also published on pianist Glenn Gould's Russian tour.
Family
Moshevich is the daughter of Mark and Matlia (Matilda) Moshevich and is married to Arik Moshevich (née Poupko). Her maiden name is thus the same as her married name. She has two children: Avital (Tali) Kellerstein and Jonathan.