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

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 ...

, writer and conductor.

Life

Valery Afanassiev was born 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 ...

. 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 The Moscow Conservatory, also officially Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory (russian: Московская государственная консерватория им. П. И. Чайковского, link=no) is a musical educational inst ...

with

Emil Gilels Emil Grigoryevich Gilels (Russian: Эми́ль Григо́рьевич Ги́лельс; 19 October 1916 – 14 October 1985) was a Russian pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest pianists of all time. Early life and educatio ...

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 in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

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 * ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

in 1971. Shortly after, while touring around

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

, he decided to seek political asylum, and was eventually granted Belgian citizenship. Afanassiev lives in

Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; french: Château de Versailles ) is a former royal residence built by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, about west of Paris, France. The palace is owned by the French Republic and since 1995 has been managed, u ...

Work and critical reception

Afanassiev become widely known in the 1980s due to his musical partnership with

Gidon Kremer Gidon Kremer ( lv, Gidons Krēmers; born 27 February 1947) is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica. Life and career Gidon Kremer was born in Riga. His father was Jewish and had survived the Holoc ...

. 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 Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with ...

were highly praised. His interpretations of solo piano works by

Franz Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classical ...

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 Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or Choir, choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary ...

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 Éditions Robert Laffont is a book publishing company in France founded in 1941 by Robert Laffont. Its publications are distributed in almost all francophone countries, but mainly in France, Canada and in Belgium. It is considered one of the most ...

, 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