Vladimir Sofronitsky

Vladimir Vladimirovich Sofronitsky (or Sofronitzky; , Vladimir Sofronitskij;  – August 29, 1961) was a Russian-Soviet pianist.

 Life and education 
Vladimir Sofronitsky was born in St. Petersburg. He started piano lessons in Poland after his family moved to Warsaw in 1903. His teachers were Anna Lebedeva-Getcevich and later Aleksander Michałowski. After Poland he went to Petrograd to study in the Conservatory. His classmates were other talented musicians such as Dmitri Shostakovich, Maria Yudina, and Elena Scriabina. In 1920 he married Scriabina.

 Career 
Sofronitsky gave his first solo concert in 1919, and went on his foreign tour in France in 1928. In 1945, he was sent by Joseph Stalin to play at the Potsdam Conference. That was his only time performing outside the Soviet Union. Sofronitsky was teaching at the Leningrad Conservatory from 1936 to 1942, and then at the Moscow Conservatory until his death in 1961.

In 1942 he was proclaimed an Honored Artist of the RSFSR and awarded a Stalin Prize of the first class in 1943.

Sofronitsky's performed works from Scriabin, Chopin, Schubert, Schumann, Liszt, Beethoven, Lyadov, Rachmaninoff, Medtner, Prokofiev, and others. His daughter is the Canadian pianist Viviana Sofronitsky. Sofronitsky recordings document one of the most intense and individual pianistic personalities of the 20th century.

 References 

 Other websites 
 Vladimir Sofronitsky official website (in English and in Russian)
 Vladimir Sofronitsky Tribute – Discography
 Der Pianist, der den Richter entzückte. Spiegel . (in German)
 Recording of Sofronitsky teaching
 About Vladimir Sofronitsky. Peoples. (in Russian)

Category:Russian pianists
Category:Russian classical musicians
Category:1901 births
Category:1961 deaths