“The world has gained a king. But today we also lost one! It is in these terms that the violinist Daniel Hope greeted a few hours ago the disappearance of Menahem Pressler, whom he had rubbed shoulders with for a few years within the Beaux Arts Trio, just before the dissolution of the latter in 2008. Pressler was one of the three founding members, and had been part of it for more than half a century. He died peacefully yesterday in London at the age of 99, announced Abra Bush: the dean of the Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, where Menahem Pressler began teaching. .. 1955! Information confirmed to Figaro by his French agent Jean-Marc Peysson. “He was a brilliant pianist, an extraordinary teacher and a tender soul who left an indelible mark on generations of pianists around the world,” commented Abra Bush. Adding that “his presence will continue to be felt through his students, past and present, for decades to come. »
A feeling shared by the entire musical world. Because the Israeli pianist was also known for his career as a chamber musician, within this legendary ensemble that was the Beaux Arts Trio, as for the purity of his playing as a soloist. A playing whose transparency, naturalness and warm sound enchanted just as much with Mozart as with Schubert or Beethoven: masters often approached in trios, and to whom he still paid homage during his last recordings for the La Dolce Volta label, between 2013 and 2017. “We had tears in our eyes because no one plays the piano like this anymore, that’s all”, conceded our colleague Christian Merlin ten years ago in the columns of Figaro, the day after a memorable interpretation of Mozart’s Concerto No. 27 K.595.
Even past the milestone of 90, Pressler continued to perform in recitals and teach, with a grace that sometimes defied understanding. He had however begun his international career at the age of twenty-something, under the baton of Eugene Ormandy, making his debut at Carnegie Hall after winning the international Claude Debussy competition in San Francisco.
Born in Magdeburg into a Jewish family, he had fled Germany with his parents ten years earlier, in the aftermath of the infamous “Kristallnacht”. Menahem Pressler was then only fourteen years old. While almost all of his family, who remained in Berlin, died in the camps, the teenager, traumatized, settled for a time in Haifa after passing through Italy, in what is not yet Israel, where he will say that he found the strength to survive in the records he drinks from. Especially in Beethoven.
After performing there with the newly created Palestine Orchestra (the future Israel Philharmonic Orchestra), the young prodigy who took lessons there with Eliahu Rudiakov and Leo Kestenberg left for New York, on the advice of the pianist Frenchman Paul Loyonnet. Across the Atlantic, he completed his training with another student of Busoni: Eduard Steuermann, to whom we owe, among other things, the creation of the famous Pierrot Lunaire by Schoenberg. It was also there that he founded, in 1955, during the Berkshire Festival, the Beaux-Arts Trio with violinist Daniel Guilet and cellist Bernard Greenhouse.
In a little over half a century and over six successive changes, the formation left an indelible mark on the interpretation of the greatest piano trios in the repertoire. Delivering no less than 130 concerts and bequeathing a discographic heritage of some 68 recordings released by Decca. When the ensemble dissolved in September 2008, the then 85-year-old pianist had found the strength to pursue his career as a soloist, which had then benefited from a welcome spotlight, especially after his debut at the age of 90. with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, in 2014!
Nominated for numerous American Grammy Awards, Menahem Pressler was also awarded a Victory of Honor, France, at the French Victoires de la Musique, in 2016.