Considered one of the great pianists of the 20the century, admired for his interpretations of the romantic repertoire, notably Rachmaninov, the American Byron Janis, who was one of the rare students of Vladimir Horowitz (1903-1989), died on March 14 in a hospital in Manhattan, New York . He was 95 years old.
Born in McKeesport (Pennsylvania) on March 24, 1928 to Jewish parents from Eastern Europe who emigrated to the United States (Janis is a corruption of Yanks, short for Yankelevitch), the young prodigy grew up in Pittsburgh with a mother in home and a father who owned a sporting goods store. He started playing piano at the age of 4 with Abraham Litow, playing for local radio six months later. The young boy’s gifts were such that he was introduced at the age of 7 to Rosina and Josef Lhévinne, whose student he became at the Chatham Square Music School in New York. Very busy with their concerts, they delegated the teaching of young Byron to Adele Marcus, who would be his teacher for six years.
The child prodigy made his debut in Pittsburgh on October 15, 1937. He also made his debut there, at age 15, with the NBC Symphony Orchestra, in the Second Concerto, by Rachmaninoff, a work which earned him the admiration of Vladimir Horowitz, who came to listen to it the following year, this time with the Pittsburg Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of a very young 14-year-old maestro, Lorin Maazel (1930-2014). Until the age of 20, Byron Janis was one of the rare students of the great Russian piano master who followed him on tour, sometimes performing himself in concerts, notably in Latin America.
Audience in tears
Byron Janis gave his first recital at Carnegie Hall in New York on October 29, 1948, while he made his first recordings for the RCA Victor record label with which he had been in contract since he was 18. But the American major already has in its catalog a star pianist, Van Cliburn (1934-2013), who will be crowned in 1958 with his victory, in the middle of the Cold War, in Moscow, at the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition, of which it is the first editing.
Byron Janis, who in 1959 engraved the Piano concerto by Schumann with Fritz Reiner (1888-1963), saw its publication canceled so as not to overshadow Van Cliburn’s rival version – a decision which made him leave for competitors, Mercury. But it was he who was chosen in 1960 to represent the United States as part of a cultural exchange with the USSR, the first American pianist to perform in the Soviet Union.
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