# Lazar Berman
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{{for|the Russian Jewish educator and editor|Lazar Behrmann}}
{{Short description|Russian classical pianist (1930–2005)}}
{{more sources|date=September 2023}}
{{use dmy dates|date=September 2023}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Lazar Berman
| image = Лазарь Берман 1988 Мелужи.png
| alt =
| caption = Lazar Berman in 1988
| background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
| birth_name = Lazar Berman
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1930|2|26}}
| birth_place = [Leningrad](/source/Leningrad), [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union)
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2005|2|6|1930|2|26}}
| death_place = [Florence](/source/Florence), Italy
| genre = Classical piano
| years_active = {{start date|1935}}–{{end date|2005}}
| label =
| website =
}}
'''Lazar Naumovich Berman''' ({{langx|ru|Ла́зарь Нау́мович Бе́рман|link=no}}, ''Lazar Naumovich Berman''; February 26, 1930{{spaced ndash}}February 6, 2005) was a [Soviet](/source/Soviet_Union) Russian [classical](/source/European_classical_music) pianist, [Honoured Artist of the RSFSR](/source/Honoured_Artist_of_the_RSFSR) (1988). He was hailed for a huge, thunderous technique that made him a thrilling interpreter of [Liszt](/source/Franz_Liszt) and [Rachmaninoff](/source/Sergei_Rachmaninoff) and a late representative of the grand school of Russian Romantic pianism. [Emil Gilels](/source/Emil_Gilels) described him as a "phenomenon of the musical world."[{{Cite web |date=2005-02-09 |title=Lazar Berman |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/lazar-berman-482519.html |access-date=2024-06-20 |website=The Independent |language=en}}]
==Biography==
[[File:Павел Берман 2018-02-04.jpg|thumb|upright|[Pavel Berman](/source/Pavel_Berman), Lazar Berman's son]]
Berman was born to Jewish parents in [Leningrad](/source/Leningrad) ([Russian SSR](/source/Russian_SSR), [Soviet Union](/source/Soviet_Union)). His mother, Anna Lazarevna Makhover, had played the piano herself until prevented by hearing problems. She introduced her son to the piano at the age of two. Berman entered his first competition at the age of three, and recorded a [Mozart](/source/Wolfgang_Amadeus_Mozart) [fantasia](/source/Fantasia_(music)) and a [mazurka](/source/mazurka) that he had composed himself at the age of seven, before he could even read music.
Berman was first noticed while participating in city young talents competition. The jury under the chairmanship of [Leonid Nikolaev](/source/Leonid_Nikolaev_(conductor)) noticed the child's "rare exceptional case of musical and piano skills".{{quote without source|date=September 2023}} Now, after being officially given title "prodigy" at the age of four, he started studying with [Leningrad State Conservatory](/source/Leningrad_State_Conservatory) professor, Samariy Savshinsky.
In 1939 when Berman was nine, the family moved to Moscow so that he could study with [Aleksandr Goldenweiser](/source/Alexander_Goldenweiser_(composer)), first at Central Musical School, and then at the [Moscow Conservatory](/source/Moscow_Conservatory),[{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/09/arts/music/lazar-berman-pianist-known-for-powerful-style-dies-at-74.html|title=Lazar Berman, Pianist Known for Powerful Style, Dies at 74|last=Kozinn|first=Allan|author-link=Allan Kozinn|date=2005-02-09|newspaper=[The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times)|access-date=2023-09-08}}] where he graduated in 1953. In 1940, he made his formal debut playing Mozart's [Piano Concerto No. 25](/source/Piano_Concerto_No._25_(Mozart)) with the [Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra](/source/Moscow_Philharmonic_Orchestra). In 1941, students, pupils and parents were evacuated to [Samara](/source/Samara) (then Kuybyshev), a city on the [Volga](/source/Volga), because of World War II. Living conditions were so poor that his mother had to cut the fingers from a pair of gloves to allow him to continue to practise without freezing his hands.
He subsequently began to acquire international prominence. At the age of 12 he played [Franz Liszt](/source/Franz_Liszt)'s ''[La campanella](/source/La_campanella)'' to a British audience over the radio. In 1956 became a laureate of two international piano competitions: [Queen Elisabeth Competition](/source/Queen_Elisabeth_Competition) in Belgium, with [Vladimir Ashkenazy](/source/Vladimir_Ashkenazy), and the [Franz Liszt Competition](/source/Franz_Liszt_International_Piano_Competition_(Budapest)) in Budapest, Hungary.[{{Discogs release|8811025|Lazar Berman, Liszt, Beethoven – Sonata in B minor – Appassionata}}]
From 1959 to 1971 Berman was not allowed to travel abroad due to his marriage to a French national (the marriage soon fell apart); however, he continued to tour around Soviet Union, and did some recordings at Melodia studio, including Liszt's ''[Transcendental Études](/source/Transcendental_%C3%89tudes)''. That recording became one of the first Soviet recordings done with the use of stereo technology. From the mid 1970s, Berman was again allowed to tour abroad, which he did to high acclaim.
In 1968 he married Valentina Sedova and in 1970 their son, [Pavel](/source/Pavel_Berman), was born.
When [The New York Times](/source/The_New_York_Times) critic [Harold C. Schonberg](/source/Harold_C._Schonberg) heard Berman in Moscow in 1961, he wrote: ‘This pianist has 20 fingers that blaze with fire’.[{{Cite web |last=SpR |date=2005-02-10 |title=EL MUNDO: Muere Lazar Berman. J.Romero |url=https://www.beckmesser.com/el-mundo-muere-lazar-berman-j-romero/ |access-date=2025-03-24 |website=Beckmesser |language=es}}]
thumb|upright|left|Lazar and Valentina Berman (2000)
Although he was known to international music aficionados who had heard the occasional recording on the Russian [Melodiya](/source/Melodiya) record label, as well as those who visited the Soviet Union, he was not generally well known outside Russia before his 1975 American tour, organized by the [impresario](/source/impresario) [Jacques Leiser](/source/Jacques_Leiser). His now legendary New York debut at the [92nd Street Y](/source/92nd_Street_Y), where he played Liszt's ''Transcendental Études'', struck the music world like lightning. He became an overnight sensation. Before that, he had been generally restricted to the Soviet concert circuit, playing on old and decrepit pianos to audiences of varied degrees of interest. Invitations to tour outside the Soviet Union were ignored by the Soviet state concert agency, {{ill|Gosconcert|ru|Госконцерт}}. He lived in a tiny two-room apartment in Moscow, with a [grand piano](/source/grand_piano) occupying an entire room. But after his 1975 tour, he was immediately in great demand, with [Deutsche Grammophon](/source/Deutsche_Grammophon), [EMI](/source/EMI), and [CBS](/source/CBS) vying to record him. He recorded the [Tchaikovsky](/source/Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky) [First Piano Concerto](/source/Piano_Concerto_No._1_(Tchaikovsky)) with [Herbert von Karajan](/source/Herbert_von_Karajan), as well as broadcasting it on international television with [Antal Doráti](/source/Antal_Dor%C3%A1ti), to mark [United Nations Day](/source/United_Nations_Day) in 1976.[{{cite web|url=https://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Berman-Lazar.htm|title=Lazar Berman (Piano)|last=Oron|first=Aryeh|date=June 2007|website=Bach Cantatas|access-date=2023-09-08}}] In 1977, he played the [Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 1](/source/Piano_Concerto_No._1_(Prokofiev)) and the [Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3](/source/Piano_Concerto_No._3_(Rachmaninoff)) at a [New York Philharmonic](/source/New_York_Philharmonic) concert conducted by [Leonard Bernstein](/source/Leonard_Bernstein)[{{Cite web |title=Concert: Bernstein and Berman |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1977/03/03/archives/concert-bernstein-and-berman-philharmonic-plays-evening-of-russian.html}}].
His playing of [Chopin](/source/Fr%C3%A9d%C3%A9ric_Chopin) is well documented, in both a concert film and a Deutsche Grammophon recording of the polonaises from the 1970s.[{{Discogs master|543393|Frédéric Chopin, Lazar Berman – Polonaises}}][[http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/Australian%2BEloquence/ELQ4807074 "Lazar Berman plays Chopin: Polonaises & Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition"], Presto Classical]
Most of his British appearances came in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In December 1976, he performed music by [Sergei Prokofiev](/source/Sergei_Prokofiev) and Franz Liszt at the [Royal Festival Hall](/source/Royal_Festival_Hall).