Elisabeth Leonskaja

Elisabeth Leonskaja feels life, people and music intuitively. Long standing friendships and continuous work on certain repertoire, like the Schubert Piano Sonatas, define the essence of her being.

"A kaleidoscopic Mozart with the wisdom and experience of a lifetime," The Arts Desk, a British cultural website, described Elisabeth Leonskaya's interpretation of Mozart. Now the Grande Dame of the piano has recorded the entire piano sonatas of the Austrian.

Elisabeth Leonskaja feels life, people and music intuitively. Long standing friendships and continuous work on certain repertoire, like the Schubert Piano Sonatas, define the essence of her being.

Born on November 23, 1945 in Tbilisi to a family of Polish and Russian (on her father's side) and Jewish (on her mother's side) origin, her parents evacuated to Tbilisi from Odessa at the beginning of the war. She gave her first concert with an orchestra at the age of 11, and a solo concert at the age of thirteen.

One of the most celebrated pianists of our time, remaining true to herself and to her music, and in doing so, is following in the footsteps of the great Russian musicians of the Soviet era. This album pays tribute to the Second Viennese School, featuring works by Berg, Schoenberg and Webern.

From the early 1800s to the end of the 1960s, Paris was the focal city of the arts world par excellence. La Ville Lumière was the city of intellectualism, a place which drew writers, artists and musicians from all over France and overseas.

The concept lying behind pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja’s new recording entitled “Saudade” stems from no set of musicological ideas; nor does it have any programmatic basis.

Elisabeth Leonskaja (born 23 November 1945) (In Russian: Елизавета Ильинична Леонская) is a Soviet and Austrian pianist. She was born to a family of Jewish and Polish extraction living in Tbilisi, then the capital of the Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic.

Warner Classics continues their cycle of Schubert's complete piano sonatas, performed by the venerable Soviet and Austrian pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja!

This pair of Schubert piano sonatas, recently recorded by Elisabeth Leonskaja, were both left unfinished by the young composer. The first comes with a final movement revised by Martino Tirimo, the latter in its usual completion with the pieces from D. 459a.