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Browse piano sheets by Arcadi Volodos on Zen Virtual Piano. In his own case, Volodos says, no child-prodigy tale of a three-year-old chained to a piano ever existed; everything came much later. Singing and conducting lessons opened his musical studies in St Petersburg, where he was born in 1972, and serious piano training came only in 1987, at the St Petersburg Conservatory. His parents were both singers, and he began his training in an a cappella singing school in St Petersburg. A pianist who started in an a cappella choir school suggests that his sense of line and breath may have come from singing before the keyboard, though this is a reading of his path rather than something he says. He pursued advanced studies at the Moscow Conservatory with Galina Egiazarova and then in Paris and Madrid. He says that neither Jacques Rouvier at the Paris Conservatoire nor Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid imposed anything on him. The pianists who inspire him, he says, include Schnabel, Cortot, Sofronitsky and Rachmaninov, far more than Horowitz, and he also admires Busoni. A student who recalls teachers imposing nothing, and names older pianists as models, hints at an artist who values freedom in his training and listens widely to the past, drawing his ideals from earlier generations of pianists. What started his career was a chance hearing: a Sony Classical manager caught him playing casually at a friend's place in southern France and proposed a recording deal. His New York debut came in 1996, and he has since appeared worldwide, giving recitals and playing with eminent orchestras and conductors. His Gramophone Award-winning 1999 Carnegie Hall debut began a singular, carefully curated discography in which, rather than releasing frequently, he crafts each album with exceptional depth. A couple of years on came Volodos Plays Brahms, soon seen as a landmark of Brahms playing and honoured with an Edison Classical Award, a Diapason d'Or and a Gramophone Award. An informal recital that led to a contract, followed by a small number of carefully made albums, suggests a career that grew from word of mouth and then stayed selective, with each recording given room to become a considered statement. For him, he says, transcription is far closer to improvisation than to composition, and he has never deliberately made any transcriptions. Nothing makes him sadder after a concert than listeners asking him to sign his arrangement of the Turkish March, which he calls a simple, silly improvisation, merely an encore that he made for fun at eighteen. He says that stopping orchestral performances and limiting his recitals was one of the best decisions he took, because music has acquired the traits of an industry. His recital repertoire includes major works by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Beethoven, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Prokofiev and Ravel. A pianist wary of his most requested encore and of the music industry hints at someone who prefers his serious repertoire to take the lead, and who sees fame built on an encore as an odd fit for his aims.
Browse piano sheets by Arcadi Volodos on Zen Virtual Piano.
In his own case, Volodos says, no child-prodigy tale of a three-year-old chained to a piano ever existed; everything came much later. Singing and conducting lessons opened his musical studies in St Petersburg, where he was born in 1972, and serious piano training came only in 1987, at the St Petersburg Conservatory. His parents were both singers, and he began his training in an a cappella singing school in St Petersburg. A pianist who started in an a cappella choir school suggests that his sense of line and breath may have come from singing before the keyboard, though this is a reading of his path rather than something he says.
He pursued advanced studies at the Moscow Conservatory with Galina Egiazarova and then in Paris and Madrid. He says that neither Jacques Rouvier at the Paris Conservatoire nor Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid imposed anything on him. The pianists who inspire him, he says, include Schnabel, Cortot, Sofronitsky and Rachmaninov, far more than Horowitz, and he also admires Busoni. A student who recalls teachers imposing nothing, and names older pianists as models, hints at an artist who values freedom in his training and listens widely to the past, drawing his ideals from earlier generations of pianists.
What started his career was a chance hearing: a Sony Classical manager caught him playing casually at a friend's place in southern France and proposed a recording deal. His New York debut came in 1996, and he has since appeared worldwide, giving recitals and playing with eminent orchestras and conductors. His Gramophone Award-winning 1999 Carnegie Hall debut began a singular, carefully curated discography in which, rather than releasing frequently, he crafts each album with exceptional depth. A couple of years on came Volodos Plays Brahms, soon seen as a landmark of Brahms playing and honoured with an Edison Classical Award, a Diapason d'Or and a Gramophone Award. An informal recital that led to a contract, followed by a small number of carefully made albums, suggests a career that grew from word of mouth and then stayed selective, with each recording given room to become a considered statement.
For him, he says, transcription is far closer to improvisation than to composition, and he has never deliberately made any transcriptions. Nothing makes him sadder after a concert than listeners asking him to sign his arrangement of the Turkish March, which he calls a simple, silly improvisation, merely an encore that he made for fun at eighteen. He says that stopping orchestral performances and limiting his recitals was one of the best decisions he took, because music has acquired the traits of an industry. His recital repertoire includes major works by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Beethoven, Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Prokofiev and Ravel. A pianist wary of his most requested encore and of the music industry hints at someone who prefers his serious repertoire to take the lead, and who sees fame built on an encore as an odd fit for his aims.
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Common questions
Arcadi Volodos is a concert pianist born in St Petersburg in 1972 who began with singing and conducting lessons.
He calls his arrangement a simple improvisation, just an encore he made for fun at eighteen.
It is a Brahms recording that won the Edison Classical Award, the Diapason d'Or and the Gramophone Award, and quickly became a landmark of Brahms interpretation.
After playing informally at a friend's house in the south of France, he was offered a recording contract by a Sony Classical manager who happened to hear him.