It is often the way that highly gifted Ipianists begin their life as a child prodigy. It is also likely that managers and complicit parents, for publicity purposes, lower the child's age in order to make their musical feats seem even more extraordinary. Shura Oherkassky was no exception, being advertised as an eleven-year-old on his arrival in the United States in February 1923 when, in fact, he was thirteen, and would be fourteen in October of 1923. Because of this, all the reference books throughout his life gave his date of birth as 1911, as is shown on his passport, when it was actually 1909, as is proved by his birth certificate. Of course, many talented children were born to poor parents for whom the child was a much-needed source of income. When this got out of hand the child found itself being dragged around Europe, as in the case of Heifetz, earning ever-increasing sums of money. Others, like Ruth Slenczynska, had an overly dominating parent who behaved like a slave driver and paraded the child before all the great pianists and teachers of the day. Cherkassky was fortunate with his parents. His father Isaac was born at Bilotserkov, a town near Kiev, in 1859. An amateur violinist, Isaac was at first a dentist, but from around the time of Shura's birth he taught Russian at a technical school in Odessa, the city where his talented son was born. Shura's mother, Lydia Schlemenson, a pianist and pupil of Annette Essipov at the St Petersburg Conservatory, was born in 1872 in Tulchin in southwest Ukraine. It was she who was the boy's first piano teacher, taking him to recitals in the city. The first professional pianist Cherkassky remembered hearing was Simon Barere (1896- 1951) at a recital in Odessa when Shura Was three or four years old. More than seventy years later he could still remember the way Barere played the opening chords of Schumann's Etudes symphoniques, Op 13. Cherkassky never went to school and was taught at home by his father. Just before the Russian Revolution of 1917, the boy gave a recital that included Schubert's D899 Impromptus and Beethoven's Piano Sonata in D minor, Op 31, n° 2. He would have been around eight years old at the time and a year later he played for Reinhold Gliere (1875-1956) and passed his exam in theory of music at the Odessa Conservatory.
Johathan Summers (from the booklet)
Shura Cherkassky
The Complete 78-rpm Recordings
(1923-1950)
Tracks
Cd. 1
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827)
1 Ecossaises, WoO 83 2:45
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
(1809-1847)
2 Prelude in E minor (from Prelude & Fugue, Op. 35, n° 1) 2:25
3 Scherzo in E minor, Op. 16, n° 2 2:18
Shura Cherkassky
(1909-1995)
4 Prélude Pathétique 2:29
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
(1809-1847)
5 Hunting Song (from Song without Words, Op. 19b, n° 3) 2:41
Jean-Philippe Rameau
(1683-1764)
7 Tambourin (arr. Godowsky - from Renaissance, Book I) 2:58
Augusta Mana-Zucca
(1885-1981)
8 Prelude, Op. 73 3:33
Ludwig van Beethoven
(1770-1827)
9 Ecossaises, WoO 83 2:35
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
(1809-1847)
10 Prelude in E minor (from Prelude & Fugue, Op. 35, n° 1) 2:32
11 Scherzo in E minor, Op. 16, n° 2 2:27
Shura Cherkassky
(1909-1995)
12 Prélude Pathétique 2:42
Sergueï Vassilievitch Rachmaninov
(1873-1943)
Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 19
13 I. Lento - Allegro moderato 9:12
14 II. Allegro scherzando 5:59
15 III. Andante 5:00
16 IV. Allegro mosso 9:29
*
Cd. 2
Mikhaïl Ivanovitch Glinka
(1894-1857)
1 Tarantella in A minor 1:25
Vladimir Rebikov
(1866-1920)
2 Waltz 1:44
(from The Chistmas Tree, Op. 21)
Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovsky
(1840-1893)
3 October 3:15
(from The Seasons, Op. 37bis, n° 10)
Anatoli Konstantinovitch Liadov
(1855-1914)
4 Music Box, Op. 32 2:29
Alexandre Scriabin
(1872-1915)
5 Prelude for the Left-Hand Alone, Op. 9 n° 1 2:43
Nicolas Medtner
(1880-1951)
6 Skazka (Fairy Tale) in E minor, Op. 34 n° 2 2:25
Serguei Prokofiev
(1891-1953)
7 Suggestion diabolique,Op. 4 n° 4 2:32
Aram Khachaturian
(1903-1978)
8 Toccata in E-Flat minor, Op. 11 3:08
Dmitri Shostakovich
(1906-1975)
9 Prelude in C-Sharp minor, Op. 34 n°10 2:18
10 Prelude in D minor, Op. 34 n° 24 0:29
Franz Liszt
(1811-1886)
10 Liebesträum n° 3 in A-Flat major, S 541 4:17
11 Concert Etuden° 2 'Gnomenreigen, S 145 2:55
Four Hungarian Rhapsodies, S 244
11 N° 5 in E minor 'Héroïde-élégiaque', S244, n° 15 5:58
12 N° 6 in D-Flat major 6:08
13 N° 11 in A minor 4:26
14 N° 15 in A minor 'Rákóczi March' 4:44
Frédéric Chopin
(1810-1849)
16 Polonaise in A-Flat major, Op. 53 6:16
Franz Behr
(1837-1898)
17 Polka de W. R. (arr. Rachmaninov) 3:39
Francis Poulenc
(1899-1963)
18 Toccata (from Trois Pièces) 1:57
Morton Gould
(1913-1996)
Prelude and Toccata
19 Prelude 4:18
20 Toccata 2:57
21 Boogie Woogie Etude 2:06
*
Cd. 3
Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovsky
(1840-1893)
Piano Concerto n° 2 in G major, OP. 44
(Siloti edition)
1 I. Allegro brillante e molto vivace 16:26
2 II. Intermezzo. Andante non troppo 7:13
3 III. Allegro con fuoco 6:46
Frédéric Chopin
(1810-1849)
4 Nocturne in E minor, Op. 72, n° 1 4:36
5 Mazurka in D major, Op. 33, n° 2 2:14
6 Etude in C-Sharp minor, Op. 10, n° 4 2:09
7 Fantasy in F minor, OP. 59 12:35
Camille Saint-Saëns
(1835-1921)
Prelude and Fugue in F minor, Op. 52
8 Prelude 2:18
9 Fugue 1:40
Franz Liszt
(1811-1886)
10 Consolation n° 3 in D-Flat major, S172, n° 3 4:18
Cécile Chaminade
(1857-1944)
11 Autrefois 4:27
(from Six Pièces humoristiques, Op.87, n°4)
*
Shura Cherkassky - p
Marcel Hubert - cel [cd. 1, # 13-16]
Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra/Jacques Rachmilovich - dir. [cd. 3, # 1-3]
Recorded in various locations ; between 1923 & 1950