Alfred Cortot
Alfred Denis Cortot was born in Nyon, Switzerland on September 26, 1877. His father was French and his mother Swiss. He studied at the Paris Conservatory with Decambes and others, winning first prize in piano in 1896. He made his debut the same year in Beethoven's third piano concerto. Soon he became widely acclaimed as a performer of Beethoven concertos, appearing as a soloist in two prominent Parisian concert series. In 1898 he went to Bayreuth to study Wagner's music and was hired as a choral coach and then as an assistant conductor. Cortot brought Wagner to Paris, leading the first Paris performance of Götterdämmerung in May, 1902, and a remarkable performance of Tristan und Isolde the next month. Also in 1902, he established his own concert series, the Association des Concerts A. Cortot. Although it lasted only two years, it did a lot towards breaking down the conservative French resistance to Wagner, particularly with a concert performance of Parsifal, and even the first French performances of Beethoven's "Missa Solemnis" and Brahms' "Requiem." He also served contemporary French music by premiering works of Roussel, Magnard, and others.
In 1904 he became the conductor of the Concerts Populaires at Lille, and the following year he joined with cellist Pablo Casals and violinist Jacques Thibaud to form one of the greatest of permanently established piano trios, one which became a model of its type, touring frequently. This drew him back to giving more emphasis to the piano, which he had never given up despite his fame as a conductor. In 1907 he joined the faculty of the Paris Conservatory, teaching piano, but remained very active as a piano soloist and chamber music player. He gave up that position in 1917, feeling that his busy concert schedule had made it impossible to devote sufficient uninterrupted periods to teaching. In 1919 he founded the Ecole Normale de Musique, assembling a faculty of famous musicians. As the director, he taught a summer course in interpretation, which became famous. He continued a career performing piano around the world, including lecture recitals, and also guest conducted many orchestras. He continued to premiere new French piano music. Cortot was also a skillful and scholarly editor of great piano music, famous for his editions of most of Chopin's piano music.
In 1943 Cortot founded the Chamber Music Society of the Paris Conservatory Concerts. However, his admiration for German culture served him ill when Germany occupied France between from 1940 to 1944, when he appeared to cooperate with them willingly. This led to his being shunned after the war both in France and elsewhere. By the time he returned to the concert stage, some years later, it was clear that his memory was failing. Therefore, his main recorded legacy remains in the records he made in the 1920s and 1930s. Cortot's teacher was a student of Chopin, and the grace of his Chopin performances, especially, remains breathtaking and should be recommended to all students of the piano; he also had a remarkable way with the music of QRobert Schumann. In addition, he was an avid collector and amassed, among other items, a large quantity of autograph scores and printed music. This collection, after his death in Lausanne, Switzerland on June 15, 1962, was divided among several important libraries and universities; it remains an interesting view into the mind of a musician who was both a living link to Romantic Paris and a key figure of the twentieth century.
© Joseph Stevenson /TiVo
Similar artists
-
Alfred Cortot plays Schumann: Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana, Carnaval, Symphonic Studies, Piano Concerto ..
Classical - Released by Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording on Sep 15, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chamber Music
Alfred Cortot, Jacques Thibaud, Pablo Casals
Chamber Music - Released by Warner Classics on May 19, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Alfred Cortot plays Chopin: Nocturnes, Preludes, Waltzes, Etudes, Ballades, Impromptus ..
Classical - Released by Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording on Sep 6, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Master Pianist
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Sep 22, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Alfred Cortot Plays Chopin
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Apr 14, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Les musiques de Picasso
Alfred Cortot, Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, Jose Antonio Rodriguez, Erik Satie
Classical - Released by naïve classique on Mar 24, 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Alfred Cortot Plays Schumann
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Jun 2, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Debussy: Pelléas et Mélisande & Mélodies
Roger Désormière, Irène Joachim, Jacques Jansen, Alfred Cortot, Claude Debussy, Mary garden
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Feb 6, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Préludes, Impromptus, Barcarolle & Berceuse
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on May 16, 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven/Schubert: Piano Trios
Alfred Cortot, Jacques Thibaud, Pablo Casals
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Sep 6, 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Cortot Plays Chopin: Ballades, Sonata Op. 35, Fantasia, Op. 49
Chamber Music - Released by Urania on Mar 31, 2003
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Complete Solo Recordings (Recorded 1929-1936)
Jacques Thibaud, Alfred Cortot, Ernest Ansermet, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Georges de Lausnay, Tasso Janopoulo, Ernest Ansermet
Chamber Music - Released by APR on Jul 1, 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pau Casals Plays Vivaldi, Bach, Haydn, et al.
Pablo Casals, Jacques Thibaud, Alfred Cortot
Classical - Released by DiscMedi S.A. on Jun 4, 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Frédéric Chopin
Classical - Released by Nar Classical on Apr 12, 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Piano Trio No. 1 in B flat, Op. 99
Jacques Thibaud, Pablo Casals, Alfred Cortot
Classical - Released by Infinity on Jun 30, 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Richard Beaudoin: Digital Memory and the Archive
Neil Heyde, Rohan de Saram, Maggie Teyte, Alfred Cortot
Classical - Released by New Focus Recordings on Feb 3, 2023
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Alfred Cortot: The Late Recordings, Vol. 3 (Recorded 1949-1951)
Classical - Released by APR on Sep 1, 2007
5 de Diapason16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Robert Schumann: Cortot, Horowitz, Backhaus
Alfred Cortot, Vladimir Horowitz, Wilhelm Backhaus
Classical - Released by Ermitage Records on Oct 23, 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin, Liszt, Beethoven, Skriabin, Saint-Saëns & Chabrier: Works for Piano
Classical - Released by Nimbus Records on Jan 1, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Ballades & Piano Sonatas
Classical - Released by Biddulph Recordings on Dec 13, 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Alfred Cortot: The Late Recordings, Vol. 4 (Recorded 1947-1949)
Classical - Released by APR on Nov 1, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo