Three-CD set features performances by renowned pianist Lubka Kolessa (04/16/00)

Three-CD set features performances by renowned pianist Lubka Kolessa

by Prof. Luba Zuk

MONTREAL - The Toronto firm Doremi recently issued a set of three compact discs featuring performances by the world-famous Ukrainian pianist, Lubka Kolessa. The "Lubka Kolessa Legacy" forms part of the label's important Legendary Treasures series which has featured such artists as Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Artur Schnabel, David Oistrakh to name but a few. Professional and amateur musicians eagerly await re-releases of their favorite performers. This latest issue, the "Lubka Kolessa Legacy," is an important event for the music community in general and for the Ukrainian artistic community in particular.

Although considered one of Europe' s most celebrated pre-war pianists, Ms. Kolessa recorded only a handful of works (no longer commercially available). The compendium of her performances released by the Doremi firm comprises early recordings and performances from 1936-1939, several from later years, and the last portion from 1949. The selections include: a recording of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3, with the Saxon State Orchestra, conducted by Karl Böhm (1939); a live broadcast of the Mozart Concerto No. 24, K. 491, with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Max Fiedler (April 28, 1936); as well as solo works by Mozart, Chopin, Scarlatti, Hummel, Liszt, Brahms, Schumann and J. Strauss, originally recorded by HMV-Electrola, Ultraphone, Concert-Hall, and on private recordings. Total time of the three CDs is 3 hours, 28 minutes, 15 seconds. Production, restoration and remastering was done by Jacob Harnoy of the Doremi label.

The information booklet accompanying the CD, text by Mario Bernardi, Canadian conductor and former pupil of Ms. Kolessa, contains a brief biography of the pianist, several photographs at various periods of her illustrious career, selected reviews, posters, programs, etc.

The " Lubka Kolessa Legacy" can be purchased or ordered from major record stores in Canada and the United States, e.g. HMV Special Orders Department, (toll free number: 1-800-567-2442). Detailed information about this compact-disc set (DHR-7743-5) is available on the Doremi website at http://www.doremi.com/kolessa.html

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Ms. Kolessa was born in Lviv in 1902. She studied at the Vienna Academy of Music and Fine Arts with Louis Thern and Liszt pupil, Emil von Sauer. Upon her graduation in 1918 she was awarded the Bösendorfer Prize - a concert grand piano. In 1920, she received the Master Class Diploma and the State Prize, then the highest award in Austria. She then studied further with Eugene d'Albert who strongly influenced her concept of tone and style. Ms. Kolessa emigrated to Canada in 1940, where she resided in Toronto until her death on August 15, 1997.

From the age of 15, her concert tours took her to most musical centers in Europe and in South America. Her last pre-war concert season consisted of 178 engagements. She frequently appeared with major orchestras under eminent conductors such as Böhm, Furtwangler, Kleiber, Mengelberg, von Karajan and Walter. After arriving in Canada she was heard frequently as recitalist and soloist with orchestras, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic. She also performed regularly on the CBC presenting several series of recitals for the network: a Bach series, as well as Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, and Chopin series.

Ms. Kolessa was recognized by the international music world as an eminent concert pianist. Bruno Walter considered her "certainly one of the most superb pianists of our time." Following a New York concert, critic Harold Taubman judged her to be "an artist with a mind and heart of her own. The accent was on expression, not on technical fireworks. For she was making music, which should be the aim of an evening in Carnegie Hall." A critic for Musical America wrote, "Her principal assets were a conspicuously fluent technique, exceptional skill in the subtle tinting of tone and an unusual resourcefulness in the use of the pedal."

In Canada, Ms. Kolessa is also remembered as a brilliant teacher. She began teaching at the Toronto Conservatory of Music, now the Royal Conservatory of Music, in 1942, where she headed the Senior School from 1946 until 1949. In Montreal, she taught at the Conservatoire de Musique de Québec (1951-1973), Ecole Vincent d' Indy (1955-1966) and at the Faculty of Music of McGill University (1960-1971). As a student of two Liszt pupils, Ms. Kolessa handed down this famous legacy to her many Canadian students, who are now among Canada's best known concert pianists, conductors, composers, and pedagogues.

Luba Zuk is associate professor in the faculty of music at McGill University in Montreal. A pianist who performs both as soloist and as part of a piano duo, Prof. Zuk is known for her commitment to the introduction of contemporary music by Ukrainian and Canadian composers to international audiences as well as, since Ukraine's independence, for her performances and academic activities in Ukraine.

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