Great Performers: Youri Egorov

Youri Egorov was born in Kazan in 1954 and trained with Yakov Zak at the Moscow Conservatory. He entered several major competitions where, despite not winning, he became an audience favourite. After receiving Bronze at the 1974 Tchaikovsky Competition and 3rd at the Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition in 1975, Egorov failed to reach the finals of the 1977 Van Cliburn Competition; this prompted his supporters to raise the equivalent of the first prize sum to fund his US debut. That 1978 New York recital was a resounding success and a critic called his Chicago recital three months later "the debut of the decade".

Egorov defected from the USSR in 1976, settling in Amsterdam, and for a decade he toured internationally to tremendous acclaim. In 1981 he began a series of recordings for EMI that forms the bulk of his official discography. He was compared to Dinu Lipatti (one of his own idols) for his beauty of tone, nobility of conception, and tasteful use of his comprehensive technique, but he would be one of the great artists of his generation whose life would be cut short in the AIDS crisis, dying in 1988 at the age of 33.

Egorov seemed infallible in whatever repertoire he chose to perform, from Bach and Scarlatti to the standard contemporary works of Bartók and Shostakovich, always displaying a sense of proportion, clarity of structure, and refinement of tone and nuance. In Mozart he was particularly attuned to the underlying depth of the composer's music while playing with disarming clarity and simplicity, as in the Fantasy in C Minor and Piano Concerto K. 466 (in which, like Lipatti, he played Beethoven's cadenzas). Beethoven's "Emperor" Concerto is filled with grandeur and nobility yet without a hint of bombast: power comes from within rather than being externally enforced.

Schumann was one of Egorov's true loves: he navigated the complex emotional landscape of the composer's oeuvre with apparent ease, his burnished sound, seamless singing line, and rhythmic propulsion highlighting the contrasting moods in a wide array of works. In Chopin, Egorov eschewed sentimentality to reveal depth of emotion with a remarkable combination of strength and sensitivity. A concert recording of Liszt's "La Campenella" is a rare example of the pianist playing a "showpiece", his stunning virtuosity subdued yet very impressive, with a rich sonority, crystalline runs, and crisp articulation. Egorov also recorded some wonderful Debussy for EMI, a perfect outlet for his subtle pedal effects and wide array of tonal colours, masterfully coordinated to create evocative atmospheric impressions.

"When I'm gone from this earth," he once said, "I simply hope that people remember me as a pianist with a good sound in the poetical sense of the word." Youri Egorov is indeed remembered as such, the purity of his tone and the depth of his interpretations continuing to move listeners more than three decades after he left us.

[Due to geo-blocking restrictions, some tracks might be unavailable in certain territories.]