Alexis Weissenberg

Alexis Weissenberg was a Bulgarian-born classical pianist who became a French citizen and one of the leading virtuosos of the second half of the twentieth century. Born in Sofia in 1929, he studied in Bulgaria before moving to Israel and then to the United States, where he trained at the Juilliard School with Olga Samaroff and later with Wanda Landowska. He won the Leventritt Competition in 1947, launching an international career that included regular appearances with major orchestras and conductors such as George Szell and Herbert von Karajan. Weissenberg was especially noted for his powerful technique and interpretations of Romantic repertoire, particularly Chopin, Rachmaninoff, and Schumann, as well as Bach and Scarlatti. He recorded extensively for EMI and DG, producing benchmark accounts of the Chopin Études and Rachmaninoff Piano Concertos. After a period of semi-retirement he returned to the stage in the 1980s and continued performing and teaching until his death in 2012.