Henry Neigauz biography

Why do you have to? Why are many of my friends and enemies! I do not like to answer this question. But here - I will answer. I hope the last time. The fact is that it really seems immodest to me to write about Henry Gustavovich. So much has already been written about the grandfather, it is said that television and radio programs have been made, so many decent and talented people have built my career on his name, that I, with my constant craving for outstanding and shocking, sometimes just sickening into this well-established choir of praise and chants.

You constantly feel some kind of inferiority, no, no, and your “well-wishers” will remind you, they say, it’s not for nothing that you “give you platforms” or print your articles, if you weren’t the grandson of Neuhaus, no one would have remembered you, there are few aircraft, and even more so pianists, journalists, musicologists, etc. We are not enough for these “children of the great” from this hard.

burden. No, we must finish off ... Well, we have to fight back so as not to be trampled into the mud. Unfortunately, I have no moral right to cite the names of my “comrades in misfortune” or, partly? I would have what to tell ... But recently, my Moscow friend brought here L. Naumov’s book “Under the sign of Neuhaus”. In addition to his personal opinions and impressions, Lev Nikolaevich retells in sufficient detail what, it would seem, is known from his grandfather’s books, memoirs of Sofronitsky, M.

Yudina and others. I, huddled into my niche, thought: since I remember these books by heart, it means that everyone else remembers. It turns out - nothing like that. If such literature is now being produced in Russia, then a very small circulation, in an extremely poor design, disgusting edition and costs much more than under communism. Perhaps that is why the book of L. Naumov is so interesting and relevant precisely in our days.

By the way, there is another reason. Today, some famous musicians publicly declare: “There is no notorious Neigauz school! No, and it was not! And this statement is emphasized not only by the former student of E. Malinin and V. Gornostaeva, the world -famous Ivo Pokoropilich, not only the outstanding musician of our time, Grigory Sokolov, but also smaller bipods, or rather, frank mediocrity, trying to create a name on the gossip and so fashionable today's denial of “all and everything”.

By the way, in his book, L. Naumov calls the Pogorop and the like "Ivanes who do not remember kinship." A good characteristic ... Well, and another reason. Somehow the wonderful Israeli musicologist Viktor Licht complained that even a grandfather’s biography was given in any Neigaus site. I will try to make up for this gap here. So, Henry Gustavovich Neigauz was born on April 12 in Elisavetgrad.

With his birthday, he began to be proud when Gagarin flew into near -Earth orbit. And the son of Sofronitsky, A. Happy people. If they knew how their descendants would be cynical about Soviet cosmonautics ... And how my father was interested in such a question as life on other planets! Moreover, quite seriously. We would, sinners, are these concerns. Grandfather began to engage in music, of course, under the leadership of her great -grandfather.

There was little good in this. Rather, more bad. At least in the memoirs, the grandfather “worships” his failures on his own father. Let me remind you that the grandfather generally did not like Pianism as such. Especially at the end of life. To his student, son -in -law V. Sofronitsky, Igor Nikonovich, he once admitted: “A strange thing, I can’t listen to the pianists recently! It’s better than conductors - there is music, and the pianists do not think about music!

Of course, he uttered a stronger word. Yes, yes! They are only engaged in the fact that they seek to demonstrate their most piquant places! How his "semi-prospecting" was published. Why "floor"? Probably because the grandfather wanted to publish it. Apparently, a certain “complex of inferiority”, about which his grandfather writes in his “autopsychography”, pursued him all his life.

A great -grandfather with a purely German sequence decided to make pianists out of his children. Of course, brilliant. Okay, a happy or unhappy childhood can be missed. Although, one cannot fail to mention the first concerts of his grandfather. At the age of nine, he played the Waltz who learned under the leadership of his great-grandfather and the expropriate La-Bemol Major Chopin, at the age of 14 he already played in the same concert with the famous Misha Elman Chopinov’s preludes of the third ballad, and Schumann's “Fantastic plays”.

In the year, grandfather and sister Talya left for Warsaw, where they took several lessons from A. Mikhalovsky, a wonderful shoppen and future teacher of young V. In the year, they gave a series of concerts in Dortmund, Bonne, Cologne, Berlin. R. Strauss himself also participated in the same concerts, who conducted his “death and enlightenment” and “home symphony”.

And for a year he went to Berlin, where he took lessons from the famous Leopold of Ozovsky. Many Internet sites, interesting for professionals and fans are devoted to DEMENSKY.And also the musician and the composer must mention that the “pianist” and “musician” are often incompatible concepts ... Oddly enough, I mean the name of the anniversary in our family, the name of the anniversary was almost ignored.

There was one record that was rarely listened to, and with a poorly hidden grin. Apparently, his father annoyed "virtuosity for the sake of virtuosity." Almost thirty years passed before I became interested in the work of this master. And then, only seriously interested in the piano transcriptions of the Rococo and Baroque era. Here I would like to thank Professor B. Borodin, who sent me notes of this Jewish genius.

The great maestro opened me in the complete beauty of his greatness. And this is not about his transcendental “crazy” processions of Chopin's sketches that are by no means not easy to play, but most importantly - why? You can fulfill a lot, there would be a point ... Rachmaninov himself, the “pianist of the All universe” highly appreciated the talent of Ozovsky.

But the responses of his contemporaries were different. I. Nikonovich remarkably tells about the attitude of V. Sofronitsky and his colleagues to the work of Gerodsky: “... And another time he went to the Odidskoy concert. Before that, he asked Metner what he was thinking about the anniversary. Nikolai Karlovich frowned, paused a little, then he said dryly: “Well, I guarantee you that you will not hear a single fake note in the concert!

A Devysky, small, neat, was going out, preparing for a long time before starting. The first in the program was the Sonata H-Moll Chopin. With youthful maximalism, he writes to his parents: “I would like you to meet him. A very nice, intelligent, kind and interesting person ... ” Or: “The Derevsky played us wonderful remakes of the old classical works of Ramo, Lully, etc.

wonderful things. It absolutely retains the purity of style, does not create modernist harmonies and dissonances, only unusually enriches the style, uses excellent pianistic effects and this achieves that some unbearable giga or chimes of some old man becomes a perfectly sounding play ... ”. That, ten days later: “Trouble! We are in a utter, venth mood from the game of Germany. It is simply outrageous.

Perhaps I have never experienced such disappointment. Sonata of the sheet played, as the last student, without any meaning, a sense of whole, temperament and artistry - even technically not especially, because the Octavas were completely weak, moreover, slow and sometimes fuzzy. He played his alterations of classic things excellently, but 24 chopen preludes were monstrous. Neither the moments of the true state of self -forgetfulness, artistry - a taught mannequin is sitting under the pseudonym of the artist and mutter.

Terribly would like to leave the Udonius and go to Buzoni - there is nothing to be done; it is forbidden. And at the concert there is such a scandal! .. But, of course, the Derevsky had a tremendous influence on me ... After these two years, there was a break in my classes with Denisky, a break of several years, and then I returned to him, much later ...

To explain it, I need to look very deeply.