Igor Lazko

Igor Lazko (b. St Petersberg, 1949), is a Russian classical pianist who has made a distinguished international career as performer, recording artist and teacher of other pianists.

Early career in Russia

Igor Lazko is descended from a family renowned for its musicians through several generations. When he was six years old he was admitted to the special school for young musicians in the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory, where his professors were Pavel Serebryakov and Lekhovitskaya. He was profoundly affected by the example of Glenn Gould's playing, when he made a tour in the Soviet Union in 1957, and from this and from Gould's recordings he drew a wealth of inspiration: the pianist describes this in an article cited below.

At a very young age he displayed exceptional gifts and when only 14 he became the youngest laureate in the history of the J.S. Bach Congress at Leipzig, receiving from them the Bronze Medal. Soon afterwards (in 1965) he recorded the Two- and Three-Part Inventions for the Russian Melodiya record label, the disc which was to mark the start of his career as a concert performer.

His hard work and his exceptional talent opened for him the very finest teaching that Russia had to offer. He perfected himself at the higher Tchaikowsky Conservatory in Moscow in the class of Jakov Zak, successor of the master Heinrich Neuhaus, and took the First Prize in all his paths of study. From 1974 to 1977 he pursued a career as soloist and chamber musician in the Soviet Union, and was soloist with the Leningrad Philharmonic.

Belgrade

From 1978 to 1992 he was professor at the University faculty of Belgrade. In this period he recorded the six Partitas and the Goldberg Variations of J.S. Bach, as well as works of Tchaikowsky and of other composers. Intensively engaged in the musical life of the country, the concert which he dedicated to the memory of the Canadian pianist Glenn Gould was proclaimed 'the best interpretation of the 1982-1983 season' in Belgrade. We rediscover him in 1981 after he had won the Contemporary Music Congress at Saint-Germain-en-Laye in France. In 1985 at the 'Music Like Bach' Festival of Nanterre, he performed and interpreted the complete klavier works of J.S. Bach.

Range

Igor Lazko has worked with such famous orchestral directors as Yuri Temirkanov, Yansons, Vladislav Chernushenko and Valery Gergiev, with the Philharmonic Orchestras of Leningrad and Moscow, The Music and Chamber Orchestra of Canada, and with many European ensembles. Based at Paris since 1992, he continues to exercise his art with dynamism, and teaches at the Schola Cantorum, at the National School of Music of Fresnes and above all at the Alexander Scriabine Russian Conservatory in Paris, thanks to which he founded and since 1996 has presided over the Nikolai Rubinstein International Piano Congress.

Igor Lazko has already appeared in innumerable tours in France, Russia, Switzerland, Germany, Yugoslavia, Italy, Greece and the United States. Also he gives very numerous demonstrations and Master-classes across the whole of Europe (Italy, Switzerland, Germany, etc) and in the United States.

Artistry

Igor Lazko is a pure artist and an authentic pianist. He is also an outstanding chamber-musician. He possesses to the very highest degree that art of 'speaking' through the piano which is the mark of the greatest interpreters. He has the resources of an infallible technique (perhaps owing to his regular practice of the work of J.S. Bach). The refined lyricism of his playing and his symphonic projection of sound, allied to the spiritual power of his discourse give a great authenticity to his interpretations, 'a feast of sound of a very great beauty: with him the music becomes again what it was at its origin, limpid, simple and pure.' (A.M.M.).

Recordings mentioned

*Two- and Three-Part Inventions (J S Bach) ("Melodiya")
*Goldberg Variations, Bach ("PGP - Produkcija Gramofonskih Ploċa Radio-Televisije Beograd"), SOKOJ RTB 2330172 (Sleevenotes April 1985, Issued 1987).
*Partitas, Bach (Belgrade)
*w. Alexandre Brussilovsky, violin: Sonata for violin and piano en A major (Cesar Franck); Sonata for violin and piano in E flat major (Richard Strauss). "Suoni e colori", ORCD 6712 (August 2000).
*w. Brussilovsky (vln), Nathanaelle Marie, works by Khandoshkin, Afanassiev, Cui, Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Taneyev, Arensky, Rachmaninoff, Efrem Zimbalist. "Suoni e colori", 53005.
*w. Brussilovsky (vln), Amaury Wallez (bassoon), Michel Lethiec (clar.), Glinka: Trio Pathetique in D min. "Suoni e colori" 53004.

Sources

*("Translated from French Wikipedia")
* Ghyslaine Guertin (Ed), "Glenn Gould, Pluriel: Texts collected and presented by G. Guertin" (at Conferences at Universities of Quebec and Montreal, 13-15 October 1987), including an article by Igor Lazko on Gould's 1957 Soviet tour. (Louise Courteau: Verdun, Quebec, 1988). ISBN 2-89239-063-X