Freddy Kempf
Encyclopedia
Freddy Kempf is a British
pianist
born in Croydon
to a German
father and a Japan
ese mother. He now lives in Berlin
.
, Canterbury and the Royal Academy of Music
. He now lives in Berlin
.
Taking up the piano
at the age of four under Ronald Smith
, Kempf first caught the attention of British concertgoers four years later when he played Mozart
's Piano Concerto No. 12
, K
. 414, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
at the Royal Festival Hall
. The child virtuoso
was shortly invited to Germany
to repeat his performance. In 1987, Kempf won the first National Mozart Competition in England and in 1992, was named BBC Young Musician of the Year
for his performance of Rachmaninoff
's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
. He won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1996 which led to his New York City
recital debut at Carnegie Hall
.
in Moscow
, where the first prize in the piano section went instead to Denis Matsuev
. Apparently, some judges had wanted to award the first prize jointly to Matsuev and Kempf and had successfully negotiated with the Russian Culture Ministry for the additional funding. However, Kempf collected only third prize in the end, which provoked a barrage of indignant protests from the audience and the Russian press, who accused some of the judges of bias (especially towards contestants who also happened to be their former pupils).
In April 1999, Kempf returned to Moscow with a series of television broadcasts and sold-out concerts. Kempf's popularity has been compared with that garnered by American pianist Van Cliburn
who, in a different result in 1958, had won the inaugural Competition.
Kempf has continued to perform solo, chamber, and concertante music in Europe
, the Americas
, East Asia
, and Australia
, and has recorded recital discs of Bach
, Beethoven
, Chopin
, Liszt
, Prokofiev
, Rachmaninoff
, and Schumann
. He was voted Best Young British Classical Performer in the Classical BRIT Awards
in 2001.
In 2000 Kempf formed the Kempf Trio, with Pierre Bensaid violin and Alexander Chaushian cello. The trio has been well received
on the continent, as well as in their international concerts. Now London based and well received in Europe, they have appeared at
the Flanders Festival in Belgium, and in France at the Orpheus & Bacchus Festival. "The ensemble made its United States debut in the
chamber music series at La Jolla, California, and in Scottsdale, Phoenix" [Arizona]. *
and Op. 57 "Archduke" Trios. Also on BIS: Tchaikovsky: Trio Op. 50 and Rachmaninov: Trio 'elegiaque' No. 1 on BIS-CD-1302, ibid.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
born in Croydon
Croydon
Croydon is a town in South London, England, located within the London Borough of Croydon to which it gives its name. It is situated south of Charing Cross...
to a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
father and a Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese mother. He now lives in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
Early career
He was educated at St Edmund's SchoolSt Edmund's School
St Edmund’s School is an independent school in Canterbury, Kent, England, U.K. with over 500 pupils, including both day pupils and boarders.-History:...
, Canterbury and the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
. He now lives in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
.
Taking up the piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
at the age of four under Ronald Smith
Ronald Smith
Ronald Sam Smith was an English classical pianist, composer and teacher, born in London. He entered the Royal Academy of Music at the age of 16 with the Sir Michael Costa Scholarship for composition...
, Kempf first caught the attention of British concertgoers four years later when he played Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart , was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music...
's Piano Concerto No. 12
Piano Concerto No. 12 (Mozart)
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 12 in A major, K. 414 was written in the autumn of 1782 in Vienna. It is scored for solo piano, two oboes, two bassoons , two horns, and strings...
, K
Köchel-Verzeichnis
The Köchel-Verzeichnis is a complete, chronological catalogue of compositions by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart which was originally created by Ludwig von Köchel. It is abbreviated K or KV. For example, Mozart's Requiem in D minor was, according to Köchel's counting, the 626th piece Mozart composed....
. 414, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It tours widely, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national orchestra"...
at the Royal Festival Hall
Royal Festival Hall
The Royal Festival Hall is a 2,900-seat concert, dance and talks venue within Southbank Centre in London. It is situated on the South Bank of the River Thames, not far from Hungerford Bridge. It is a Grade I listed building - the first post-war building to become so protected...
. The child virtuoso
Virtuoso
A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...
was shortly invited to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to repeat his performance. In 1987, Kempf won the first National Mozart Competition in England and in 1992, was named BBC Young Musician of the Year
BBC Young Musician of the Year
The BBC Young Musician of the Year is a televised national music competition. It is broadcast on BBC Two and BBC Four biennially, despite the name, and hosted by the British Broadcasting Corporation...
for his performance of Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
The Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini in A minor, Op. 43 is a concertante work written by Sergei Rachmaninoff. It is written for solo piano and symphony orchestra, closely resembling a piano concerto. The work was written at Villa Senar, according to the score, from July 3 to August 18, 1934...
. He won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1996 which led to his New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
recital debut at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
.
Career
In a controversial turn of events, Kempf's early adult career ironically benefited from his failure to win the 1998 International Tchaikovsky CompetitionInternational Tchaikovsky Competition
The International Tchaikovsky Competition is a classical music competition held every four years in Moscow, Russia for pianists, violinists, and cellists between 16 and 30 years of age, and singers between 19 and 32 years of age...
in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
, where the first prize in the piano section went instead to Denis Matsuev
Denis Matsuev
Denis Leonidovich Matsuev is a Russian pianist, one of the most popular classical music performers of his generation, the winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1998 in Moscow , laureate of esteemed Shostakovich Prize in Music and State Prize of Russian Federation in Literature and...
. Apparently, some judges had wanted to award the first prize jointly to Matsuev and Kempf and had successfully negotiated with the Russian Culture Ministry for the additional funding. However, Kempf collected only third prize in the end, which provoked a barrage of indignant protests from the audience and the Russian press, who accused some of the judges of bias (especially towards contestants who also happened to be their former pupils).
In April 1999, Kempf returned to Moscow with a series of television broadcasts and sold-out concerts. Kempf's popularity has been compared with that garnered by American pianist Van Cliburn
Van Cliburn
Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. is an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958 at age 23, when he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War....
who, in a different result in 1958, had won the inaugural Competition.
Kempf has continued to perform solo, chamber, and concertante music in Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the Americas
Americas
The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...
, East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
, and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and has recorded recital discs of Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach
Johann Sebastian Bach was a German composer, organist, harpsichordist, violist, and violinist whose sacred and secular works for choir, orchestra, and solo instruments drew together the strands of the Baroque period and brought it to its ultimate maturity...
, Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
, Chopin
Frédéric Chopin
Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist. He is considered one of the great masters of Romantic music and has been called "the poet of the piano"....
, Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
, Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
, and Schumann
Robert Schumann
Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
. He was voted Best Young British Classical Performer in the Classical BRIT Awards
Classical Brit Awards
The Classic BRIT Awards are an annual awards ceremony held in the United Kingdom covering aspects of classical music, and are the classical equivalent of pop music's BRIT Awards....
in 2001.
In 2000 Kempf formed the Kempf Trio, with Pierre Bensaid violin and Alexander Chaushian cello. The trio has been well received
on the continent, as well as in their international concerts. Now London based and well received in Europe, they have appeared at
the Flanders Festival in Belgium, and in France at the Orpheus & Bacchus Festival. "The ensemble made its United States debut in the
chamber music series at La Jolla, California, and in Scottsdale, Phoenix" [Arizona]. *
- Quote appears (unattributed) in the liner notes from the Trio's BIS-SACD-1172 (www.bis.se) an all Beethoven disc: - Op. 1 No. 3
and Op. 57 "Archduke" Trios. Also on BIS: Tchaikovsky: Trio Op. 50 and Rachmaninov: Trio 'elegiaque' No. 1 on BIS-CD-1302, ibid.