Yakov Kreizberg - Influences

Influences

In an interview with Stewart Collins in BBC Music Magazine, Kreizberg recalled that his musical upbringing in the Soviet Union limited his ability to hear music other than that officially sanctioned. Once he emigrated to the United States he began to learn many new composers and conductors.

He selected the following recordings for the "Music That Changed Me" column:

  • Mendelssohn:
    • Violin Concerto in E minor - Eugene Fodor, violin, New Philharmonia, Peter Maag, conductor
    • A Midsummer Night's Dream - Boston Symphony Orchestra, Erich Leinsdorf, conductor
  • Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto no. 1 - Emil Gilels, Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Evgeny Mravinsky, conductor
  • Mozart: Symphony no. 40 - NBC Symphony Orchestra, Arturo Toscanini, conductor
  • Schubert: Symphony no. 8 - Royal Concertbegouw Orchestra, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor
  • Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto no. 2 - Van Cliburn, piano, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, conductor

The body of the article mentions several different favored soloists and conductors, such as David Oistrakh playing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, Franz Konwitschny conducting Wagner, and Paul Kletzki conducting Schubert.

In 2006 Gramophone asked him who was the conductor he most admired:

The conductor I most admire and respect is Leonard Bernstein. He had a phenomenal musical talent. Not only was he a great conductor but also a wonderful composer, fabulous pianist, and a powerful educator of young audiences. One could agree or disagree with his approach to a particular score but ultimately he was so unbelievably passionate about music, and so convincing in his reading of the piece, that one couldn't help but feel that his way of interpreting it was the only right way. He even made works that, generally speaking, were not considered the most important seem like masterpieces.

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