Elisabeth Leonskaja

Elisabeth Leonskaja developed her distinguished pianistic profile under the guidance of Sviatoslav Richter and Emil Gilels. Like her older compatriot Maria Yudina, she maintained a notably self-effacing demeanor. Richter served as her mentor and regularly joined her for duo performances. Although she never attained the same critical and artistic summit as her celebrated teacher, her reputation as an inventive interpreter and commanding technician has conferred near-legendary standing, frequently inviting comparisons with Clara Haskil and other keyboard luminaries. Over the decades her programming has remained relatively traditional, centering on core concerto and solo works by Chopin, Brahms, and Prokofiev as well as chamber repertoire. In that domain she has appeared alongside the Alban Berg and Borodin quartets, the Vienna Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble, cellist Heinrich Schiff, and numerous additional partners.

Born on November 23, 1945, in Tbilisi, Georgia, to Russian parents, Leonskaja displayed prodigious talent from an early age and gave her first public recital at eleven. She pursued studies at the Moscow Conservatory, where she captured prizes at several major international competitions, among them the Queen Elizabeth, Marguerite Long, and Enescu. Richter soon took note of her, and the two forged a lifelong friendship that included frequent joint duo recitals. In 1978 she relocated to the West and made her home in Vienna. Her 1979 Salzburg Festival debut proved a resounding success, swiftly generating engagements across subsequent decades with leading orchestras in New York, Cleveland, Los Angeles, London, Berlin, Leipzig, and Hamburg.

Her recorded output likewise garnered recognition; the 1990 release of Brahms sonatas earned Belgium’s Caecilia Prize. Teldec issued one of Richter’s final recordings in 1995—duet sonatas by Mozart and Grieg performed with Leonskaja—two years before his death. Entering the new century, she has maintained an active presence on major stages. Her Carnegie Hall debut occurred in 2006, when she performed Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Kurt Masur. In 2014 the International Classical Music Awards named her Solo Recording of the Year for the album Paris, featuring works by Debussy, Enescu, and Ravel. She collaborated with the Artemis Quartett in 2019 on a recording of Shostakovich’s piano quintet and received the ICMA Lifetime Achievement Award the following year. Returning to Warner Classics in 2021, Leonskaja released her account of Mozart’s complete piano sonatas in 2022.