Tune in every day at 1PM for complete performance of the Austrian-Canadian artist.

Anton Kuerti has performed with leading orchestras and conductors in nearly 50 countries.

In Canada, Kuerti has appeared in 150 communities from coast to coast, and has played with every professional orchestra, including the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

His vast repertoire includes some 50 piano concertos; he has recorded all the Beethoven concertos and sonatas, the Brahms and Schumann concertos, and all the Schubert sonatas, among many other releases. CD Review (London) called him “one of the truly great pianists of this century”.  Kuerti has also been a champioin of lesser classical lights such as Carl Czerny.

 

 

In June, 2002, Anton Kuerti served as director of the the world's first Czerny Festival in Edmonton. Artists such as the St. Lawrence String Quartet and violinist Erika Raum joined Anton Kuerti in celebrating the works of Carl Czerny at Convocation Hall and the Winspear Center.

Kuerti was also the founding director of the Festival of the Sound, an annual summer event in Parry Sound, Ont., and runs Mooredale Concerts, a Toronto series begun by his late wife, the cellist Kristine Bogyo.

He made his debut at age 11 with the Boston Pops Orchestra, and won the prestigious Leventritt Award when he was still a student.

Other awards and honours include Officer of the Order of Canada, the Banff Centre National Arts Award, the Schumann Prize of the Schumann Gesellschaft, the Governor General’s Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award, and honourary doctorates from several universities including McGill, York, Dalhousie, Brandon, Wilfrid Laurier, and The University of Western Ontario.

Political views

A longtime peace activist, Kuerti ran unsuccesfully as a  New Democratic Party candidate in Don Valley North in the 1988 federal election. He signed a tax resistance vow in 1966 to protest the Vietnam War and was registered as a conscientious objector.

Illness and Disappearance.

On Thursday, October 17, 2013, Kuerti was overcome by an unspecified medical condition while playing a concert in Miami. He was rushed to hospital after repeatedly playing over musical passages and expressing himself incoherently near the beginning of his Beethoven programme. He was 75-years-old

Since then, neither the family or friends of Kuerti have said a word about what happened exactly or how the pianist is doing.

 

Kuerti tuned all of the pianos he performed on. Here is a great video from the 2012 Scotiabank Northern Lights Music Festival in Ajijic, Mexico where he was a featured performer.

 

 

10 Essential Piano Works According to Anton Kuerti

When asked to cite what he beliives to be the 10 essential piano works, here's what he picked:

 

J.S. Bach: Prelude & Fugue in E minor from the Well-tempered Clavier, book 2
Kuerti's recommended recording: Arthur Loesser (Doremi).

Bach is of course, strictly speaking, not piano music, but as the first giant of the keyboard he could not be omitted. One could just as well have chosen any other of the 48 chapters of the Well-tempered Clavier, but this one is, for me, a special favourite.

W.A. Mozart: Fantasia in C minor

Mozart’s most stunning works are his operas and piano concerti, but this gem has all the sweetness, fury and profundity of his greatest works. Whenever he writes in minor, only about seven per cent of his output, he says something especially important.

Ludwig van Beethoven: Piano Sonata in A-flat major Op. 110

As in the case of Bach (the “old testament”), one could have chosen any of the 32 sonatas that make up the “new testament.” This one exhibits a sublime sweetness, as well as furor in the second movement, and the arioso and the fugue in the finale give us the closest to vocal and choral writing one can find in piano music, capped by a glorious climax.

Frédéric Chopin: Étude in A-flat major Op. 25, No. 1

Chopin cannot be omitted. I call him the greatest opera composer who never wrote an opera! The Étude in A-flat major Op. 25, No. 1, is a restrained but heavenly aria. Though short, it tells a complete and satisfying story.

Franz Schubert: Impromptu in G-flat major D. 899, No. 3

Schubert’s style combines song, dance rhythms and exquisite modulations. From a wealth of possibilities, let’s choose the Impromptu in G-flat major D. 899, No. 3. The ravishing sound quality churning between the treble and the bass gives this gem a special patina of its own, and the modulations here are beyond delicious!

Robert Schumann: Fantasy Op. 17

Schumann’s Fantasy Op. 17 displays his unique spontaneity. Full of passion, poetry, fire and whimsy, it is his finest large-scale piano work. Shimmering sounds, overwhelming romantic extravagance and spellbinding melodic sequences are all in the foreground.

Felix Mendelssohn: Andante and Rondo Capriccioso Op. 8

Mendelssohn's Andante and Rondo Capriccioso Op. 8 is one of the most famous short piano pieces ever written. Interesting how it starts in major and ends in minor. The Andante reveals a luminous melody, while the rondo is in Mendelssohn’s famous scherzo mood, similar to and in the same key as the overture to A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Johannes Brahms: Intermezzo Op. 117, No. 1

Brahms’s late piano works have a nostalgic purity, a summary of his sophisticated wisdom. This Intermezzo’s apparent sweetness is just the surface of a deep sadness. It is a lullaby bidding farewell to the world.

Franz Liszt: Sonata in B minor

Like him or not, Liszt must be included as the composer and pianist who brought the instrument to its blinding pinnacle of virtuosity. Liszt’s Sonata in B minor is a fascinating mixture of bravura and deep feeling. It incorporates a marvelous fugue, rather unusual in the romantic repertoire.

César Franck: Prélude, Chorale and Fugue

A sample of French music must also be included, as it dominated the creative harvest of the turn of the 20th century. However, I shall choose César Franck, the Belgian genius, to represent France. His Prélude, Chorale and Fugue is a heroic work, displaying unique and original sonorities and a monumental fugue, reflecting his devotion to the organ.

 

Notes from the Kuerti Keyboard