Mordecai Shehori

Mordecai Shehori (born 20 April 1946) is an Israeli-American pianist.

Mordecai Shehori, pianist

Biography

Shehori was born in Israel and studied in Tel Aviv with Mindru Katz, whom he cites as his most influential teacher.[1] At the age of nine he gave his first public performance. Later he received first prize in the Beethoven Competition[2] and received the American Israel Cultural Foundation Award. In New York, he studied with Claude Frank at the Mannes College of Music and graduated from the Juilliard School.

Shehori made his New York debut after winning the 1974 Jeunesses Musicales Competition.[2] He concertises in the United States, Canada, and Europe and has performed at various music festivals and at the White House. He has given 27 different recital programs in New York in as many years. His commercial recordings for Connoisseur Society and Cembal d'amour include music by Beethoven, Chopin, Scarlatti, Liszt, Rameau, Rachmaninoff, and many others. He is a two-time recipient of the La Gesse Foundation Award, and is listed on the roster of Steinway & Sons.

From 1971 to 1982, Shehori was piano teacher to Isaac and Vera Stern's children. In spite of that In 2014, Shehori has stated that Stern used his total control of the music world as the president of Carnegie Hall to dictate managements, presenters, record companies who he approves and who according to him should NOT have a career in music. He attempted to sabotage Shehori's career, as he did with the great violinists David Nadien, Berl Senofsky, Aaron Rosand, Shmuel Askenazi and many others, exerting huge and insulting pressure on Shehori's family to force him to return to Israel and by blocking any possibility of Shehori making a living as a concert pianist. [3]

In February 1987, Shehori assisted Vladimir Horowitz in preparing Mozart's Piano Concerto K.488, playing the orchestral reduction on second piano, while Horowitz played the concerto's solo part. This took place in the basement of Steinway & Sons in New York City.[4] Later that year, Horowitz traveled to Milan and recorded the concerto for Deutsche Grammophon with the La Scala Theater Orchestra conducted by Carlo Maria Giulini.[5]

Horowitz was so pleased with Shehori's accompaniment that he began to invite him to his home on East 94th Street. Shehori spent many evenings with the Horowitzes.[6] Shehori acted as page turner for Horowitz in what turned out to be the sessions for his final recording in Horowitz's New York home from October 24, 1989 to November 1, 1989. Horowitz died just a few days later, on November 5, 1989. Shehori has cited his friendship and artistic collaboration with Vladimir Horowitz as a significant source of knowledge and inspiration.


“Mordecai Shehori’s concert served as a welcome reminder that there is a place for originality in re-creations of classical materials.”

The New York Times

Making a Lost Style Speak to Today’s Ears (Headline)

"Mr. Shehori readings are a fascinating reminder that the largely vanished performance style he has espouse took in not only bombastic, flashy playing, but also the gentlest and sweetest of pianissimos.”

The New York Times

“Mordecai Shehori is a musician’s musician—that is, a sort of

pianist whom it will profit other pianists to study. But there is no

reason why the general public shouldn't know of him, too, for he

brings unity, proportion, intelligence and sensitivity to all that he

plays."

New York Newsday

Shehori: Poetry in Music (Headline)

"Shehori’s temperament seems to hunt out the poetry in musical

form, the spiritual content of each score."

The Washington Post

“Shehori is rock solid and deeply musical. This is a big—hearted interpretation, with a beautiful variety of tone colour and a sense of empathy with the composer."

BBC Music Magazine

“Everything he tackled on this formidable program emerged Colorful and brightly characterized, the combination of great confidence, a lively imagination, and excellent technique."

The Boston Globe

"Shehori is a man with exceptional gifts. Technically he is extremely accomplished, although this facility is always employed to serve his larger musical goals. As well, there is always a concern on Shehori's part for the architectural design of the music and the need to impart this message to the listener."

The Gazette, Montreal

“Mordecai Shehori is a marvelous pianist in almost every conceivable category. Indeed, if elegance had a middle name, it would be Shehori. At last here is a pianist who not only understand the power of gentleness but puts it to work at every opportunity. Though it goes without saying that is technique is impeccable, something more is afoot when he plays, as he found a way to harness the storm before the calm.”

American Record Guide

“If one titles his Liszt recital “Love and the Devil” he’d better play like the Devil—and Shehori does. Color, voltage, and volatility dissolve Liszt’s glittering sound masses so fluently into surges of sheer expressiveness that the piano seems an extension of Shehori’s antic disposition….Mephisto’s scraping enchantments, for once, evince genuine seductiveness, sensual magic.”

Fanfare Magazine

Mordecai Shehori, The Celebrated New York Concerts Vol 2 (2007 Cembal d'Amour)

References
  1. Interview with Mordecai Shehori by Victor Eskenasy, Suplimentul de cultura, June 2008 (in Romanian) Part 1 Part 2
  2. David Dubal, Remembering Horowitz - 125 Pianists Recall a Legend (paperback), Schirmer Books, 1993, pg 240. ISBN 0-02-860269-2
  3. Mordecai Shehori (2014-07-11). "New memoir: 'Isaac Stern tried to expel me from the US'". Slipped Disc blog. Retrieved 2014-07-28.
  4. David Dubal, Remembering Horowitz - 125 Pianists Recall a Legend (paperback), Schirmer Books, 1993, pg 241. ISBN 0-02-860269-2
  5. Harold C. Schonberg, Horowitz: His Life and Music, Simon & Schuster, 1992, pg 305. ISBN 0-671-72568-8
  6. Harold C. Schonberg, Horowitz: His Life and Music, Simon & Schuster, 1992, pg 304. ISBN 0-671-72568-8

Reviews of Concerts

Reviews of Recordings
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