Porträt Elisabeth Leonskaja

»It’s always about responsibility.« For music and for people. This ideal is always evident in her playing, no matter what she performs. For she does not seek to display technical brilliance, but rather to reveal her search for authenticity. Elisabeth Leonskaja is undoubtedly one of the great pianists of our time. In her native city of Tbilisi, she was once honoured with the title »Priestess of Art«. This also reflects her idea of responsibility. 

Shortly after completing her training in Moscow, Elisabeth Leonskaja left the former Soviet Union and found her adopted home in Vienna, the city whose composers the pianist has felt closely connected to throughout her life. In three concerts, the portrait artist of the current season presents her entire stylistic diversity and musical preferences. 

Chamber music is an essential factor in her work, whether earlier with the Alban Berg Quartet or today with the Jerusalem Quartet. As a soloist, Elisabeth Leonskaja regularly returns to the music of Mozart, as in a performance of the »Jeunehomme« Concerto with the Concertgebouw Kamerorkest. Finally, she devotes herself to what she smilingly calls »the shortest programme in the world«: the last three piano sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven, one of the pinnacles of piano literature.