Pianist Jascha Nemtsov was on the fast track to success as a concert artist when he graduated from the Leningrad Conservatory in 1986 with distinction and a gold medal. Little did he suspect that an accidental meeting would turn him into a musical detective. Some fruits of his research are the focus of “The Last Romantics: Jewish Composers of Interwar Europe,” his Kennedy Center concert under the auspices of Pro Musica Hebraica.
“After moving from Russia to Germany, I met by chance an Israeli conductor living there who talked about Russian-Jewish composers I’d never heard of,” he said. “From the few names he gave me, I began researching. At first I was only interested in pianists and music composed for them. My interest in history soon led me to research at the state library in Berlin where there is a good collection of music printed by two Jewish publishers in Vienna at the beginning of the 20th century.
| Onstage |
| Jascha Nemtsov and friends |
| Where: Kennedy Center Terrace Theater |
| When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday |
| Info: $38 at 202-467-4600, 800-444-1324 or kennedy-center.org |
“I was so pleased by my discoveries that, three years later, I spent six weeks in the Russian archives for literature and the arts at St. Petersburg and Moscow. It was not easy to work there because they have rigid rules and you first have to establish personal connections. But I was highly motivated. After 16 years, I emerged with 100 pieces from Israel, Holland, Switzerland and elsewhere. Once I began using them in my concerts and recording them, I received lots of inquiries from musicians around the world.”
Among Nemtsov’s extensive discography are 25 CDs containing world premieres of lost and forgotten pieces he located. Along with the recordings, he wrote seven books about German Jewish composers, their music, struggles and contributions to culture. Today he is vitally important to the arts as both a pianist and as a Jewish musicologist. His honors include the BBC Magazine’s “Disc of the Month” award in April 2006 and the German Record Critics Prize in February 2008
For the Kennedy Center concert, he has chosen to present the world premiere of “Hebrew Suite” by Julius Chajes, the American premiere of “Chassidic Suite” for solo piano by Jacob Schoenberg and “Piano Trio” by the Soviet Jewish composer Mieczyslaw Weinberg. Nemtsov will be joined on stage by cellist Juilan Arp, violinist Frank Reinecke and clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein.
