Menahem Pressler, formerly of Beaux Arts Trio, still savors the musical life
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Menahem Pressler credits music as his "reason to be alive."
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Biographies of musicians often go by the subtitle of "A life in music." For pianist Menahem Pressler, 87 and now into his seventh decade as an esteemed performer, the better name might be a "life of music."
"I have been hungry to make music since I was young," he says from his studio in Bloomington, Ind. "I feel I start to live when I do it; it is my reason to be alive."
Featuring: Menahem Pressler, piano.
When: 7:30 p.m. Monday.
Where: Bellefield Hall, Oakland.
Tickets: $15-$35; 412-624-4129.
That rich sustenance is energizing him for his incredibly busy schedule at an age when many touring musicians have long since retired. A recent spate of back-to-back trips took him to Germany, Poland and Austria, then back to Indiana, and then to China and then back to the United States (St. Paul).
"I don't know how I keep up," he says. "I played a concert on a Saturday in Toronto, and Sunday there was master class in the morning there and then a master class in the evening -- in Los Angeles! Many people thought it was a mistake on my website."
Perhaps Mr. Pressler is simply accustomed to the grind because he spent nearly 55 years performing as the pianist of the Beaux Arts Trio. He was a founding member of the chamber group that traveled in the upper echelon of the classical music circuit, including stops in Pittsburgh, until disbanding in 2008.
The New York Times called the group "in a class by itself" and the Washington Post named it "the gold standard [of] trios throughout the world."
But surely Mr. Pressler's endurance also came somewhat from misfortune. He was hardened by an unwanted detour: forced to leave his hometown of Magdeburg, Germany, in 1939 at the age of 14 to escape the Nazis. He immigrated to Israel and then later to America.
Interestingly, the Beaux Arts Trio's touring schedule did take its toll, but not on Mr. Pressler. The last configuration of the group included violinist Daniel Hope, whose international solo career took off to the point that he had to leave the trio. For Mr. Pressler, this was the last sign that the ensemble had run its course. Mr. Hope would have stayed on part time, but Mr. Pressler thought better of it.
First Published January 20, 2011 12:00 am
