A chair for Menahem Pressler
OrchestrasChamber Music Detroit has endowed a Menahem Pressler Chair in Chamber Music.
They say: ‘Pressler was maybe the greatest chamber musician who ever lived. It is an incredible honor and privilege to be able to have as the first occupant of that chair someone like Daniel Hope, who performed with him hundreds of times.’
Heartwarming news. When so much else looks bleak.
The Oxford Philharmonic has created the Menahem Pressler Scholarships offered to students attending the Oxford Piano Festival, the Orchestra’s Summer Academy for pianists, at which Professor Pressler has given numerous masterclasses over many years.
That’s so beautiful and appropriate. The Beaux Arts trio came to Cambridge, MA, when I was teaching there. Menachem Pressler would peep over the top of the music to check in with the violin and cello and sharing with them with such joy in making music together. This concert was unforgettable, an inspiration how music connects us with warmth.
It is certainly correct that Pressler is perhaps the greatest chamber musician of all time. His complete survey of the Haydn piano trios with the Beaux Arts Trio, alone, would be enough to substantiate such praise. Well done, Detroit.
The first time I heard Menahem Pressler live was at the University of Illinois in Champaign, and the Beaux Arts played the finale of Beethoven’s Opus 1 No. 1 as an encore. From the first note, the sound he created was magical!
I heard him several times thereafter, and he seemed to be a gentle, kind soul who even in his nineties always gave us a gift of wonderful music.