Benno Moiseiwitsch

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Benno Moiseiwitsch

British pianist

Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

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Born:: Feb. 22, 1890, Odessa, Ukraine, Russian Empire

Died:: April 9, 1963, London (aged 73)

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Benno Moiseiwitsch (born Feb. 22, 1890, Odessa, Ukraine, Russian Empire—died April 9, 1963, London) was a British pianist of Russian birth who excelled in playing the works of Sergey Rachmaninoff and P.I. Tchaikovsky.

His early training was with Dmitry Klimov in Odessa; Moiseiwitsch won the Rubinstein Prize at the age of nine. He studied with Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna from 1904 to 1908, then joined his family in England, making his English debut at Reading in 1908, his London debut the following year. He toured the United States (first in 1919), Australia, India, Japan, and South America. He became a naturalized British citizen in 1937.

His style was probably modeled on Rachmaninoff’s; it was exuberant and energetic yet had an elegant and refined touch. He had a large repertory and excelled in playing Romantic, and especially Russian, works.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.