Born into a very musical family in a small town near Kiev, Jascha Spivakovsky demonstrated incredible pianistic talent from the age of three. He moved to Odessa and became famous across the Russian Empire as a child prodigy, but was almost murdered and forced to hide under straw for five days during the 1905 Pogrom. He fled with his family to Berlin, where he was offered pupillage at the internationally renowned Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatorium. Privileged there to learn from a direct student of the immortals Franz Liszt and Anton Rubinstein, he combined their performance secrets with his innate gifts to create a thrilling new playing style. His sound signature was distinguished by scintillating brilliance and astonishing power, golden tone and crystal texture, exquisite phrasing and overwhelming passion. Audiences around the world responded with scenes of wild enthusiasm, reminiscient of the outbreak of Lisztomania in the 1800s. The most discerning critics proclaimed him one of the greatest pianists in the world, the heir of Liszt and Rubinstein, master exponent of all the great composers, and the finest living interpreter of Brahms. Forging new artistic pathways with characteristic dash and daring, he also founded a duo famed across Europe and a trio proclaimed the finest in the world. In the early Thirties, his leading reputation for interpreting German composers infuriated the Nazis, who disrupted his concerts and put him on a hit-list. Warned of the danger by Maestro Richard Strauss in a musically-coded secret message, he fled to Australia and put his musical career on hold, working tirelessly to help people increasingly desperate to escape from Germany. After the war he reclaimed his global reputation as master of all musical styles, dedicating himself to the most challenging works in all pianoforte literature. The rarity and greatness of his performances rendered even the toughest critics speechless.
