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Zoltán Kocsis

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Zoltán Kocsis was a Hungarian pianist, conductor and composer, born in 1952 in Budapest. He began music at the age of five and from 1963 studied at the Bartók Conservatory and later at the Franz Liszt Academy, where Pál Kadosa, Ferenc Rados and György Kurtág were his teachers. In 1970 he won the Hungarian Radio's Beethoven Competition and in 1971 he made his first tour of the United States. He received the Liszt Prize in 1973 and the Kossuth Prize in 1978.

Music and breakthrough

Kocsis played with, among others, the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic and the Wiener Philharmoniker. He recorded Béla Bartók's complete solo works for piano and the works for piano and orchestra. In 1990 he won a Gramophone award for his recording of Debussy's Images and other piano works. In 1983 he founded the Budapest Festival Orchestra with Iván Fischer, and from 1987 he also led it as a conductor. From 1997 until his death in 2016 he was music director of the Hungarian National Philharmonic. He also wrote original works and arrangements of music by Wagner, Rachmaninoff, Bartók and Debussy, and in 2010 he completed the last act of Schoenberg's opera Moses und Aron.

Influence

According to Grove Music he had an impressive technique and a direct, strongly rhythmic style of playing that nevertheless never sounded mechanical. He felt at home with Bach, but also with contemporary music, and gave the first performances of work by Kurtág. With his playing of Bartók and with his orchestra he helped give the Hungarian classical tradition a new face.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to his recording of Debussy's Images and notice the tone colours he draws from the piano. Notice how softly and precisely the chords are struck.

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists