Oleg Maisenberg

Pianist Oleg Maisenberg has been heard especially often in chamber music since emigrating to the West. He is also an important educator. Maisenberg was born on April 29, 1945, in Odesa, Ukraine, then part of the Soviet Union. He is of Jewish background. Maisenberg began studying the piano with his mother at age five. He attended the Central Music School in Kishinev (then also in the Soviet Union, now Chișinău, Moldova). Maisenberg went on to the Gnessin Institute in Moscow, among the premier music schools in the Soviet Union. His principal teacher there was Alexander Jocheles. In 1967, Maisenberg scored double breakthroughs with a pair of prizes in Austria, a second prize at the International Schubert Competition in Vienna, and first prize at the Music of the 20th Century Competition in Graz. Maisenberg was a major star in the Soviet Union in the 1970s, appearing as a concerto soloist with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and other top ensembles. His recording career began during the LP era. Maisenberg emigrated to Austria in 1981. Among his early digital recordings was a 1983 album on the Orfeo label featuring Schubert's Wanderer Fantasie, D. 760. Maisenberg soon found new opportunities comparable to those he had left in the Soviet Union. He appeared with major orchestras, including the Israel Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, and Philadelphia Orchestra, under such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Eugene Ormandy, Herbert Blomstedt, and even historical performance pioneer Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Maisenberg had begun to perform with violinist Gidon Kremer even before leaving the Soviet Union, and in the West, he has been especially well-known as a chamber musician. His list of collaborators includes baritone Hermann Prey, oboist Heinz Holliger, and pianist András Schiff. Maisenberg was also highly visible as a recitalist, and in 1994 and 1995, he mounted a 12-concert series at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, with each concert devoted to a different composer. Maisenberg has a substantial recording catalog on such labels as Deutsche Grammophon, Teldec, and Glissando. Maisenberg’s 1990 performance of Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16, with Germany’s SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg, was reissued in 2023 on the SWR Music label. Maisenberg taught at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Stuttgart. Later, he moved to the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna, where he numbered among his students Khatia Buniatishvili and several other important performers of the present day. ~ James Manheim