|
The Ukrainian-born pianist and composer, Leff [Lev] Nicolas Pouishnoff (Russian: Лев Николаевич Пышнов, Lev Nikolayevich Pyshnov), was born into an aristocratic Russian family in either Kiev or Odessa. He showed musical aptitude from the age of 3 and at the age of 5 gave two public concerts. His parents, not wishing him to be exploited, discouraged this, but after his father's death (when Leff was 9), the family moved to Kiev and financial constraints led to his accepting concert engagements, and he rapidly gained a reputation. Special arrangements were made for his schooling, where he had a particular interest in chemistry. At the age of 14 he joined the State Opera Company orchestra, but a chance meeting with Feodor Chaliapin persuaded him to pursue his piano studies. He studied piano at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory under Anna Yesipova (Annette Essipov). By this time, he was already 16; and he also studied composition with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Anatole Liadov and Alexander Glazunov, and conducting with Nikolai Tcherepnin. He was one of the most brilliant students of his time, and emerged in 1910 with a first class diploma, a Gold Medal, and a cash prize equivalent to £120 for a voyage to Europe. In that year he competed for the St Petersburg Rubinstein Prize against Arthur Rubinstein, Alexander Borowsky, Julius Isserlis, Edwin Fischer and Alfred Hoehn (the winner). However, instead of embarking at once on a high-profile recital career, he chose instead to make a musical tour through various European countries, studying their music and meeting their musicians, which greatly broadened his experience.
Returning to Russia at the age of 20, Leff Pouishnoff made a recital tour with the distinguished Hungarian violinist Leopold Auer, and followed this with a solo tour giving piano recitals, which resulted in many offers of engagements in the major European centres. He also took a position at the Conservatory of Music in Tiflis (now Tbilisi). His international reputation was growing when World War I interrupted his progress. Owing to short-sightedness, he was exempt from military service but, being confined to Russia, he played in military camps and gave a series of concerts for wounded and convalescent men in hospitals. He remained in Russia through the Russian Revolution, suffering considerable want, and in 1919 had the opportunity to make a concert tour in Persia (Iran), the first eminent European pianist to do so. After his successful completion of it he returned and soon afterwards escaped across the Russian frontier and made his way to Paris. In 1920 he moved on to London, where he was unknown, but gave his first and highly acclaimed recital at the Wigmore Hall on February 2, 1921, playing J.S. Bach and L.v. Beethoven, while others were of Robert Schumann and Frédéric Chopin and the ‘modern Russians’ Sergei Rachmaninov and Scriabin. He played four additional recitals at the Wigmore Hall during February and March 1921, and was greatly admired by Ernest Newman. From this point he made his home in Britain.
In September 1921, a Prom concert at the Queen’s Hall prompted one critic to write, ‘Liszt’s Pianoforte Concerto was played in brilliant style by Leff Pouishnoff; it was a performance marked by its dynamic power, its accuracy and fire.’ He appeared as soloist over the next few years in London playing Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor Op. 23: ‘With M. Pouishnoff in the solo part we had an extremely alive and exhilarating performance. M. Pouishnoff has the control really to play in a big style, and he never lets his tone become rough and coarse, while technically he was remarkably clear and sure.’ The next year it was Camille Saint-Saëns' Piano Concerto No. 4 in C minor Op. 44, a work not admired by a critic who wrote, ‘It is unfortunate that this fine pianist should again have been cast for a work so unworthy of his skill.’
As early as 1925 Leff Pouishnoff was broadcasting for the BBC (among the earliest pianists to broadcast from Savoy). The programme contained favourite works that would often feature in his recitals: Bach-Saint-Saëns' Overture in D major (BWV 29), Felix Mendelssohn’s Rondo Capriccioso Op. 14, a Polka Op. 42 by Glazunov, Albéniz’s Tango arranged by Leopold Godowsky and short works of Frédéric Chopin. He gained a reputation as a F. Chopin player and in summer 1926 gave a whole week of F. Chopin recitals at the Wigmore Hall, playing over 70 of the principal works. This was during the General Strike in Britain, but the success of the concerts led him to repeat them the following year.
Leff Pouishnoff made numerous orchestral appearances in Britain, in London at the Queen's Hall and Royal Albert Hall, with the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester and with the Scottish Orchestra. His many compositions for orchestra, violin and piano were still in manuscript in 1924, but his piano pieces were by then being published. After his successes in Britain, he began to make regular visits to the principal cities of France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. He made his first tour of America in seasons of 1924-1925 and 1925-1926, playing in major cities. In the mid-1930's he toured Australia and New Zealand, giving nearly a hundred concerts. His career eventually became worldwide. In 1938, he was the first pianist of international stature to broadcast on BBC television when he played Franz Liszt’s Piano Concerto in E flat, from Alexandra Palace. He had a very extensive technique, and a delicacy and sensitivity of nuance without effeminacy which won extremely high praise from some critics.
During World War II, Leff Pouishnoff performed regularly throughout Britain, giving he gave concerts to factory workers, miners and dockers, as well as playing for the troops in Europe and the Middle East; but after the war his career began to go into a decline. In 1953 he gave a recital at the Royal Festival Hall where the programme included Haydn’s Variations in F minor and F. Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor: ‘His pearly tone in the decorative passages, and sonorous cantabile touch, were pleasing, but Liszt’s Sonata is more than these and the reading was musically sketchy, especially in the dramatic sections.’ It would appear that towards the end of his career Pouishnoff’s technique became fallible and by the mid-1950's one reviewer accused him of having ‘…given up listening to his own playing’.
It was reported in June 1959 that Leff Pouishnoff had died from barbiturate poisoning, although the finding of the inquest was Death by Misadventure. An even sadder postscript found his wife, Dorothy (née Hildreth), a former pupil aged fifty, dead less than three weeks later of the same cause but with an Open verdict at inquest in this instance.
Although he was known for his interpretations of Frédéric Chopin, Leff Pouishnoff also played works by J.S. Bach, Haydn, L.v. Beethoven, Franz Liszt, Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann and Debussy as well as Scriabin and Sergei Rachmaninov. Ap, he gave the first London and Liverpool performances of S. Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor Op. 40. Certain works appeared frequently on his programmes including the Bach-Busoni's Chaconne arranged for piano. His playing was refined and elegant with a luminous tone that was sometimes caught by the recording process.
Leff Pouishnoff’s main recordings were made for Columbia who released some acoustic discs in the early 1920s including works of his own entitled Quand il pleut, Petite Valse and Musical Box; and a Bach-Saint-Saëns' arrangement. There is also a Polka, Op. 42, by Pouishnoff’s friend Glazunov. He made electrical recordings of some of his popular encores including L. Godowsky’s arrangement of Albéniz’s Tango, Paderewski’s Caprice in G major Op. 14 No. 3 and Percy Grainger’s Shepherd’s Hey, as well as a scintillating Gnomenreigen by F. Liszt which he had previously recorded acoustically. For Schubert’s centenary year of 1928 Pouishnoff was chosen to record the Piano Sonata in G major D. 894; this was the first recording of a complete Schubert piano sonata and it displays all of Pouishnoff’s best qualities; the luminous tone, elegance and suave control. There are also impressive examples of Pouishnoff playing works by S. Rachmaninov, including a very fine Prélude in B flat major Op. 23 No. 2 and Polichinelle Op. 3 No. 4. In recordings he is heard around 1930 as an extremely articulate and intelligent accompanist to Frank Titterton in Schubert song repertoire.
Between June 1948 and October 1949 Leff Pouishnoff made five visits to HMV’s Abbey Road recording studios. He recorded the Nocturne in B major Op. 32 No. 1, the Waltz in A flat Op. 34 No. 1, two études and the Mazurka in C sharp minor Op. 30 No. 4 by F. Chopin, returning to make five or six takes of most of the sides. The recordings still have Pouishnoff’s admirable traits of clarity, control and attention to detail, but lack the sparkle of the earlier recordings. Only the F. Chopin was issued by HMV, although also at these sessions, in August and October 1949, Pouishnoff had recorded Le Cygne by C. Saint-Saëns and a Schubert Moment Musical, both arranged by his friend Leopold Godowsky. However, perhaps most interesting of the unpublished sides would be that of Scriabin’s Two Poèmes Op. 32.
Leff Pouishnoff made one LP at the end of his life for the Saga label. Entitled "The Art of Pouishnoff", it contains favourite works of F. Chopin: the Polonaise-Fantaisie Op. 61, Berceuse Op. 57, Barcarolle Op. 60, Rondo Op. 16, Fantaisie-Impromptu Op. 66 and Nocturne in E flat Op. 9 No. 2. There is some fine playing in the Barcarolle and Fantaisie-Impromptu, but that in the final work, F. Liszt’s Mephisto-Waltz No. 1, betrays Pouishnoff’s age. In 2017, APR (Appian) released 2-CD album "Leff Pouishnoff: The complete 78 rpm and selected Saga LP recordings". |
