Some marvelous excerpts from Mordecai Shehori's new "Celebrated New
York Concerts" CD have appeared on youtube:-

* Rachmaninoff Moment Musicaux Op 16 No 2 (May 15, 1984, Merkin
Concert Hall)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFAljS0GHHA


* Kabalevsky Sonata No 3 Op 46 in F major 3rd movement (May 20, 1987,
Merkin Concert Hall)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nIu1ohPeAQ


This new CD, just issued on Cembal d'amour, features the following
works:-

Beethoven Sonata No 32 Op 111
Rachmaninoff Six Moments Musicaux Op 16
Kabalevsky Sonata No 3 Op 46
Liszt Dante Sonata

All recorded live in New York between 1984-1987.


Here's a brief biographical sketch of the artist:-

"Born into an artistically gifted family in Israel, Mordecai Shehori
embraces a rich pianistic tradition that emphasizes a unique physical
and spiritual approach to music making, as taught to him early on by
the legendary pianist Mindru Katz. Mr. Shehori came to America to
continue his musical studies and graduated from the Juilliard School,
under the tutelage of Beveridge Webster, and later studied with Claude
Frank at the Mannes College of Music. Today Mr. Shehori is
internationally recognized for his brilliant virtuosity, sophisticated
and inspired interpretation, and consummate musicianship. Having
performed and recorded a wide-ranging repertoire, Shehori cites his
close collaboration and friendship with Vladimir Horowitz as a
significant source of knowledge and inspiration, along with one-on-one
sessions with such important pianists as Stefan Askenase (a student of
Liszt's disciple Emil von Sauer), Gina Bachauer, Alexis Weissenberg,
and violinist Nathan Milstein.

Mordecai Shehori resided for many years in New York City, where he was
sought after and admired as a highly skilled teacher. He devotes much
of his time to teaching the art of the piano to students ranging from
music lovers to professional pianists, including graduates of the
Juilliard School, the Manhattan School of Music, and the Mannes
College of Music.

Mr. Shehori is the founder and president of Cembal d'amour, a
classical music recording company dedicated to the release of rare
historical recordings by such legendary figures as Jascha Heifetz,
Simon Barere, Henryk Szeryng, Mindru Katz, Berl Senofsky, and David
Nadien.

Shehori's annual New York concerts (twenty-seven to date) are eagerly
anticipated by a broad audience of musically sophisticated
listeners."


*********************

And here's a review of one of Shehori's concerts at the Weill Recital
Hall, from New York Times:-

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE3D61F30F93AA35756C0A966958260

REVIEW/PIANO - A RECITALIST TO UNDERMINE A CRITIC

By DONAL HENAHAN
Published: May 9, 1990

About halfway through Mordecai Shehori's piano recital on Monday
evening at Weill Recital Hall, it occurred to me that I was enjoying
myself much too much. Part of a reviewer's duty is to pay unwavering
attention to the mechanical details that form the base of any
proficient performance. That, however, proved difficult to do because
the techniques of playing the instrument were continually being
upstaged by the music itself.

About halfway through Mordecai Shehori's piano recital on Monday
evening at Weill Recital Hall, it occurred to me that I was enjoying
myself much too much. Part of a reviewer's duty is to pay unwavering
attention to the mechanical details that form the base of any
proficient performance. That, however, proved difficult to do because
the techniques of playing the instrument were continually being
upstaged by the music itself. The musician, whose medium just happened
to be the piano, consistently got under the skin of the score and cut
toward the expressive bone. Result: pure, guilty pleasure. At piano
recitals especially, that happens infrequently enough to deserve
mention.

Mr. Shehori, who was born in Israel and studied at the Juilliard
School, has developed a cult following in New York piano circles, for
good reason. He certainly possesses a suitably big technique - one
does not offer the public Brahms's Variations and Fugue on a Theme of
Handel and Liszt's arrangement of the Polonaise from Tchaikovsky's
''Eugene Onegin'' without reliable fingers. Still, mindless and
heartless keyboard fluency is not uncommon nowadays and perhaps never
was. What sets Mr. Shehori apart from most virtuosos with their off-
the-shelf performances is the poetic inwardness and rapturous
intensity of his playing, which was as affecting in Tchaikovsky's
disjointed and weakly developed Sonata in G as in the elegiac calm of
the same composer's Barcarolle in G minor.

Mr. Shehori's tone, though remarkable for singing beauty and refined
shadings, was never laid out for esthetic admiration. In pianism on
any serious level, tone is inseparable from expressive sense and most
counterproductive when it calls the most attention to itself. Mr.
Shehori himself is not a riveting stage figure. His manner is wry and
genial, almost apologetic. His music-making, however, can be intensely
personal, even at times quirky, without seeming self-conscious or
eccentric.

The Shehori program this time, typically out of the ordinary, was
fashioned as a tribute to Brahms and Tchaikovsky, both of whom were
born on May 7 (the former in 1833, the latter in 1840). The genius of
Brahms was summed up by the recitalist in the four varied pieces of
Opus 119, the last of 30 priceless miniatures that some pianists would
not trade for all the composer's grander works. The introspective
Intermezzo in B minor benefited from Mr. Shehori's feathery touch and
exquisite phrasing. At the other end of the dynamic spectrum, the
mighty chords of the Rhapsodie in E flat resounded almost too richly.

In the Rhapsodie and at similarly rambunctious pages of other pieces,
Mr. Shehori's generous use of the sustaining pedal could build
sonorities beyond the capacity of the small hall to register them
cleanly. Most of the time, however, the pianist's feet were used as
subtly as his fingers. Although much of Mr. Shehori's New York career
to date has been pursued in the smaller halls, that is by no means a
measure of his talent. The large and enthusiastic audience at this
recital seemed to recognize that.

MORDECAI SHEHORI - PIANIST

At Weill Recital Hall.

Brahms ''Klavierstucke'' (Op. 119); Variations and Fugue on a Theme by
Handel (Op. 24)

Tchaikovsky Sonata in G (Op. 37); Barcarolle (Op. 37a)

Liszt Polonaise from Tchaikovsky's Opera ''Eugene Onegin''


***** LINKS *****

Cembal d'amour - http://www.cembaldamour.com

Victoria Hamilton (Shehori's personal manager) - http://www.vhamilton.com/index.html

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