Artur Pizarro (born Lisbon, 1968) is an internationally-acclaimed Portuguese concert pianist.[1] Designated with the prestigious title of Yamaha Artist,[2] Pizarro won first prize in the 1987 Vianna da Motta International Music Competition and first prize in the 1990 Leeds International Pianoforte Competition.[1] His piano technic/knowledge is linked directly to Liszt himself (3 generations apart): his teacher for 17 years (and also his stepfather), Sequeira Costa, was a great Portuguese pianist who had studied with José Vianna Da Motta, another world famous Portuguese pianist who was one of the last pupils of Liszt.
Artur Pizarro began his piano studies in Lisbon with Campos Coelho, professor of piano at the Lisbon Conservatory of Music, at age three. At age five, he began studying with pianist Sequeira Costa, also in Lisbon.[3] In 1977, after Sequeira Costa accepted a position as Distinguished Professor of Piano at the University of Kansas,[4] Artur followed him to Lawrence, Kansas, in the United States. He continued working with Sequeira Costa until 1990, except for a brief interruption during which Artur also worked with other teachers, including Aldo Ciccolini, Géry Moutier and Bruno Rigutto at the Conservatoire de Paris.[5] He attended the American School of Lisbon in his youth.
Artur Pizarro gave his first public performance at the age of three, at the Lisbon Conservatory of Music. He made his television début on Portuguese television at the age of four. He refrained from public performance for the next nine years, while he concentrated on his music studies. The young Pizarro began performing publicly again at the age of 13 with a recital début at the São Luíz Theatre in Lisbon and made his concerto debut with the Gulbenkian Orchestra later in the same year.[5]
CKD 355 Albéniz Iberia and Granados Goyescas (Released July 2010)
CKD 336 Beethoven Piano Concertos 3, 4 &5
CKD 315 The Complete Works of Ravel Vol. 2
CKD 293 (with Vita Panomariovaite) Rimsky-Korsakov – Piano Duos
CKD 290 The Complete Works of Ravel Vol. 1
CKD 250 Chopin Piano Sonatas
CKD 248 Reminiscences – Frédéric Chopin
CKD 244 Beethoven Piano Sonatas
CKD 225 Beethoven: Last Three Piano Sonatas
Harmonia Mundi
HMI 987022 Capricho Pintoresco (with Joan Enric Lluna) Miguel Yuste – Capricho Pintoresco, Turina – Sonata no.2 Op.82, Miguel Yuste – Vibraciones del alma, Eduard Toldrà – 3 Sonets, Granados /Guinovart – Fantasia sobre Goyescas, Robert Casadesus – Sonata Op.23 bis
Hyperion Records
CDA 67014 Darius Milhaud ( with Stephen Coombs) Scaramouche, Kentuckiana, Le Bal Martiniquais, Les Songes, Carnaval à la Nouvelle-Orléans, La Libertadora, Le Boeuf sur le Toit
CDA67163 José Vianna da Motta Piano Concerto in A major, Ballada, Fantasia Dramatica ( with Martyn Brabbins and Orquestra Gulbenkian)
Naxos
8.557272 Artur Pizarro Rodrigo Piano Music Naxos
Brilliant Classics
92790 Liszt Hungarian Rhapsodies (complete)
KLARA
Klara KTC 4013 Arthur de Greef Concerto Nr 2 for Piano & Orchestra Flemish Radio Orchestra Cond. Yannick Nezet-Seguin.
Collins Classics
13572 Liszt Sonata in b minor, 3 Petrarch Sonnets, Two Legends
13942 Scriabin Complete Mazurkas
14182 Kabalevsky The Piano Sonatas, 4 Preludes Op.5, Recitative and Rondo Op.84
14342 Rodrigo Piano Works – Cinco Piezas del Siglo XVI, Tres Evocaciones, Cuatro Piezas para piano, Deux Berceuses, Cuatro Estampas Andaluzas, A l'ombre de Torre Bermeja
14582 Vorisek Piano Works Vol. 1 – Fantasie Op.12, Sonata Op.20, Variations Op.19, Impromptus Op.7
14662 Musiques d'Espagne ( with Sequeira Costa) Granados – El Pelele, Infante – Trois Danses Andalouses, Musiques d'Espagne, Cassado – Requiebros, Albeniz – Navarra, Falla – Two Dances from " La Vida Breve", Pantomime, Ritual Fire Dance
14772 Vorisek Piano Works Vol.2 – 12 Rhapsodies Op.1, Le Desir Op.3, Le Plaisir Op.4 14962 Scriabin – Shostakovich 24 Preludes Op.11, 24 Preludes Op.34
14982 Bach transcribed by Liszt Fantasie and Fugue BWV542, 6 Organ Preludes and Fugues BWV 543, 544, 545, 546, 547, 548
15052 Rachmaninov – Scriabin Concerto no.3 in d minor Op.30, Concerto in f sharp minor Op.20 (with the NDR Hannover Radio Philharmonie and Martyn Brabbins)
15152 Mompou Cançons i danses (Songs and Dances), Impressiones Intimas
Royal Philharmonic Records
CDRPO 7024 (with Sequeira Costa) Rachmaninov Suite no.1 "Fantasie-Tableaux" Op.5
Regarding Pizarro's 2007 recording of Ravel's complete piano musiconLinn Records: "This is a very grown-up disc on all counts. I would definitely recommend it and look forward to hearing the second volume."(BBC Music Online)[13]
Regarding Pizarro's 2006 recording of Chopin Piano SonatasonLinn Records: "The majestic Third Sonata can hardly be bettered and with the fine natural recorded sound we could very well have the Chopin release of the year." (Marius Dawn, Pianist Magazine, March 2007)[7]
Regarding Pizarro's 2005 recording of Chopin pieces, Reminisces on Linn Records: "Even alongside legendary recordings by such pianists as Rubinstein, this collection features some of the finest Chopin playing on record." (The Herald)[14]
Regarding Pizarro's 2003 recording of Beethoven Piano SonatasonLinn Records: "Let no one say there is no room for another set of established masterpieces when the pianist is possessed with this sort of recreative energy and exuberance." (Bryce Morrison, Gramophone, August 1, 2004)[15] "In every way, a disc to be sought out." (The Herald)[16]
"There was nothing to prove – he had done it all; the audience just wanted to hear more and made it a point to shout for it as well."(Johann D'Souza, Inkpot.com, Singapore)[17]
"Artur Pizarro is a poet among pianists. His playing can sing. He can trace the finest of melodic lines with a purity that will catch your breath. He can colour a harmony with the subtlest of shades. He has sensitivity and power in rare balance. … Enough said?" (Michael Tumelty, The Herald)[18]
"Pizarro is an aristocrat, producing flowing lines in a style almost unfamiliar these days. He must be one of the best pianists of the younger generation (and arguably, of any other generation)." (Michael Tumelty, The Herald)[3]
