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 Tzvi Erez, Piano Solo
Singularity, originality, and a deep understanding of music inform and define the towering musical talent of Tzvi Erez. Born in Israel, he began to toy with a piano when he was three and to study it formally at the age of six. His musical skills were already well developed when he arrived in Canada as a teenager in 1982. In Toronto he continued his musical education under the tutelage, among others, of Mildred Kenton at The Royal Conservatory of Music. This education was further extended and enriched by his numerous experiences in Canada, the United States, and Europe both as a contestant at piano competitions and as a piano soloist in performance.
In January 2000, Tzvi Erez began a landmark recording of well-loved selections from Beethoven’s works for piano — a landmark recording in the sense that it was Tzvi’s first; that the music he played was enhanced by the sound of his own, vintage, 1912 Bösendorfer grand piano; and that, on the release of the CD almost a year later, the recording was accepted and indeed, acclaimed, by the most influential classical radio stations and record stores across Canada. As a follow-up to this release, Tzvi played excerpts from his CD to a sell-out crowd at the Toronto Centre of the Arts (the George Weston Recital Hall) in February 2001. Two months later he returned, with violinist Mirel Resnik, to the same venue and the same enthusiastic reception.
A studio, rather than the concert stage, is Tzvi Erez’ preferred recording venue, because the studio gives him a degree of flexibility denied him on stage to perfect his recordings. Never the-less, he does not shrink from accepting invitations to play to live audiences, including gala fundraising events on behalf of charitable organizations, at which he volunteers his services.
A concert back in March 2002 (a programme of selections from the works of Beethoven and Chopin that Tzvi Erez played to a full house at the Glen Gould Studio) presaged the fulfilment of a long-held ambition: the issue of this digital recording — featuring Chopin’s most popular nocturnes, impromptus, etudes, waltzes, polonaises, mazurkas, preludes, and ballades — as a tribute to a master for whose music Tzvi has long felt a strong affection, respect, and admiration.
Tzvi Erez acknowledges that his recording Tzvi Erez plays Chopin was a challenging task to attempt and that he could not have completed it alone. He is particularly grateful to Andrew Burashko for his advice and careful ear in the early stages of recording, and reserves his special thanks for Antonin Kubalek’s continued perception and support in the later stages. Mildred Kenton he blesses from the bottom of his heart for her guidance in general and, in particular, for introducing him to the delights and challenges of Chopin’s Ballade in G Minor that he has added to his list of selections.
Since the DVD reproduces a true Surround (Dolby Digital 5.1) Sound of the performance and a simultaneous, flowing video image of the performer at his Bösendorfer keyboard, acknowledgements must include the technical sorcerers who melded the magic of multiple media into a single artistic creation. Tzvi recognizes and thanks Fred Kinck Petersen for his great studio facilities, engineering skills, and determination to ’get it right’; George Kolasis for being the best piano technician that Tzvi has ever known; and Gershon Srubiski of SVP Productions for long, taxing hours of arresting camera work. And acknowledgements would be incomplete without reference to a lifetime of love and support from Tzvi’s sister and parents and to Tzvi’s wife Justine and their daughter Kessem who are destined to share their lives with a charismatic genius. As always, Tzvi dedicates this recording in memory of his brother Niv Erez z’l.
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