Mikhail fikhtengoltz

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Born on June 1, 1920, violinist Mikhail Fikhtengolz was a pupil of the famous teacher Pyotr Stolyarsky in Odessa, Ukraine (Soviet Union), also teacher of David Oistrakh, Elizaveta Gilels and others.

Fikhtengoltz won the national competition for young performers in Leningrad (St. Petersourg) at the age of 15. In 1937 he won the Izai international competition in Brussels with Elizaveta Gilels and other young Soviet violinists.

He married the daughter of a high-placed government official, who, after a while, was executed as an "enemy of the people". Fikhtengolz refused to divorce her and immediately had all prestigious concerts cancelled. The nervous strain was heavy on him, and one of his hands failed - after a few minutes of playing, a pain forced him to stop.

Mikhail started making arrangements of popular piano and orchestral pieces, working in the studio, where he could always take a break and endure the pain. He was also increasingly getting into teaching, and soon after he was already teaching at Moscow’s Music Institute founded by the Gnessin sisters.

During the mid-Sixties a leading psychotherapist ventured to get Mikhail playing again. Much to his colleagues’ surprise, the man quickly restored mobility to Mikhail’s failing hand. Mikhail rehearsed day and night, and after 23 years away from the stage, he began playing again. The strain to retrieve the time he had lost was great, and he died of a heart attack at the age of 65.

Picking up where her father left off, Natalya Fikhtengoltz, a violinist and a very good teacher as well, is bringing up her students in the grand traditions bequeathed by the late Pyotr Stolyarsky. She has also released a series of CDs with recordings once made by her late father.