Vlado Perlemuter

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Vlado Perlemuter (May 26, 1904–September 4, 2002) was a French pianist with Polish origins born in Kowno (now Kaunas, Lithuania).

He came to Paris as a child to study at the Conservatoire, first with Moszkowski then, later, with Cortot. At fifteen, he graduated from the Paris Conservatoire, where he won the First Prize playing Fauré’s Thème et variations before the composer (however Fauré was already deaf at that time). In 1925, he met the great French composer Maurice Ravel and studied all of his solo works for piano with the composer himself. Subsequently he became one of the leading interpreters of his music.

His art is characterised by shimmering tonal colours and a singing legato combined with an effortless ease of interpretation. His career spanned the entire globe. He recorded the complete Mozart sonatas, the entire piano works of Ravel, as well as works by Chopin, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Liszt and Fauré. Students from around the world were also attracted by his fame as a pedagogue. His international career spanned over seventy years. He gave his final concerts at the age of 89, signing off with an all-Ravel recital at the Victoria hall in Geneva. He died in 2002 at the age of 98.