Alexander Uninsky

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Alexander Uninsky (Александр Юнинский) (Born February 15th 1910 in Kiev, Russia; died December 19th 1972 in Dallas, USA) : classical pianist.

[edit] Life and career

Uninsky (pronounced You-nin-skee) was born in Kiev. He initially studied piano there in the conservatory which had been opened in 1913, and whose other graduates included Horowitz and Brailowsky.[1]

He subsequently moved to Paris in 1923, where he studied with Lazare Levey. He was awarded the conservatory's first prize for piano. In 1932 he was the second winner of the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition (the first winner was Lev Oborin in 1927). In fact, Uninsky tied for first place with the blind Hungarian pianist Imre Ungar, scoring the same number of points in the competition. The judges decided to award victory on the basis of the toss of a coin. Ungar lost.

In 1955, he took up a teaching post at the conservatory of Toronto, where he numbered among his pupils the Canadian composer Bruce Mather. Mather commemorated his teacher in his 1974 composition In memoriam Alexander Uninsky[2]

Subsequently he taught at the Southern Methodist University in Dallas. His pupils included Jeffrey Swann and Dubravka Tomšič Srebotnjak.

[edit] Recorded legacy and reputation

Uninsky was quickly signed up in the early 1950s by the newly formed Philips recording company. His Chopin playing is well represented in his recordings, including the complete Etudes, recorded in the 1950s, the complete Mazurkas and Impromptus recorded between 1959 and 1971, the Scherzos and Waltzes, as well as the piano concertos. His other recordings included works by Liszt.

His style is greatly reminiscent of Nikita Magaloff, who underwent the same influences of pre-revolutionary Russia and post-revolutionary Paris. His playing is unsentimental and elegant, but with a rubato that marks him as coming from an essentially early twentieth century aesthetic. It is not surprising that his clean, sober playing impressed the jury of the second Chopin Competition, which has been founded to combat the mannered, virtuoso tradition of Chopin playing which had marked the late 19th century[3]. An indication of the 'modernness' of Uninsky's playing comes from a comment by Dinu Lipatti in a review he wrote in 1937 for Libertatea in which he says "How is it possible that Emil Sauer must play in the small Salle Erard, despite his glorious past, when a Brailowsky or Uninsky can pack the Salle Pleyel?" [4]