Mikhail Fikhtengoltz

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Mikhail Izrailevich Fikhtengoltz Михаил Израилевич Фихтенгольц
Background information
Born	1920
Origin	Odessa, Ukraine
Genre(s)	Classical
Instrument(s)	Violin, piano

Mikhail Fikhtengoltz was a violinist of the Soviet Union. A pupil of the famous teacher Piotr Stolyarsky, he won the national competition for young performers in Leningrad (St. Petersburg) at the age of 15. In 1937 he won the Izai International competition in Brussels with Elizaveta Gilels and other young Soviet violinists. He would go on to become a teacher to David Oistrakh, Elizaveta Gilels, and others.

He married the daughter of a high-placed government official, who, after a while, was executed as an "enemy of the people". Fikhtengoltz 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.

Fikhtengoltz 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 the Gnessin State Musical College in Moscow.

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 talented 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.