Lívia Rév is among the world?s most important living pianists. Born in 1916, Rév started playing solo concerts at the age of 9 and concerts with orchestra by the age of 12. She studied with Margit Varró and Klára Máthé at the start, and later with Leó Weiner and Arnold Székely. In addition to studying at the Music Academy in Budapest, she studied in Leipzig and Vienna. Rév graduated from the Music Academy in 1938, with Bartók, Kodály and Dohnányi all in attendance.
After World War II, she went to Romania, where she played concerts to great acclaim and taught. In 1946, she went to Paris, after which she was invited by some of the world?s most famous conductors ? Boult, Cluytens, Horenstein, Jochum, Krips, Kubelik, Isserstedt and Silvestri ? to perform.
Rév played all over the world, but was especially well received in the UK and the US. The Classical and Romantic composers represented the core of her repertoire, but she was happy to play any type of music from Bach to Bartók. Only a few of her performances were recorded, among them programmes which included works by Mendelssohn, Chopin and Beethoven. During a blind-test by BBC Radio in the 1990s, a panel of experts chose her recording of Chopin nocturnes the best recorded interpretation of all time.
After playing a concert in the early 1960s which she deemed unsuccessful, Rév stopped performing in Hungary and concentrated on instruction. Although well-known as a teacher among Hungary?s professional pianists, she remained virtually unknown to the broader public.
In 2003, at the age of 87, she decided to return to the stage, performing a Schubert evening at the Hungarian Academy of Science to great acclaim. Later, she played a concert with the Budapest Festival Orchestra at the Music Academy, then, to mark her 89th birthday, a solo concert of works by Debussy at the newly opened Palace of the Arts.
The programme for Rév?s 90th birthday concert, to be held at the Music Academy:
Haydn: Sonata in E-flat, Hob. XVI:52 (Steinbach)
Mozart: Piano Concerto in D Minor, K 466 (Rév)
Mendelssohn: Variations sérieuses, Op. 54; Rondo capriccioso, Op. 14 (Mali)
Mozart: E-flat Concerto for Two Pianos, K 365 (Várjon-Simon)
Performers: Juliana Steinbach, Emese Mali, Izabella Simon, Dénes Várjon, Lívia Rév, Weiner-Szász Chamber Orchestra
Conductor: Gergely Ménesi
