Menahem Pressler

Born Max Jakob Pressler in Magdeburg on 16 December 1923, he began taking piano lessons at age six. Pressler was Jewish; his parents owned a shop for men's clothing that was destroyed by the Nazis during the 9 November 1938 pogrom, euphemistically called the "Night of Broken Glass". The family fled Nazi Germany in 1939, initially to Fascist Italy, and then to Haifa in Mandatory Palestine (now Israel). The young Pressler suffered from eating disorders and was in danger of starvation, later recalling that hearing Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 31 helped cure him. His grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins died in Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust. Pressler began to use the Hebrew name Menahem as his given name. He participated in the Debussy International Piano Competition in San Francisco in 1946 and won, which launched his career, and he moved to the US. His Carnegie Hall debut subsequently followed in 1947, playing Schumann's Piano Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy. studio in Jerusalem, July 1947, after the performance of Schumann's Piano Concerto, with Pressler right of the microphone ==Career==

Pressler pursued a career as a soloist. and of music for piano and orchestra by various composers for the American label MGM. The Beaux Arts Trio made an extensive series of recordings for Philips. In addition, Pressler recorded solo piano music commercially on the La Dolce Volta label and Deutsche Grammophon. In 2018, he dedicated his last Deutsche Grammophon recording of French musicmusic, "Clair de Lune" (see web page) to his constant companion Annabelle Whitestone, Baroness Weidenfeld. ==Personal life==

Pressler was married to Sara Scherchen from 1949 until her death in 2014, with whom he had two children. In 2016, he began a relationship with Annabelle Whitestone, Baroness Weidenfeld, whom he had known since 1966. Pressler divided his time between Bloomington, Indiana, and London. He died in London on 6 May 2023, at age 99. ==Awards and recognition==

Among his honors and awards, Pressler received honorary doctorates from the University of Nebraska, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, the Royal Academy of Music in London, the North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Ben Gurion University. In 2005, Pressler received the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, the nation's highest honour, and was named a Commandeur of France's Order of Arts and Letters award. He was appointed an Honorary Fellow of the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, in recognition of a lifetime of performance and leadership in music, in 2007. He was nominated for five Grammy Awards. He received a Chamber Music America's Distinguished Service Award, the Gold Medal of Merit from the National Society of Arts and Letters. He was also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Pressler received lifetime achievement awards from Gramophone magazine, the International Classical Music Awards, ECHO Classic in Germany, and Les Victoires de la Musique Classique in France. ==References==