Emanuel Ax

American pianist Emanuel Ax is an engagingly warm-hearted musician: an inspiring teacher, generous colleague, and enthusiastic music lover. A musicians’ musician, perhaps, but also a stimulating communicator and a great pianist with a rich legacy, not least in chamber music. He was born in 1949 in Lviv, Ukraine (in what was then the Soviet Union), to Polish Jewish Holocaust survivors, before the family moved, eventually settling in New York City in 1961. Ax studied at the Juilliard School, where he now teaches, and became an American citizen in 1970. Since 1973, he has been the main duo partner of cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and they have recorded much of the cello/piano repertoire. Shared music-making—chamber and concerto collaborations—has always been a central part of Ax’s working life and recordings. Although he is a passionate advocate of new music, and has given the first performances of works written for him by John Adams, Christopher Rouse, and Krzysztof Penderecki, the bulk of his recordings consist of core repertoire, including Haydn, Beethoven, Chopin, and Brahms. His playing leaves daredevil showmanship to others—he is closer in spirit to Rubinstein than to Horowitz—yet his Chopin captures the music’s aristocratic nobility with an all-encompassing rhetorical sweep; his Haydn radiates elegance, drama, and wit; while his Brahms is sumptuous and affectionate.