(Paris) The pianist Menahem Pressler, founder of the Beaux Arts Trio, died “peacefully” Saturday in London at the age of 99, announced the American university in which he taught, triggering a wave of tributes in the middle classical music.
“Mr. Pressler was a brilliant pianist, an extraordinary teacher and a tender soul who left an indelible mark on generations of pianists around the world,” commented Abra Bush, Dean of the Jacobs School of Music at the University of ‘Indiana.
“Today, the world has won a king (Charles III, crowned on Saturday in London, editor’s note), but we have also lost one. Farewell Menahem and thank you. For everything,” tweeted violinist Daniel Hope, a member of the Beaux Arts Trio from 2002 to 2008.
The French cellist Gautier Capuçon for his part saluted the memory of the “dean of pianists and immense musician Menahem Pressler”. “His soul and his eternal young man’s smile will be missed,” he wrote.
The Paris and Berlin Philharmonies also paid tribute to the pianist on their social networks.
The American Beaux Arts Trio made their public debut on July 13, 1955 at the Berkshire Music Festival, which became the Tanglewood Festival (northeastern United States), and gave several thousand concerts until 2008.
It had remained around its founder Menahem Pressler, with changes to the violin and cello.
Nominated several times for the American Grammy Awards, Pressler received an Honorary Victory for Classical Music in France in 2016, at the age of 92.
Born in Magdeburg, Germany, in 1923, he had fled Nazi Germany in 1939 and emigrated to Israel.