Yefim Bronfman Plays Brahms

Mr. Bronfman is one of those rare and almost mythical performers; someone who has complete ownership and possession of the instrument before him. The American author Philip Roth wrote of Bronfman in his novel The Human Stain: “Then Bronfman appears. Bronfman the brontosaur! Mr. Fortissimo! Enter Bronfman to play at such a pace and with such bravado as to knock my morbidity clear out of the ring. He is conspicuously massive through the upper torso . . . somebody who has strolled into the music shed out of a circus where he is the strongman and who takes on the piano as a ridiculous challenge to the gargantuan strength he revels in. Yefim Bronfman looks less like the person who is going to play the piano than like the guy who should be moving it. I had never before seen anybody go at a piano like this sturdy little barrel of an unshaven Russian Jew.”

Have a listen below to his 2012 performance of the Brahms concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle.

CHERNIAVSKY LAUREATE PIANIST
The Cherniavsky Laureate position is supported annually by the Gudewill Family, in honour of Janey Gudewill, Peter Cherniavsky, Mrs. B.T. Rogers and the Cherniavsky Junior Club for the Performing Arts, a foundation that annually underwrites the cost of thousands of children attending concerts during class time for schools throughout British Columbia.

Mr. Bronfman is the 2018 Cherniavsky Laureate.