Home - Vlado Perlemuter, Research and archives

Born in Kaunas, on 26 May 1904 of Polish Jewish parents forced to flee the pogroms, Vlado Perlemuter began the piano around the age of eight. Moritz Moskowski laid the basis of his technique before he started studying with  Alfred Cortot at the Paris Conservatoire. He spent three years with him and was deeply influenced by his enlightened  pedagogy.

His meetings with Fauré and Ravel, and the fact that he worked with the latter on his complete piano works were to mark the first steps in his career  as a concert artist.

The war and the Vichy government anti-semitic laws forced him to seek refuge in Switzerland. He stayed there until 1950 after having spent three years in the Leysin sanatorium for tuberculosis.

He was appointed as a teacher in the Paris Conservatoire in 1951 and took up once again an intense  career as a performer, especially in England, his second home, as well as Japan, a country he would always feel a strong attachment to.

It wasn't until the beginning of the 1980s that he started to play regularly in Paris again.

The numerous recordings that he made for the  English  recording company Nimbus and the enthusiasm of the music critc  Alain Lompech greatly contributed to his true recognition in France.

He died on 4 September 2002 at the age of 98.

Many of his recordings are looked on as references for their singular discretion, their subtle pianistic science and the expressive finesse  they  reveal.

More extensive biography here.

 "En souvenir de sa visite avec tous mes voeux au Conservatoire de Toulouse"

("Souvenir of his visit with my very best wishes at the Toulouse Conservatoire")

"C'est un grand souvenir pour moi aussi !"

("A great pleasure for me too !")

Autograph dated April 2001 dedicated to Olivier Mazal