Ravinia 2026 Issue 3

MISHADICHTER Misha Dichter was born in Shanghai in — his Polish parents having ed Europe at the out- break of World War II—and grew up in Los An- geles, where he began piano lessons at age . In addition to concentrated studies in the German Classical style with Aube Tzerko, a pupil of Ar- tur Schnabel, Dichter also delved into the Rus- sian Romantic tradition under the tutelage of Rosina Lhevinne at Juilliard. At age he won Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Competition with reper- toire re ecting these dual in uences—Schubert and Beethoven, Rachmanino and Stravin- sky—catapulting him into an international per- forming career. Within two years Dichter had performed Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. with both Erich Leinsdorf and the Boston Sym- phony Orchestra at Tanglewood (broadcast live on NBC) and Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic, and appearances with such top European ensembles as the Berlin Philhar- monic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the principal London orchestras, as well as many more leading American orchestras, soon followed. In addition to collaborations with his wife, Cipa, on piano duo recitals, Misha fre- quently performs chamber music alongside the likes of the Argus, Cleveland, Emerson, Guar- neri, Harlem, and Saint Petersburg String Quar- tets, as well as violinists Itzhak Perlman and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and cellists Lynn Harrell and Yo-Yo Ma. Dichter’s discography re ects his broad musical interests, from the complete piano concertos of Brahms and Liszt to Brahms’s solo works, Beethoven’s piano so- natas, and Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies, plus major scores by Chopin, Mussorgsky, Schubert, Schumann, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky. He won the Grand Prix International du Disque Liszt in for his album of the composer’s piano transcriptions, and his rst recording with Cipa, a three-disc set of Mozart’s complete works for four-hands piano, was named a Record of the Year by Music Web International . O the performance stage, Dichter regularly holds master classes at such institutions as Juil- liard, Curtis, Eastman, Yale, Harvard, and the Aspen Festival. Today marks Misha Dichter’s th season and th performance at Ravinia, where he rst appeared in . e Year and an opera based on Tolstoy’s epic War and Peace . e composer recounted in his essay “ e Artist and the War”: “ e whole Soviet people rose to the defense of their native land. Everyone wanted to do his bit without delay. We composers at once began writing songs and marches of the heroic type, that is, music that could be sung at the front. I wrote two songs and a march, and turned to the idea I had been nursing for some time of writing an opera on the subject of Leo Tolstoy’s great novel, War and Peace . e pages describ- ing the struggle of the Russian people against the Napoleonic hordes in and the expul- sion of Napoleon’s army from Russian soil had somehow a particular poignancy at this time.” e opera would serve to rally Proko ev’s countrymen during the present siege. Despite valiant opposition, the Nazi threat on Moscow intensi ed, prompting the Arts Com- mittee to order prominent artists and musicians (including Proko ev) to leave the city for their own protection. Stopping temporarily at Nal- chik in the Caucasus, the company continued on to Tbilisi, the capital of the Georgian repub- lic. In , Proko ev completed two patriotic works and the Sonata No. , whose musical ma- terial he originally sketched in . is piece became the second of his so-called War Trilogy of piano sonatas. Sviatoslav Richter introduced the work in Moscow on January , : it was the rst piano sonata that the composer did not premiere. Proko ev later received a Second Class Stalin Prize for this composition. Sonata No. in B- at major contains some of Proko ev’s most uncompromisingly dissonant writing, although there are memorable lyrical moments as well. e Allegro inquieto commenc- es with a nearly atonal melody in / time. A slower theme in / time, marked “expressive and sorrowful,” o ers character contrast. e rapid tempo returns in the development, out of which Sergei Prokofiev grows the recapitulation. Proko ev restates his slower second theme in a condensed form. e slow movement opens with a warm-heart- ed theme cast in the triple meter of popular th-century piano music. An expressive sec- ond theme begins with a steady unison melody, gradually becoming more animated. e open- ing theme returns brie y. Although the nal movement is the shortest of the three, its irreg- ular / meter, non-stop rhythmic motion, and strident harmonies create an exciting climax to the sonata. Its initial idea builds on an insistent ostinato bass pattern and syncopated chords. e central section breaks from the repeated motive, presenting guration in the high reg- ister. Electrifying material from the beginning concludes the sonata. –Program notes © 2026 Todd E. Sullivan Sviatoslav Richter RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 87 SARAHBLESENER(DICHTER)