The Washington Post - USA (2022-04-10)

C10 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, APRIL 10 , 2022

obituary

BY TIM PAGE

Joseph Kalichstein, an Israeli-
American pianist who was equal-
ly distinguished as a recitalist, a
soloist with orchestra and a
chamber musician, died March
31 in Manhattan. He was 76.
The Juilliard School, where
Mr. Kalichstein taught for many
years, announced his death. The
cause was pancreatic cancer.
Over a career that spanned
half a century, Mr. Kalichstein
presented thoughtful, impas-
sioned and deeply musical per-
formances of the piano reper-
toire from Bach, Mozart and
Brahms through the masters of
the early 20th century, including
Bartok, Prokofiev and Shostako-
vich.
With his chamber ensemble,
the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robin-
son Trio, he went further still and
played contemporary works by
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Richard
Danielpour and Daron Hagen,
among others. Several of these
pieces were written for the
group. Since 1997, Mr. Kalich-
stein had been artistic adviser
for chamber music to the Ken-
nedy Center and artistic director
of the center’s Fortas Chamber
Music Concerts.
During his long history with
the Kennedy Center, Mr. Kalich-
stein appeared with his trio, gave
solo recitals and performed with
the National Symphony Orches-
tra, as well as in many other
concerts. He had also been a
teacher at the Juilliard School
since 1983.
Conductor Leonard Slatkin,
who knew Mr. Kalichstein from
their student days, called him “a
musician’s musician, always
thoughtful and imaginative.”
“All of us who were at Juilliard
with him knew that he would
become an important force in
the music world,” he continued.
“When you coupled those skills
with his incredible humanity
and sense of humor, the very
definition of the word ‘mensch’
leaps to the mind.”
Mr. Kalichstein was part of a
golden time at Juilliard, studying
alongside a remarkable crop of
young students who would go on
to international fame, including
the violinists Itzhak Perlman and
Pinchas Zukerman, pianists
Emanuel Ax and Misha Dichter,
and the conductor James Levine,

as well as Slatkin.

The venerated Chilean pianist

Claudio Arrau had heard Mr.

Kalichstein in Tel Aviv and ar-

ranged for the teenager to study

with Edward Steuermann at Juil-

liard in 1962. “I was ready to take

on the world,” Mr. Kalichstein

recalled in 1989.

In the late 1960s, two things

occurred to bring him to atten-

tion of the listening public and

the highest echelons of the music

world.

I n 1968, conductor Leonard

Bernstein invited Mr. Kalichstein

to perform on the CBS telecast of

his New York Philharmonic

Young People’s Concerts, where

he played the last two move-

ments of Beethoven’s Piano Con-

certo No. 4 under the direction of

Paul Capolongo.

The following year, Mr. Kalich-

stein won the Levintritt Compe-

tition, then the most prestigious

such award in the United States

and so exclusive that if the judges

found nobody worthy of the

prize, they did not give one. The

jury, which included pianist Ru-

dolf Serkin and conductor

George Szell, selected Mr. Kalich-

stein in a unanimous decision.

Reviewing a performance by

Mr. Kalichstein shortly thereaf-

ter in the New York Times, critic

Raymond Ericson called his

reading of Schubert’s ethereal

Sonata in A “profound, not in a

heavy way but in its complete

identification with the spirit of

the music. It seemed second

nature to the pianist to sustain

long passages on a quiet level,

with delicate gradations of tone

to make them constantly inter-

esting.”

Joseph Kalichstein was born

on Jan. 15, 1946, in Tel Aviv, then

part of the British mandate of

Palestine, and began his studies

with a neighbor by the time he

was 4.

“I would crawl to the neigh-

bor’s house, my parents told me,

because they had a piano,” he

recalled in an interview with the

Bergen County Record in 2001. “I

could read music before I could

read letters.”

Yet he never thought of him-

self as a child prodigy. “I was

pretty lazy,” he said. “I didn’t

work at it eight hours a day. I

wasn’t a wunderkind.”

Looking back, he thought this

might have been a good thing.

“Some people have a great talent

at a young age and they get burnt

out,” he told the Record. “It’s a

horrible tragedy, and I escaped

it.”

Although Mr. Kalichstein was

held in high esteem among his

peers, he was remarkably self-ef-

facing, indifferent to publicity,

gave interviews sparingly and

seemed most devoted to collab-

orative performances. “Playing

with different people is about

give-and-take,” he told the Rich-

mond Times-Dispatch in 1989.

“It’s about coming together to

make something bigger than

yourself.”

In that spirit, he joined with

two friends, violinist Jaime Lare-

do and cellist Sharon Robinson,

well-known artists in their own

right, to form a trio in 1976.

“In the bad old days,” he told

the Times-Dispatch, “a chamber

player was considered one who

could no longer play the solo

repertoire. I am trying to shatter

that myth. After all, the super-

stars of the past — [violinist]

Jascha Heifetz, [pianist] Arthur

Rubinstein, [cellist] Gregor Pi-

atigorsky and [pianist] Artur

Schnabel — played chamber mu-

sic. People forget this and try to

put us in boxes.”

The Kalichstein-Laredo-Rob-

inson Trio made its professional

debut at the inauguration of

President Jimmy Carter in 1977.

Although Mr. Kalichstein used to

joke that “it was all downhill

from there,” the group ranked

with the Emerson String Quartet

(founded the same year) among

the most important American

chamber groups of its time and

played throughout the country

and the world.

Mr. Kalichstein believed that

there were many similarities be-

tween playing concertos with

orchestras and chamber music

with small ensembles. “The only

difference is that in playing with

the trio, we know each other

well. We can discuss and grow on

past experiences.”

He considered solo recitals a

different matter: “There, I must

be the gladiator with the beast.”

Survivors include his wife, the

former Rowain Schultz; two

sons, Avi Kalichstein and Rafi

Kalichstein; and three grandchil-

dren.

Mr. Kalichstein gave his final

performance in Phoenix on

March 17, when the Kalichstein-

Laredo-Robinson Trio played

music by Schumann, Zwilich and

Brahms.

JOSEPH KALICHSTEIN, 76

Renowned pianist was a longtime Kennedy Center figure

JOHN MCDONNELL/THE WASHINGTON POST

L eonard Slatkin jokes with pianist Joseph Kalichstein during a performance at the Kennedy Center, where Kalichstein had been artistic

adviser for chamber music since 1997. He was also artistic director of the center’s Fortas Chamber Music Concerts.

“I would crawl to the

neighbor’s house, my

parents told me,

because they had a

piano.”

Joseph Kalichstein, in a 2001

interview with the Bergen County

Record. Kalichstein began to study

music in Tel Aviv at age 4.

FUNERAL SERVICES

DIRECTORY

DC FUNERALSERVICES

5130 Wisconsin Ave, NW

Washington, DC 20016

Phone: (202)966-6400

Fax: (202)966-6186

http://www.josephgawlers.com

Stewart

Funeral Home Inc.

4001 Benning Road NE

Washington, DC 20019

202-399-3600

http://www.stewartfuneralhome.com

MD FUNERAL SERVICES

FORT

LINCOLN

FUNERAL HOME

3401 Bladensburg Road

Brentwood, MD 20722

Phone: (301) 864-509 0

Fax: (301) 864-32 77

http://www.fortlincolnfuneralhome.com

C0979 2x3

Becauseyourloved oneservedproudly...

Military emblems are available with deathnoticesand in-memoriams

To placeanotice call202-334-4122or800-627-1150,ext. 44122

When theneed arises,let familiesfind you in

theFuneral Services Directory.

To be seeninthe FuneralServicesDirectory,

please call paid DeathNotices at 202-334-4122.

MD FUNERAL SERVICES

1091 Rockville Pike | Rockville, MD 2 0852

301.340.1400


  












Division of Sagel Bloomfield

Monuments

&

Memorials

$100

00

of

your purchase bring this AD in

when you make your appointment.

  













[email protected]

[email protected]

MD FUNERAL SERVICES

1091 Rockville Pike

Rockville, MD 20852*

519 Mabe Drive

Woodbine, MD 2 1797

301.296.6864 䘳 4 10.442.3 662

[email protected]

Just a Simple

Cremation

$1295

䘳 䘳 䘳 䘳

Just a Simple

Graveside Funeral

(casket included)

$3595

Find Us@

http://www.goinghomecares.com

*Restricted-operating out of Going Home Cremation & Funeral Care

by Value Choice, P.A. Woodbine, Md. (Rockville location only)

POST YOUR

CONDOLENCES

Now death notices on

washingtonpost.com/obituaries allow you

to express your sympathy with greater ease.

Visit today.

GHI

MD FUNERAL SERVICES

Family owned & operated

Beall Funeral Home

6512 Crain Hwy,

Bowie, MD 20715

301-805-5544

http://www.beallfuneral.com

MD FUNERAL SERVICES

11800 New Hampshire Ave

Silver Spring, MD 20904

Phone: (301)622-2290

Fax: (301)622-1254

http://www.hinesrinaldifuneralhome.com

When the

need arises,

letfamilies

find youinthe

FuneralServices

Directory.

To be seen in the

Funeral Services

Directory,please call

paid DeathNotices

at 202-334-4122.