Elisabeth Leonskaja, trained in the circle around Sviatoslav Richter, played an all-Schubert recital at Wigmore Hall's Autumn International Piano Festival on 22 September 2026.
Elisabeth Leonskaja, the pianist who played duets with Sviatoslav Richter, gave an all-Schubert recital at Wigmore Hall in Marylebone on Tuesday 22 September 2026. Her programme set two sonatas beside four impromptus.
She was born in Tbilisi in 1945 to parents who had fled Odesa during the war. At 18 she won the Enescu Competition in Bucharest, then went on to the Moscow Conservatory.
There she met Richter, who remained a close friend for the rest of his life. She left the Soviet Union in 1978 and has lived in Vienna since.
Schubert is the composer she has concentrated on, and the late sonatas have been the work of decades for her. Austria, which took her in when she left, gave her its Cross of Honour for Science and Art, first class.
Wigmore Hall has presented her in most seasons for 30 years. This recital, given at the age of 80, was part of the hall’s Autumn International Piano Festival.