Alfred Cortot

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Alfred Denis Cortot (September 26, 1877 – June 15, 1962) was a French pianist and conductor.

Born in Nyon in the French-speaking part of Switzerland, Cortot studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Emile Decombes (a pupil of Chopin) (as did Maurice Ravel), and with Louis Diémer, taking a premier prix in 1896. He made his debut at the Concerts Colonne in 1897, playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3. Between 1898 and 1901 he was a choral coach, and subsequently assistant conductor, at the Bayreuth Festspiele, and in 1902 he conducted the Paris premiere of Götterdämmerung by Wagner. He formed a concert society to perform Wagner's Parsifal, Beethoven's Missa solemnis, Brahms' German Requiem, and new works by French composers.

In 1905, Cortot formed a trio with Jacques Thibaud and Pablo Casals, which established itself as the leading piano trio of its era. From 1907 to 1923 Cortot taught at the Paris Conservatoire, where his pupils included Haskil, Lipatti, and Perlemuter. In 1919 he founded the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. His courses in musical interpretation were legendary. He toured as a pianist all over the world, also appearing as guest conductor of many orchestras. He died in Lausanne.

Controversially, he supported the Vichy regime (he played in Nazi-sponsored concerts, for example) in France during the Second World War, which led to him being declared persona non grata after the end of the war. His motivations for doing this have been disputed, but he was banned from performing publicly for a year, and his public image in France suffered greatly.

As a pianist, Cortot was particularly noted for his interpretations of Frédéric Chopin and Robert Schumann, and he made editions of both those composers' music, editions notable for Cortot's meticulous commentary on technical problems and matters of interpretation. Many connoisseurs consider him to be the greatest interpreter of their works. He had famous memory lapses and often left wrong notes on his records, as did other famous peers (e.g. Fischer, Paderewski, and Grainger). This was in stark contrast to his impeccable student, Dinu Lipatti.

Cortot was among the very greatest musicians of the century and represented the end of an era. He is considered the last exponent of a personal, subjective style that deprecated precise technique in favor of intuition, interpretation and authentic spirit. This approach was replaced by the modern "scientific" way of playing, which places logic and precision at the forefront and equates authenticity with metronomic and literal "interpretations". Cortot's recordings are highly valuable documents.

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