Left to right: Lance Dossor, Yacob Flier, Moura Lympany, Emile Gilels, André Dumortier, and Arturo Michelangeli at the 1938 Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.Photo of pianists Emil Gilels and Yakov Flier (right) who took first and third prizes at the Queen Elizabeth international contest in Brussels. Pravda newspaper (Soviet Union). May 1938.
Yakov Vladimirovich Flier[a] (October 21 [O.S. October 8], 1912 – December 18, 1977) was a Soviet concert pianist and teacher.[1]
Flier was born in Orekhovo-Zuyevo, Russia. Growing up, he first began teaching himself piano but soon began formal study with the pianist Sergei Nikanorovich Korsakov. Because of his expedited development, at the age of 11, he entered the Central Music School of the Moscow Conservatory, studying with Grigory Prokofiev, pianist and music psychologist, and then later with Sergey Kozlovsky. In 1928, he advanced and entered into study at the larger conservatory, studying under Konstantin Igumnov.[2] His graduating performance in 1934 was extremely well attended, and soon after his career leading him to enroll in high-profile competitions.[2]
He taught piano for many years at the Moscow Conservatory from 1937,[3] although beginning in 1965, Flier was appointed head of one of the conservatory's several piano departments. He would continue his teaching duties until 1959. However, as a performer he stopped public concert in 1949 due to personal illness.[4]
He was a contemporary of and sometime rival to Emil Gilels. In the 1960s and 1970s, Flier began to perform in Europe. During his concert tour in the USA he performed Sergei Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Leonard Bernstein.
