{"id":19411,"date":"2022-09-09T12:41:49","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T10:41:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.classical-music.com\/?p=4292"},"modified":"2022-09-09T12:57:07","modified_gmt":"2022-09-09T10:57:07","slug":"best-child-piano-prodigies-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/rss_feed\/best-child-piano-prodigies-of-all-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Best child piano prodigies of all time"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>

By BBC Music Magazine\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Friday, 09 September 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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In a highly competitive musical world, we\u2019re lucky enough to have a range of phenomenally-talented pianists. Only some of them, though, were prodigies: children with an ability to play extraordinarily demanding music at an age when many of us would be picking out the notes to \u2018Twinkle Twinkle Little Star\u2019. Here are nine of the greatest.<\/h3>\n
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\u00a0Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-91)<\/strong>\nPlayed the piano, clavichord, organ and violin; composed at five and toured aged six (pictured below). Ruthlessly exploited by his father.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0Felix Mendelssohn (1809-47)<\/strong>\nBegan playing aged four and composing by eight, by which time he could play all of Beethoven<\/strong><\/a>\u2019s symphonies on the piano from memory.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0Camille Saint-Sa\u00ebns <\/strong>(1835-1921)<\/strong>\nHis first composition was dated 1839, his debut at ten playing Mozart and Beethoven concertos. He offered as an encore any one of Beethoven\u2019s 32 Sonatas (see \u2018C\u2019<\/strong><\/a>) from memory.<\/p>\n
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\u00a0Isaac Alb\u00e9niz (1860-1909)<\/strong>\nMade his debut at four and composed at seven. He stowed away to America aged 12, supporting himself by giving concerts.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Josef Hofmann (1876-1957)<\/strong>\nPlayed his debut at six and toured America aged 10 with 52 concerts in 10 weeks; a philanthropist paid his father $50,000 to prevent any further exploitation by him.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Georges Cziffra (1921-94)<\/strong>\nImprovised aged five on themes submitted by the public; the youngest ever entrant to the Liszt Academy, Budapest, at nine.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Martha Argerich (b1941)<\/strong>\nBegan lessons aged three; she made her orchestral debut at nine playing Mozart<\/strong><\/a> and Beethoven concertos.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Evgeny Kissin (b1971)<\/strong>\nPlaying from the age of two, he entered Moscow\u2019s Gnessin School for Gifted Children at six; he made a live recording of both Chopin<\/strong><\/a> Concertos aged just 13.<\/p>\n
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Lang Lang (b1982)<\/strong>\nBegan lessons aged three, won the Shenyang Piano Competition and made his public debut aged five.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
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By BBC Music Magazine Published: Friday, 09 September 2022 at 12:00 am In a highly competitive musical world, we\u2019re lucky enough to have a range of phenomenally-talented pianists. Only some of them, though, were prodigies: children with an ability to play extraordinarily demanding music at an age when many of us would be picking out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":19412,"template":"","categories":[1,17],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/best-child-piano-prodigies-of-all-time.jpg",292,385,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/best-child-piano-prodigies-of-all-time-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/best-child-piano-prodigies-of-all-time-228x300.jpg",228,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/best-child-piano-prodigies-of-all-time.jpg",292,385,false],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/best-child-piano-prodigies-of-all-time.jpg",292,385,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/best-child-piano-prodigies-of-all-time.jpg",292,385,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/37\/2022\/09\/best-child-piano-prodigies-of-all-time.jpg",292,385,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By BBC Music Magazine Published: Friday, 09 September 2022 at 12:00 am In a highly competitive musical world, we\u2019re lucky enough to have a range of phenomenally-talented pianists. Only some of them, though, were prodigies: children with an ability to play extraordinarily demanding music at an age when many of us would be picking out…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/19411"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcmusicmagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}