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Joaquín Achúcarro
After his first public concert in Bilbao et the age of 13, Mozart
KV466 Concerto
, he
studied with Cubiles (who played the premiere of Falla Nights in 1916) in Madrid,
Agosti in Italy, Marguerite Long in France, Gieseking in Germany, Magaloff in
Switzerland and Sedlhofer in Austria.
His victory in the new Liverpool International Competition, one year after Zubin
Mehta hadwon it as conductor and the big success of his debut in Londonwith the
London Symphony marked the beginning of his uninterrupted international career
touring 59 countries, with 214 different orchestras: Berlin Philharmonic, New York
Philharmonic. LosAngeles, Chicago Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Scala of Milano,
Tokyo Philharmonic, Yomiuri,Santa Cecilia Roma, National de France, London
Philharmonic, Philarmonia, BBC, RIAS Berlin, etc under 346 conductors (Abbado,
Chailly, Mehta, Menuhin, Ozawa, Rattle..) impressive list, same as the list of his
repertoire close to the romanticism and the first half of the XX Century.
“Hehas a sound that I haveonlyheardwithRubinstein” says ZubinMehta; according
to Sir Simon Rattle: “Very few musiciens can get that sound out of a piano”. “I have
spent my whole life trying to make the piano sing” says Achucarro.
An art of piano playing which he strives to convey. Since 1989 he teaches at the
SouthernMethodist University in Dallas (USA) adjusting his teaching periods to his
busy concert schedule.
Joaquin Achucarro has recently recorded Brahms n2 Concerto with London
Symphony and Sir Colin Davis (DVD/Blu-Ray OPUS ARTE) and Falla Nights in the
Gardens of Spain with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle
(DVD/Blu-Ray EUROARTS).