Mark Hamburg is an English pianist of the Russian origin, author of the popular book “How to Become a Pianist” (1922), as well as of two autobiographies “From Piano to Forte” (1931) and “The Eighth Octave” (1951). The musician wrote several piano works, “Variations on a Theme of Paganini” (1902) was one of them.

Hambourg was one of the first pianists to be recorded: the first recordings of his playing date from 1909. The early recordings of Hambourg are dominated by the works by Debussy, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff and Ravel.

Even in his youth, Mark Hambourg became famous for his outstanding playing the piano as a prodigy pianist. The talent of Mark talent attracted attention of the prominent pianists Ignacy Paderewski and Theodore Leschetizky, which played an important role in his life and helped him to forge a brilliant professional career.

The pianistic manner of Hambourg was distinguished by refined style, hence it was technically sloppy. However, this fact did not prevent him from becoming one of the brightest pupils of the greatest pianist and teacher Theodor Leschetizky. The astounding pianistic manner of the musician conveyed the mighty vitality and emotional intensity that he added to the performed pieces.

We have prepared musical compilation dedicated to the 145^th birth jubilee of Mark Hambourg. The tracks in the album were digitised from music records stored in the museum Collection Sound Library

Biography of the pianist is in the section AUTHORS.