[2] He fled to Berlin and was declared the heir of Anton Rubinstein[3] and likened to Ignacy Paderewski and Teresa Carreño[4] before being imprisoned as an Imperial Russian enemy alien during World War I.
Safonov offered his personal tuition at the Conservatory and provided a written endorsement which began: "I today listened to Jascha Spivakovsky play and found in this child a rare, outstanding talent.
"[22] He was awarded pupillage at the Klindworth-Scharwenka Conservatory in Berlin, where the faculty included direct students of Franz Liszt and Anton Rubinstein, such as Karl Klindworth and Alberto Jonás.
Spivakovsky's development there was overseen by the renowned pedagogue,[23] pianist[24] and ensemble performer Professor Moritz Mayer-Mahr, who later authored the tome Technique of Pianoforte Playing with the official endorsement of Artur Nikisch, Eugen d'Albert, Ferruccio Busoni, Otto Neitzel, Moriz Rosenthal, and Emil von Sauer.
[25] Mayer-Mahr declared Spivakovsky "without doubt one of the great talents of our time" and the Conservatory Director, composer and conductor Robert Robitschek (who had studied with Antonín Dvořák) echoed: "in my experience there have been no similar cases of such meaningful musical intellect and rhythmical gifts.
[27] The final-round judges Ferruccio Busoni, Ossip Gabrilowitsch and Leopold Godowsky were seated behind a screen where the competitors performed to prevent any bias on account of Spivakovsky's youth.
The Berliner Lokal-Anzeiger predicted: "Jascha Spiwakowsky is called to great things,"[31] the Hamburger Correspondent declared: "The strongest talent I have encountered in the past decade"[32] and the Breslauer Morgen-Zeitung wondered: "Who will explain this wonder-genius?
"[47] He also became famous for his "thrilling personality:"[48] his season at Royal Albert Hall was "the sensation of London" with reports of "wild enthusiasm" from the audience and a crowd of 3000 clamouring outside his sold-out final concert.
"[57] The Daily Mail: "It is no exaggeration to apply the appellation great to Jascha Spivakovsky ... His technique is superb, but one becomes oblivious to the purely mechanical perfection of his art in the delightful nuances of tone and colour of his playing, and the naturalness of expression in his interpretation."
"[58] He was presented with a laurel wreath by Dame Nellie Melba who declared him "one of the greatest pianists in the world"[59] and he gave the first radio broadcast of a live concert to the Australian public.
He then proceeded to New Zealand where his performances were acclaimed as the greatest heard by that generation[61] and he was ranked at the level of Paderewski, Carreno, Mark Hambourg[62] and Sir Charles Hallé.
From Allgemeine Musikzeitung: "An expansive program placing extraordinary physical and mental demands on the resilience of the pianist, ranging from Bach and Beethoven through Chopin and Liszt to Debussy, Reger and Palmgren … established that this unusually gifted piano virtuoso, whose beginnings already drew all attention to him, is on a continually upwards trajectory with both technical as well as spiritual-musical development.
Their honeymoon on the French Riviera was cut short when a message from Richard Strauss arrived, requesting that Spivakovsky perform his Burleske under his baton with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in just a few weeks' time.
From Neues Weiner Journal: "Here is a true pianist who gives himself with ecstatic love to the sound-colour poetry of the piano, who is able to grasp the fine and the finest moods and to present them with exhaustive valour.
Our German pianists play such things too tamely in a Western fashion; but this Russian has the courage for the most extreme, he has the most fiery tempi, the most vigorous accents, the most tender and burning colours at his touch, the wildest limitlessness of crescendi, and yet always remaining – and this is the wonderful part if it – artistically restrained and fine.
[83] From Gazetta di Venezia: "His crystal-clear and flowingly beautiful technique, melodiousness of velvet-like touch, and wisdom in the use of the pedals, led to wonderful effects of tone ... the level of enthusiasm of the public was unprecedented.
[87] In the audience was George Kehler, who many years later wrote in his tome The Piano in Concert: "Characterised by the attributes of the Russian School – a remarkably rich and full tone quality (which cannot be adequately described) together with a very strong, consistent rhythmic impulse and an almost incredible legato.
"[88] In 1929 Spivakovsky boarded a steamer bound for Australia and (perhaps due to his performances at the Schubert Centennial) Australian newspapers heralded that he was now "recognised in Europe as the finest living interpreter of Brahms.
"[92] In 1930 the Spivakovsky Trio was born when the brothers were joined by Edmund Kurtz, the personal cellist of Russian prima ballerina Anna Pavlova who had studied with Pablo Casals.
After five months of practising up to 14 hours a day together, Spivakovsky determined they were ready to give their debut and chose The Hague due to its reputation for the most difficult to impress audiences in Europe.
When they began disrupting his concerts, he was warned to flee Germany by Richard Strauss in a musically coded message (a few bars of the William Tell Overture, which signify an impending storm, followed by an exclamation mark).
However, for the next five years they were at constant threat of the notorious Dictation Test used by Australian immigration officers to arbitrarily deport Jewish people and others they deemed racially undesirable.
After fleeing the Nazis and dodging machine gun fire while carrying his wife through deep snow across the Swiss border, Albert had finally reached safety but succumbed to exposure.
After the first recital he wrote: "Few pianists today would dare to approach the colossal Max Reger and his Fourteen Variations and Double Fugue on a Theme of Bach … extraordinary grip of technique and a far-reaching sense of conception and direction … this was playing which made much that has been heard on the instrument in Sydney these several years seem as the tinkling of insignificant bells.
"[109] Spivakovsky's touring then followed the winter concert season around the world non-stop for the next 14 years, broadening his reach to the United States, Great Britain, Europe, Canada, Australasia, Israel, India, Singapore and parts of Africa.
In the United States he was hailed as a remarkable tonalist[110] after performing at Carnegie Hall in 1948 where he was visited backstage by Vladimir Horowitz,[111] Claudio Arrau, Simon Barere, Alexander Kipnis, George Szell, Erika Morini and the Budapest String Quartet.
He continued to teach as a professor at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and mentor younger pianists including William Kapell, Julius Katchen and Shura Cherkassky.
A cultural beacon for international stars visiting Australia from 1933 onwards, he welcomed many friends and colleagues to his stately home Edzell House in Melbourne including Artur Schnabel, Bronisław Huberman, Mischa Elman, Benno Moiseiwitsch, Amelita Galli-Curci, George Szell, Arthur Rubinstein, Victor Borge, Ignaz Friedman, Claudio Arrau, Mindru Katz, Simon Barere, Walter Susskind, William Kapell, Rudolf Firkušný, Gary Graffman, Shura Cherkassky, Julius Katchen, Leonid Hambro, Ruggiero Ricci, Henryk Szeryng, Alexander Kipnis, Mieczyslaw Munz, Vlado Perlemuter, Alceo Galliera, Jascha Horenstein, David Oistrakh, Sylvia Fisher, Maureen Forrester, Isaac Stern, Daniel Barenboim, the Borodin Quartet, the Budapest String Quartet and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
"[121] Colin Clarke wrote in Fanfare: "... awe-inspiring ... simply stunning ... real magic and golden tone ... fingers of steel"[122] and Gary Lemco declared in Audiophile Audition: "Whether Aeolian harp or thundering Horseman of the Apocalypse, the music finds Spivakovsky in splendid control of his arsenal of keyboard effects, a master of his palette.
"[123] James Irsay dedicated programs on New York radio station WBAI to the release of each volume and declared: "A thinking pianist who sounds utterly spontaneous ... if that’s not the definition of real mastery, I don’t know what is!