Her United States début was in 1949, at the New York Town Hall. Virgil Thompson, who was the music critic at the New York Times, wrote about that recital: "Yara Bernette achieved the most beautiful tone heard by this listener during this entire season... Everything was beautiful in detail and sensitive in conception...". Following that New York recital came a tour of American and Canadian cities; her international career took her to Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, Colombia and Argentina as well.
In 1955, Mme. Bernette made her European début, playing in Paris with the Orchestre du Conservatoire de Paris conducted by Heitor Villa-Lobos; a recital at the Salle Gaveau followed. Her tour proceeded to Vienna, Amsterdam and London; in London she received the Arnold Bax Memorial Award, having been chosen by the critics as the best contemporary music interpreter of the year.
She went back to Europe in 1957 for recitals and concerts in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Zurich, Madrid, The Hague, Stockholm, Copenhagen and Paris. In 1958 she was invited to the Brahms Festival in Berlin, where she played as a soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic, conducted by Karl Böhm. Back to South America, she played in many Argentinean centers and gave two concerts at the Teatro Colón, in Buenos Ayres, both as a recitalist and as a soloist of the Orquestra Nacional.
Back to Europe in 1960, she played in Sweden, Finland, Greece and Germany; in 1961 another tour in Germany and Sweden, playing as soloist with the Philharmonics of Hamburg, Stuttgart, Munich, Pforzheim, Siegen, Bochum and Stockholm.
Yara Bernette was one of the jurors at all the Eldorado Piano Competitions, which took place in São Paulo in the 60's. Among the candidates were pianists like João Carlos Martins, Caio Pagano and Jean Louis Steuermann.
In April 1961 she represented Brazil in the "Second Inter American Music Festival", in Washington, playing with the Rochester Symphony Camargo Guarnieri's Variações sobre um Tema Nordestino for piano and orchestra.
Yara Bernette toured the Far East twice, in 1963 and 1971, playing in Iran, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaya, Indonesia, Hong-Kong and Philippines
In 1972 Mme. Bernette was unanimously chosen, among 130 candidates, as Piano Professor at the Hamburg Music and Performing Arts School; she remained there for 20 years and her students came from the most different countries like United States, England, Switzerland, Holland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Israel, Rumania and many Brazilians.
In 1978 Mme. Bernette played, with Brazilian pianist Jacques Klein, a cycle of the complete Schubert four-hand works at the Modern Art Museum in São Paulo.
In the United States, Yara Bernette was a juror at the first Van Cliburn International Competition; at the Gina Bachauer International Competition, in Salt Lake City, in 1982; in 1983 she was a juror at the International Piano Festival and Competition in Maryland, where she also gave a Master Class.
In 1995, celebrating her seveny fifth birthday, Mme. Bernette recorded for the German TV her Portrait; that special was broadcast all over Germany on August 20, 1995. There was also a recital, in Hamburg, with many of her former students at the Hochschule.
In Brazil Mme. Bernette played regularly in São Paulo, Rio, Brasilia and all the main capitals and other important centers. She joined practically every year the Winter Music Festival at Campos de Jordão, in July, where artists from all over the world come for recitals and Master Classes.
During her career, Yara Bernette was much appreciated for her repertoire of modern and contemporary composers, but she played classics and romantics with the same mastery. Her tone, very rich, and her technical possibilities allowed her to play works like Mussorsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto, Brahms's Second Piano Concerto and Prokofieff's Third Concerto. She recorded Medtner's Second Piano Concerto with the Munich Radio Orchestra.
Yara Bernette died in São Paulo, Brazil, on March 30, 2002.
She also made many recordings for several European radios and TV's; perhaps some of those recordings may be released on CD some day.
In 1995 she recorded in Brazil, for SONOPRESS, a CD with some of her favorite Encores, still as part of her seventy fifth anniversary cellebrations. The repertoire is:
Scarlatti-Tausig - Pastorale Paradies - Toccata Bach-Kempff - Sonata BWV 1031 (Sicilian) Mendelssohn - Andante and Rondó Capriccioso Op. 14; Scherzo Op. 16 nš 2 Schumann - Rêverie Op. 15 nš 7; The Prophet Bird Op. 82 nš 7 Brahms - Intermezzo Op. 117 nš 2 Chopin - Mazurkas Op. 7 nš 3, Op. 17 nš 4 and Op. 24 nš 4; Posthumous Étude nš 1; Nocturne Op. 48 nš 1 Chopin-Liszt - My Joys Debussy - Prélude nš 7 from Book 2: La Terrasse des Audiences du Clair de Lune Rachmaninoff - Préludes Op. 32 nš 5, 10 and 12 Villa-Lobos - O Polichinelo (from A Prole do Bebê nš 1)
In 1996, a new album, released in Brazil by FUNARTE and called PIANO BRASILEIRO (Brazilian Piano), featured Yara Bernette playing Camargo Guarnieri's Dansa Negra.
In 1995 a new CD was released by Arcobaleno, featuring 2 Villa-Lobos Trios (1 & 3), performed by the Artis Trio (Yara Bernette, piano; Ayrton Pinto, violin; Antonio del Claro, cello). The recordings date from 1990.
N. Medtner - Concerto nš 2 for Piano and Orchestra Op. 50 in C minor (Munich Philharmonic Orchestra - Rudolf Kempe conductor) E. Helm - Concerto nš 2 for Piano and Orchestra (Bamberg Symphony Orchestra - Ferdinand Leitner conductor)
rpassarj@compuserve.com or rpassarj@attglobal.net
Last update 08-Apr-08
Background music heard is Paradies's Toccata, in .mid format. Click here to download the file (11.4 KB).
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