Berta Marants

Berta Solomonovna Marants was a Soviet and Russian pianist and teacher, born on December 16, 1907, in Proskuriv (now Khmelnytskyi, Ukraine), Podolsk Governorate, Russian Empire. Her father, Solomon Marants, was a major sugar manufacturer and an honorary citizen. No later than 1910, her family moved to Odessa, where her creative life began. She studied under the renowned teacher Berta Mikhailovna Reingbald, whose students also included Emil Gilels, Tatiana Goldfarb, and Lyubov Sosina. In Odessa, Marants also worked as an accompanist for the famous violinist and pedagogue Pyotr Stolyarsky, performing with his students of that time, such as David Oistrakh, Boris Goldstein, and Mikhail Fikhtengolts.

After her early training, Marants graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where she studied with the legendary Heinrich Neuhaus. She became one of his most brilliant students, and he always spoke of her with pride, considering her "an ornament of his school." Berta Marants was instrumental in the establishment of two major conservatories in Russia: one in Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg) and the other in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod), where she would work for the rest of her life.

As a dedicated educator, Marants trained over 200 pianists at these institutions. Her students included numerous laureates of international competitions, professors, and scholars, and she is credited with having a significant impact on the development of the Russian school of piano performance. Her authority among fellow musicians was indisputable, and she was highly regarded by the most prominent figures in the music world.

Marants was also a brilliant and unique pianist whose concert career spanned more than 70 years. She possessed a vast classical repertoire and was particularly acclaimed as a superb interpreter of Beethoven and Chopin. Throughout her creative life, she was also a dedicated promoter of contemporary music. For her artistic contributions, she was awarded the title of Honored Artist of the RSFSR in 1972 and received a diploma and prize for the best performance of Beethoven's works at the 2nd All-Union Competition of Performing Musicians in Moscow in 1938.

She frequently collaborated with esteemed conductors such as George Sebastian, Tauno Hannikainen, Ilya Musin, Rudolf Barshai, Mark Paverman, Gavriil Yudin, Veronika Dudarova, and Israel Gusman, among others. Marants was also an active chamber musician and accompanist, partnering over the years with celebrated artists like David Oistrakh, Boris Goldstein, Mikhail Fikhtengolts, Zoya Lody, Debora Pantofel-Nechetskaya, and Nina Dorliac.

Even in her final years, Berta Marants retained her remarkable abilities, able to play virtually any piece from memory. She passed away on May 4, 1998, and was buried in the Bugrovskoe cemetery in Nizhny Novgorod. Her husband was Semyon Solomonovich Benditsky (1908–1993), also a pianist, music teacher, and professor. The house where she was born has been preserved and now houses a puppet theater. In 2007, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of her birth, the book "Berta Marants. To Play? Definitely Play!" was published in Nizhny Novgorod.

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