lasted until the end of his life and confirmed him as one of the foremost pianists of the day. It was after his Wigmore Hall recital of 27 March 1957 that Cherkassky's career accelerated in the United Kingdom and following the death of his mother in Nice in 1961, he settled in London where he lived at The White House hotel until his death in 1995. Further touring His career continued to flourish with appearances at all the great concert venues of the world: the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Herkulessaal in Munich, the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, at Suntory Hall in Tokyo and with all the world's great orchestras and conductors. Cherkassky's love of spontaneity and his dislike of a fixed standard performance meant that some conductors were reluctant to work with him. With Cherkassky, there was no guarantee that what was agreed in rehearsal would happen in concert. Cherkassky's performing career lasted for over 70 years, yet it was only in the last few decades of his life that he was recognized as one of the greatest pianists – a self-declared intuitive artist who relished spontaneity, beauty of sound and the kaleidoscopic possibilities of the piano. Cherkassky died in London, aged 86, on 27 December 1995. He is buried in Highgate Cemetery, London, England. Recordings Over seven decades of his concert career, starting in the 1920s, Cherkassky made a large number of recordings for RCA Victor, Vox, Swedish Cupol label, HMV, DG (the famous Tchaikovsky concerto recordings, and a later stereo recording of Franz Liszt's Hungarian Fantasy with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert von Karajan), Tudor, Nimbus and Decca ('live' BBC recordings). He made his last recordings at age 85, in May 1995, seven months before his death. These were a selection of Rachmaninoff's pieces to act as fillers for his recording of Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3 made the previous year. Discography Releases by BBC Legends Shura Cherkassky - Chopin (BBCL 4057–2) Shura Cherkassky - Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto 3, Prokofiev Piano Concerto 2 (BBCL 4092–2) Shura Cherkassky / Sir Georg Solti - Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Cherkassky, Rimsky-Korsakov (BBCL 4160–2) Shura Cherkassky - Rameau, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Chopin, Scriabin, Tchaikovsky, Liszt (BBCL 4185–2) Shura Cherkassky - Handel, Brahms, Berg, Prokofiev, Chopin (BBCL 4212–2) Shura Cherkassky - Beethoven Piano Concerto 5, Gershwin Piano Concerto (BBCL 4231–2) Shura Cherkassky - Mendelssohn, Schubert, Schumann, Tchaikovsky arr.