Gregor Piatigorsky [SEP] cause of death
lung cancer at his home in Los Angeles, California, in 1976. He was interred in the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery in Los Angeles.
Instrument
He owned two Stradivarius cellos, the "Batta" and the "Baudiot."Piatigorsky also owned the famous Montagnana cello known as the Sleeping Beauty from 1939 to 1951.modern Italian Jago peternella cello
Appraisal.
It has been reported that the great violin pedagogue Ivan Galamian once described Piatigorsky as the greatest string player of all time. He was an extraordinarily dramatic player.
Gregor Piatigorsky, with whom he appeared until the cellist's death in 1976. Other musical partners included the tenor Jan Peerce, cellist Felix Salmond, and violinist and composer George Enescu. He recorded extensively with Piatigorsky and others, including the violinist Eudice Shapiro.
From 1946 to 1951, Berkowitz served as an executive assistant to Serge Koussevitzky at Tanglewood and later became Dean of the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in 1951, a position he held until 1961. As Dean, he presided over a faculty that included Aaron Copland,