The distinctive classical pianist Mikhail Pletnev claimed worldwide attention
when he took first place at the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in
Moscow when he was 21-years-old. His global career stalled when cultural
relations with the Soviet Union were curtailed during that nation's war in
Afghanistan but he toured the Soviet territories, released recordings and made
up for lost time in the 1990s with many appearances in the west. Born the son of
musicians in Archangelsk in the north of Russia, on April 14, 1957, Mikhail
Pletnev studied at the Moscow Conservatory wh...