Andreas Haefliger

• Pianist

Biography

In 10/11 Andreas Haefliger concerto performances include Bartok 3 with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Jonathan Nott; Chopin 2 with the Toronto Symphony and Music Director Peter Oundjian (touring to Montreal and Ottawa); Mozart with the London Philharmonic and Guenter Herbig at the Royal Festival Hall and with the Tonkuenstlerorchester in Vienna’s Musikverein.

Concerto highlights over the past year or so include Mozart at Carnegie Hall, at the Aspen Festival and with the Strasbourg Philharmonic; Beethoven with the Philharmonia Orchestra/Christoph von Dohnanyi at the Royal Festival Hall, and with Eiji Oue in Osaka; Bernstein’s Age of Anxiety with the Radiosinfonieorchester Wien at the Vienna Konzerthaus; and Brahms in North America and with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra.

As a recitalist and chamber musician, Haefliger excels in finding the most immediate expression. He was described in the Guardian after a recent recital at the Wigmore Hall as “…one to take risks, which make him a fascinating artist”, and in an earlier review in the Independent, “there seems to be no limit to the resources of Haefliger’s touch”. Haefliger performed a series of recitals in New York, London and Milan with his late father, the great tenor Ernst Haefliger, in Schubert's Die Winterreise, and in recent years has collaborated with Wolfgang Holzmair, the Takacs Quartet, and his wife, flautist Marina Piccinini. He has a long-standing partnership with Matthias Goerne, with whom in summer 2010 he performed at the festivals of Tanglewood, Toronto and Aix, followed by a Wigmore recital in October.

The focus of Haefliger’s solo recital appearances in recent years has been an ongoing series Perspectives on Beethoven in which he performs the complete piano works of Beethoven alongside works by other composers including Mozart, Schubert, Bartók, Brahms, Janáček, Schoenberg and Ligeti. The recital programmes have all been recorded for the Avie label, to widespread critical acclaim. His UK recital tour in spring 09 culminated in an appearance at the International Piano Series at the Southbank Centre, and he took the same programme to Chicago’s Symphony Hall.

After the enormous success of his first recording of Mozart Sonatas for Sony Classical, Haefliger made three further recordings for Sony of Schumann’s Davidsbündlertanze and Fantasiestücke, Schubert Impromptus, and a disc of music by Sofia Gubaidulina. Later Haefliger recorded for Decca with the Takacs Quartet and Matthias Goerne, the latest Goerne/Haefliger release of Schubert’s Goethe Lieder being awarded a Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.