Andreas Haefliger

"With its phenomenal richness of color and high touch, the C. Bechstein Concert Grand D 282 is a delight that every pianist should experience."

Andreas Haefliger

The pianist Haefliger was born into a distinguished Swiss musical family and grew up in Germany, going on to study at the Juilliard School in New York. He was quickly recognised as a pianist of the first rank, and engagements with major US orchestras followed swiftly – the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Pittsburgh, Chicago and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestras among them. In his native Europe too, Haefliger has appeared with the great orchestras and festivals such as the Royal Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony Orchestra and Vienna Symphony. He is well recognised as a superb recitalist, making his New York debut in 1988. He has ongoing regular relationships with the Lucerne and Edinburgh Festivals, Vienna Konzerthaus, and other major halls across North America and Asia. Haefliger is a regular visitor to London’s Wigmore Hall with his 'Perspectives' series, in which he performs the complete piano works of Beethoven alongside works by other composers from Mozart to Ligeti. This series has formed the focus of Haefliger’s solo recital appearances and recordings in recent years, the latest CD being volume 7 of the series, released by BIS in 2018. He has won many plaudits for his Beethoven Perspectives recitals on disc and at major halls and festivals, and is also much sought-after as a chamber musician. A tour of Japan and Europe performing Beethoven sonatas connects him with violinist Hilary Hahn.

Haefliger began his career with Sony Classical recording Mozart sonatas followed by Schumann Davidsbündlertanze and Fantasiestücke, Schubert Impromptus, and music by Sofia Gubaidulina. Later Haefliger recorded for Decca with the Takács Quartet and also Matthias Goerne, winning the Preis Der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik for their disc of Schubert Goethe Songs. In the meantime, Haefliger is exclusively under contract with BIS Records, who released the world premiere recording of Dieter Ammann’s Gran Toccata with Susanna Malkki and the Helsinki Philharmonic, coupled with concerti by Bartok and Ravel. Haefliger gave the first live performance of the Ammann at the BBC Proms 2019 with the BBC Symphony and Sakari Oramo, closely followed by the North American premiere with the Boston Symphony and Susanna Malkki. It was co-commissioned for Haefliger by Boston together with the Wiener Konzerthaus, Munich Philharmonic, Lucerne Festival and Taipei Symphony. His next planned recording will be early Beethoven sonatas for BIS in Autumn 2020.

Andreas Haefliger: Beethoven Piano Sonatas op. 31

BIS Records

The three piano sonatas op. 31 by Ludwig van Beethoven have always posed a challenge to all pianists that attempted to interpret them. As the culmination of his first creative period, the triptych at once represents the young Beethoven, yet through its many innovations also points to the many new paths that the composer will still take.
Andreas Haefliger knows how to portray the three sonatas in a fully differentiated manner. The youthful fun of playing is truly noticeable in cheerful moments, for example in the Sonata op. 31 No. 1, while elsewhere he plays tenderly and vocally or serious and bitterly as in the first movement of the Tempest Sonata. Always with control and great musical understanding, one truly hears a masterful pianist at work here.

A dream combination is created between the pianist and his instrument, which, full of colors and brilliance, allows for all subtleties in Haefliger's performance, no matter how fine, to shine through. The artist himself says of the C. Bechstein concert grand D 282 that it is "a modern instrument with a nostalgic quality in its sound world that was a constant source of inspiration during the recordings."

Released by BIS, this album was recorded in January 2021 at the Salle de Musique of the Théâtre populaire romand in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.