Andreas Haefliger
Andreas Haefliger is a German-born Swiss pianist.
Haefliger was born into a musical family as the son of famed tenor Ernst Haefliger. He grew up in Switzerland and later studied at the Juilliard School. He has had engagements with many of the major orchestras in America and Europe, having made his New York debut in 1988, and is a frequent performer at the Lucerne and Salzburg Festivals as well as at the BBC Proms and the Wiener Festwochen.Career
Haefliger grew up in a musical household. After completing his studies at the Juilliard School, where he was twice awarded the Gina Bachauer Memorial Scholarship, he made his London recital debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1993 and his London Proms debut with the Philharmonia in 1994. He appeared at the Rheingau Musik Festival in 1994, playing in Schloss Johannisberg Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 1 and Schumann's Kreisleriana along with preludes and etudes by Rachmaninoff, recorded live. A growing discography includes works by Schumann, Schubert, Mozart, and Sofia Gubaidulina for Sony; Schubert lieder with Matthias Goerne, and the Trout Quintet and Dvorak's Piano Quintet with the Takács Quartet for London/Decca. The "Perspectives" series is recorded and released on the Avie label; recent discs include the second installment of the series, as well as a recital disc of Prokofiev, Wagner, and Franck with Marina Piccinini, his wife.
The Chicago Tribune wrote, "Unlike many virtuosos, Haefliger is a musician first and pianist second... Andreas Haefliger is a pianist to watch. More importantly, he is a pianist to listen to."
He played with major US orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra among them. He premiered the second piano concerto by Karol Beffa, "La Vie antérieure", with Orchestre de Paris and Paavo Järvi.
In Europe, Haefliger has performed with major orchestras, such as the Concertgebouw, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre de Paris, London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, and Vienna Symphony. He gave recitals at international festivals including the Lucerne Festival, Salzburg Festival, The Proms, and the Wiener Festwochen.
He was described in The Guardian, after a recital at Wigmore Hall, as "... one to take risks, which make him a fascinating artist", and in a review in The Independent, “there seems to be no limit to the resources of Haefliger's touch." At Wigmore Hall, he played a three-part series of recitals with the baritone Matthias Goerne, the Takacs Quartet, Marina Piccinini, and the Safri Duo. He performed Schubert's Winterreise in a series of recitals in New York, London, and Milan, with his father. He has collaborated also with the Carmina Quartet and Wolfgang Holzmair, among others.
