Schubert Erlkönig Lieder / Matthias Goerne (Harmonia Mundi)
“The first thing to grab my attention was the mesmerisingly lovely playing of Andreas Haefliger, one of the greatest living pianists....Haefliger’s accompaniment is so vivid I’d enjoy it by itself”.
BBC Music Magazine, March 2013
“Haefliger accompanies with exceptional sensitivity…beautifully performed by both Goerne and Haefliger, no nuance overdone, no nuance lost…Haefliger gives a particularly moving account of the complex passages between strophes and the long, forlorn postlude… performed throughout with tact and great musical intelligence”.
International Record Review, February 2013
“Sein nobler und warmer Ton harmoniert bestens mit Goernes Ausdruck. Dazu fuegt Haefliger, als Solist international gefragt, auch ueber die noetigen technischen Reserven, um zu jeder Zeit leicht, federnd und ueberlegen zu klingen…”
“His noble and warm tone matches Goerne's expressivity perfectly. What’s more, Haefliger (who is a sought-after international soloist) has the necessary technical resources to maintain a thoughful approach and feather-light touch.”
Der Spiegel, February 2013
Orchestre de Paris Swiss Tour / Mozart Piano Concerto No. 24 in C minor, K. 491
“Chef et soliste choisirent un style(pour le Mozart) tout en classicisme élégant et distingué, où la simplicité des phrasés, la justesse de tempo et l’attention portée aux équilibres et dialogues instrumentaux furent exemplaires. Cette version raffinée et rigoureuse, fuyant tout spectaculaire.”
“Conductor and soloist chose a style (for the Mozart) of elegant and distinguished classicism, where the simplicity of the phrases, the exact choice of tempo and the attention paid to balance and to instrumental dialogues were all exemplary. This refined and rigorous reading avoided any form of showiness. “
Resmusica, November 2012
“Haefliger nutzte ihn zu einer unprätentiösen, klanglich kultivierten Wiedergabe, bei der er besonders mit den Holzbläsern einen intensiven Dialog führte.”
“Haefliger used this for an unpretentious, sophisticated interpretation, in which he maintained an intensive dialogue with the woodwinds”.
Neue Zuericher Zeitung, November 2012
“Häfliger öffnet den Blick in seine Schönheiten mit zurückhaltender Virtuosität und feiner Anschlagskultur. Im heiteren Larghetto fängt er mit seinen filigranen Tonnetzen das Farbenspiel von Klarinetten und Oboen ein, im Finale lässt er das Spiel ins Dunkle kippen. Ganz natürlich passieren die Wechsel.”
“The beauty of Haefliger’s performance was revelatory, with his understated virtuosity and subtle touch. In the cheerful Larghetto he mirrored the colours of the clarinets and oboes with his delicate webs of sound, and in the finale he let the performance tip over into a darker mood, allowing the transitions to occur quite naturally”.
Der Bund (Bern), November 2012
“einfühlsamkeit und subtilität” - “sensitivity and subtlety”
Innerschweiz online, November 2012
Perspectives 5 (Avie)/ Beethoven & Liszt
"For a thoughtful, beautifully wrought and evocative Swiss Annee played by a Swiss pianist, Andreas Haefliger's recent Avie CD is my hands-down choice."
International Record Review, July 2012
“The present recording of Beethoven's ‘Hammerklavier' Sonata and the ‘First Year' (Switzerland) of Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage shows a gifted pianist as the peak of his powers. I know few performers who have captured Beethoven's op.106 so convincingly on CD. Haefliger's interpretation possesses visionary greatness and delves deeply into the music.
Hardly any other pianist is as successful in bringing out all the peculiarities, moments of longing and dance in Liszt's ‘Suisse'. In few other recordings does one experience these things with such primal force, new colours and new moods. And yet Haefliger is careful not to romanticize and avoids barnstorming and over-interpreted fussiness, instead imbuing the music with natural and sincerely felt expression. The vivid recording technology optimally supports Andreas Haefliger's always subtle and perfectly shaped interpretations.”
Pizzicato, March 2012
“Haefliger exhibits any number of impressive technical means in his rendition of the opening Allegro, allowing the bluster B-flat chords their due, but carefully pedalling the contrasting tender theme in G Major… Colossal curtains of sound alternate with wisps and shards of tone, often liquefying into runs and lyrical minutiae we know from the bagatelles.
…Au bord d’une source anticipates a host of musical pictures from Debussy, Liadov, and Ravel. If Wilhelm Kempff had reigned in this piece, Haefliger here rivals the older master.
Haefliger instils in this exalted meditation [Le Mal du pays] a noble melancholy, cautioning that we overlook this gem no more… The Geneva bells liquefy into tender droplets and reminiscences. Originally conceived to celebrate the birth of Blandine Liszt, the piece builds to a clarion semi-hymn over descending arpeggios that Haefliger imbues with loving fury. Special piano playing throughout.”
Audiophile, January 2012
“Beethoven’s
Hammerklavier Sonata and Liszt’s
Années de Pèlerinage: Suisse make a potent brew when juxtaposed, and the pianist does them superbly. Liszt’s dramatic landscape evocations are characterised with a wide variety of textures, while the contours of Beethoven’s piano masterpiece are delineated with wonderful authority.”
The Independent, Album of the week, November 2011
“The refinement of Haefliger’s sound is striking...the subtlety of Haefliger’s palette serves him well.”
BBC Music Magazine, November 2011
Philharmonia Orchestra / Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4
“To Beethoven’s greatest piano concerto Andreas Haefliger (son of tenor Ernst) brought much thought, some caprice, and a clarity that gave direction without compromising phrasal yielding and poetry. Such balance of reflection and motion expressed as chamber music writ large drew the listener into a tantalisingly intangible world, dynamics never forced louder than they needed to be, the first-movement cadenza… a further development of already-established sentiments rather than a sideshow, the slow movement profound in its reconciliation, and the finale perfectly paced to embrace its wit and joy. Throughout, Haefliger’s engaging and enquiring way with the solo part was accompanied with care and verve, and no little intimacy, by the Philharmonia and Dohnányi.”
Classical Source, June 2012
Sydney Symphony Orchestra / Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2
“Like Zinman, [Haefliger] has nothing of the showman about him, as his refined reading proved. Sustaining impressive tonal clarity and a fluid sense of line, Haefliger made a virtue of subtlety and grace. Timbral variety and dynamic contrast were nuanced rather than extreme. His sinuous adagio, spiced with tasteful trills and ornaments, culminated in a haunting solo of other-worldly beauty.
However, Haefliger displayed virtuosity when it was required. In the finale, his dexterity, lightness of touch and crystalline articulation enlivened the galloping runs and figurations. Throughout, Zinman and the orchestra's elegant, tight-knit accompaniment ideally complemented their stylish soloist.”
The Australian, May 2012
Sydney Recital / Liszt, Debussy & Beethoven
“There’s nothing showy about German pianist Andreas Haefliger - no dramatic gestures, no showmanship, no Lang Lang moments. Instead there is solid musicianship and the technique that comes with 25 years of top-line performances.
Haefliger’s control of colour was fully displayed in the three pieces in Debussy’s second Images series. These were finely played, from the opening floating bells of the first piece to the restlessly darting Poissons d’or which was inspired by images of goldfish on a piece of Chinese laquerware.Haefliger was solid and impressive in the Beethoven…”
Northern District Times, May 2012
“a blueprint of Haefliger’s playing; great sensitivity in slower passages where introspection, breathless pianissimo and distinctive voicing were called for… Haefliger produced some patches of soft magic in the Liszt that engrossed […] Similarly in the Debussy… there were transcendental moments.”
J-wire, May 2012
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra / Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2
“Andreas Haefliger gave a sparkling performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.2. From his opening entry he impressed with clear individual piano lines, expressively shaped supple passage-work and bravura cadenzas.”
The Age, May 2012
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic / Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2
“Haefliger’s playing was expansive, confident and masterful. He managed to juxtapose masterly solemnity with tender charm… The piano playing was, at times, languid and always quite translucent. The piece melted away into an effortless Rondo which was imbued with a real sense of urgency, leading into a deliberately emphasised coda.”
Liverpool Daily Post, May 2012
“Which is the greater of Brahms' two piano concertos? Most people say the second. I say the first – and there to prove it was the Swiss-German pianist Andreas Haefliger… from the great braying climaxes of the opening movement, through the nuanced phrasing of of the adagio… to the scurrying momentum of the finale… Haefliger knew exactly how to integrate with the orchestra, when to apply muscle and when to demonstrate constraint.”
Liverpool Echo, May 2012
Tokyo String Quartet / Wigmore Hall / Brahms
“A blistering, powerful performance of Brahms’s Piano Quintet was the high point of an impressive evening’s music.
[The quartet] were joined by Andreas Haefliger and the partnership struck a well-nigh ideal balance between strength and ardour. […] By the halfway mark these players were scorching the earth behind them as a rich-toned Andante led on to a blistering Scherzo and a finale of powerful momentum.”
Financial Times, April 2012
“Haefliger's crispness and spontaneity gave the opening allegro a real sense of urgency and danger. The light and shade of the andante generated real music-making, and the anguished opening to the finale led to an allegro in which all that assembled technique felt as if it was being put to an authentic purpose.”
The Guardian, April 2012
“Bidding us farewell with Brahms’s Piano Quintet Op 34 – beefed up by pianist Andreas Haefliger’s dark and brooding tone - they went out in a blaze of magnificence."
The Independent, April 2012
“The superb Andreas Haefliger... succeeded in achieving weight and depth of tone while managing to stay in perfect balance with his quartet partners. The slow movement was sensitive and heartfelt with the dialogue exquisitely nuanced. The scherzo was rhythmically incisive with all five players enjoying the dynamic and tonal contrasts. The counterpoint in the fugato section was superbly voiced and controlled. The opening of the finale was probing and introspective with all five players again in perfect balance. The five musicians swept the music to its powerful climax in the ferocious final coda…
Altogether, this was an absolutely wonderful evening of collaborative music making with all five players showing real musical insight and maturity”
Seen and Heard International, April 2012
Singapore Symphony Orchestra / Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1
“Haefliger's near-faultless account – one of the most authoritative and stentorian of performances.”
Singapore Sunday Times, January 2012
Prague Recital / Schubert, Liszt & Beethoven
“Haefliger brought his vibrant energy and intellectual understanding of the music to the fore, for what was a powerfully emotive performance.”
Prague Post, December 2011
Wigmore Hall Recital / Liszt Les Annees de Pelerinage Suisse
“His sound in La chapelle de Guillaume Tell was luxuriantly rich, his pace leisurely in the extreme, with the lapidary grandeur of the music suggesting vast landscapes; he himself had a rock-like presence... Orage (storm) was as tempestuous as one could wish, with the madly whirling octaves and arpeggios suggesting roaring winds and waters: this was a reminder that in Liszt's time the fire and thunder of a piano recital had to provide all the thrills IMAX screens do today.”
The Independent, November
Philadelphia Recital / Schubert, Mozart & Liszt
“Andreas Haefliger is a master manipulator of time. Listeners, entranced by his phrasing, might not have noticed Thursday night that he slowed the music by nearly half at the end of the exposition in the first movement of Schubert's Piano Sonata in B-flat major (D. 960). Mozart and Liszt got similar treatment at his Philadelphia Chamber Music Society recital at the Kimmel. The German-born pianist wants you to believe that what music has to say can be more divorced from regulated tempos than typically heard....
The repertoire made a point; to various degrees, pieces referenced one another. Schubert's D. 960 is embedded with the kinds of thunder and full-stop slivers of silence that wouldn't become commonplace until much later, yet it ends with the Mozartean (or even Haydn-esque) device of trying out snippets of the melody in different keys. Mozart's Adagio in B minor (K. 540) seemed in itself unmoored from time - strangely forward-looking and, for bars at a time, un-Mozartean. Liszt's Isoldens Liebestod: Schlußszene aus Tristan und Isolde is all about time - the prolongation of it. The pianist stretched it so expansively in the beginning that it resembled a canvas growing ever more diaphanous and dangerously close to rupture.
Haefliger made no break in the music between the K. 540 Adagio and Le Mal du Pays and Vallée d'Obermann from Liszt's Années de Pèlerinage, Première Année: Suisse. The musical parlance for this is attacca. The intellectual point is to emphasize the connection, in this case the floating quality they share and the extent to which both composers were entering new territory. The Liszt testified to a pianist of nearly terrifying technique.”
Philadelphia Enquirer, March 2011
Philadelphia Orchestra / Jonathan Nott / Bartok Concerto No. 3
“Pianist Andreas Haefliger was an effervescent and commanding presence. He had a ringing clarity, and, playing the Kimmel Center's new Steinway, was about as far from percussive as possible. “
Philadelphia Enquirer, January 2011
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Festival Hall / Herbig
“… Andreas Haefliger who made a modern concert grand not sound like an intruder into Mozart’s world. This was a chamber-music performance, so often were the textures and playing of a very delicate and intimate nature. Of course K503 is a big work, the orchestration includes both trumpets and drums, and the piano has some impressive, and demonstrative, music, but both soloist and conductor allowed the music to unfold in its own time, and in its own way, thus the first movement was impressive but never overwhelming. The slow movement was a delight of peace and calm and the finale was full of high jinks.”
Classical Source, November 2010
Toronto Symphony Orchestra / Chopin
“…wherever he plays he's recognized as one of today's preeminent practitioners of his instrument…
Thursday's performance was well beyond the ordinary...Haefliger’s sense of the score's form and his superb cantabile really hit the spot. The orchestra played well too, but its role is merely one of accompaniment. This is really a pianist's concerto and, happily, just the right pianist was on hand.”
Ottawa Citizen, November 2010
Tanglewood with Matthias Goerne
"After intermission Haefliger played the Brahms Intermezzi, Op. 117. Throughout the evening he appeared quiet and meditative but played with rich colors and powerful momentum. He voiced the lullaby of the first intermezzo with gentle lyricism and the second, in B-flat minor, with delicate tracery and tasty balances. The final intermezzo was deliberate, but danced and swayed through the five-bar phrases that shaped it."
The Boston Globe, August 2010
International Piano Series / Queen Elizabeth Hall, London / Mozart, Liszt & Schubert
“Haefliger has an invigorating way of combining steely control with just a touch of impatience, seizing the beat almost before it arrives. There were other ways he softened the arithmetical rigidity of Mozart’s neat balanced phrases. The minuet of the famous A major Sonata had a lovely flexibility, so that it “spoke” as well as danced.
In between the Mozart sonatas came Liszt’s arrangement of the Liebestod (“Love Death”) from Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde. Here there was unending melody in plenty, buoyed aloft on great surges of pedalled harmony and tumultuous right-hand tremolandos. Liszt’s pianistic recreation of Wagner’s orchestral richness is an act of genius in its own right, and Haefliger’s performance gave it a lovely, ecstatic intimacy – a dream of Tristan, rather than the reality, fading away on a radiant chord that Haefliger seemed to hold for ever.
As an encore, he played a piece which, as he put it, “encapsulates everything we’d just heard”. This was Mozart’s astounding B minor Adagio. It combines classical balance and poise with romantic anguish, and in Haefliger’s performance the combination took on a heart-breaking eloquence.”
The Telegraph, May 2010
Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg / Claus Peter Flor / Mozart
“The soloist, Andreas Haefliger, understands how to resist the temptation of many pianists to ingratiate themselves with the public by overwhelming them with technical brilliance. He was much more concerned with the greater artistic picture…His brilliance lay in his subtle feeling for shading, without the need for exaggeration…One could almost grasp hold of the humanity in this interpretation - something which these days has almost disappeared from the stage, but which Haefliger illuminated as though from another dimension.”
Michaela Preiner, European Cultural News, February 2010
"Haefliger puts his fabulous technique purely at the service of the most intimate musical expression.
In collaboration with the orchestra he gave a wonderful interpretation of all three movements, and the virtuosic, searching cadenzas emphasised this overall impression. Enthusiastic applause was met with an encore which, again, was deeply sensitive. “
Badene Neueste Nachrichten, February 2010
"soloist Andreas Haefliger knew how to find the essence of the music, but also lent his own specialinspiration to the middle Andante movement. And in the Adagio which he played as an encore, he communicated this more tortured music from Mozart's later works, playing it with the same beautiful musicality.”
Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace, February 2010
Perspectives 4 (Avie) / Beethoven, Brahms & Janáček
"He shapes the Janacek Sonata's brooding paragraphs in broad arcs, massive textures and with ample yet never excessive use of the sustain pedal…Following a spacious, lovingly inflected account of the first movement [of Beethoven’s Waldstein sonata], Haefliger shifts gears, playing up the Allegro vivace's syncopated accents and wacky major/minor shifts for all they're worth. However, it's the gnarly, quasi-orchestral scope of Brahms's early F sharp minor Sonata that fuels Haefliger's most engaging, consistent work here. The outer movements' ungrateful octaves and fistfuls of chords flow like oil, while Haefliger's nuanced, cultivated touch brings a three-dimensional quality to the slow movement's sad lyricism, to say nothing of his focused rhythmic control in the Scherzo. In all, this assured and committed performance is worthy to stand alongside Arrau, Richter, Ax, Katchen, the young Hélène Grimaud and the underrated Peter Rösel.”
Gramophone, July 2010
“Andreas Haefliger’s project of recording the Beethoven Sonatas within the context of other piano literature seems to be reaping fascinating results…
In the Janáček Haefliger not only conveys the personal grief that underlines the music, but also its boldness and modernism – features which in many respects can be linked to the innovations that colour Beethoven’s middle period. Likewise, although his approach to the first and third movements of the Waldstein is suitably strong and propulsive, Haefliger imbues the slow movement with an unexpected sense of melancholy, suggesting a parallel sense of loss to that which inspired Janáček…
In Op. 78 the crystal-clear recording serves to emphasize the beautifully veiled and delicate timbre which Haefliger achives in the rushing semiquaver passages…But perhaps the most striking playing of all comes in the Brahms where Haefliger delivers an interpretation of formidable granitic strength that nonetheless manages to encapsulate the work’s more introspective and poetic aspects.”
BBC Music Magazine, Disc of the Month, Christmas 2009 issue
“Very few of Haefliger’s colleagues approach his attainments as a Beethoven player. His scrupulous observance of every indication in the score seems an article of faith, without impugning spontaneity or narrative flow. He internalizes the stylistic idiosyncrasies of each piece so thoroughly that Beethoven’s most unorthodox figurations, harmonic progressions and expressive strategies sound not only completely natural, but inevitable.
Without losing sight of the elegiac thrust of this heartfelt threnody, Haefliger plumbs the richly atmospheric textures of Janáček’s mature piano style.
These deeply affecting and intellectually stimulating performances will only enhance Andreas Haefliger’s reputation as one of the most refined, thoughtful and probative pianists before the public today. Very highly recommended.”
International Record Review, January 2010
Wolfgang Holzmair / Schubert Winterreise
“The understated gentleness of Haefliger’s accompaniment in which he dared to do less to spectacular effect was heightened and highlighted by the occasional emphatic outbursts of Die Post and Der Sturmische Morgen…with the ever-present support of Haefliger [Holzmair] produced a rendering of this most familiar of cycles that was deeply unsettling – in the best possible way.”
The Oxford Times, 21 October 2009
“Holzmair and Haefliger presented the work as full-blooded drama and with wide-ranging emotions… Haefliger’s piano tone for the softer passages and sharp fortes for more dramatic words or phrases had been meticulously thought out and planned, but was always delivered with both passion and conviction.
The last song in particular, “Der Leiermann” (The Hurdy-Gurdy Man) started with a evocative piano introduction from Haefliger, who produced the bell-like sounds evoking the stillness of the hard winter’s day with the old Hurdy-Gurdy man playing his music, while Holzmair brought out all of the true pathos and despair of this final song which ended with a full minute or so of silence from the enraptured audience – who then gave the artists a well-deserved standing ovation.”
Seen and Heard International, 20 October 2009
An Evening with Andreas Haefliger and Michael York / La Jolla SummerFest
“Haefliger is a marvelous pianist who can coax an infinite variety of tone qualities from his instrument…In Isolde’s Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde, Haefliger got free rein. The sustained buildup over a long-spun crescendo from the murmuring tremelos of the opening to the thundering apotheosis of the climax was truly astonishing.”
Classical Music Review, 14 August 2009
Lieder by Wolf and Liszt with Matthias Goerne / Salzburger Festspiele
“A Liederabend of rare quality…Haefliger’s accounts were full of revealing detail… I was especially taken with [his] unsettling syncopation in the second of the Harfenspieler songs from Goethe. It was all the more unsettling for its subtlety, its lack of exaggeration.
..An ecstatic richness of tone in both parts, initiated by the Creative act, culminated in the defiance of ‘Herr, laß uns kämpfen, laß uns siegen!’ (‘Lord, let us fight, let us triumph!’) That is certainly what Goerne and Haefliger accomplished in this recital.”
Seen and Heard International, August 2009
Wigmore Hall / Janacek, Beethoven & Brahms
“…a memorable Wigmore occasion - as was the Swiss pianist Andreas Haefliger’s recital a few days earlier. He is a musician evidently at the peak of his powers. Janacek’s two-movement Sonata I.X.1905, an elegy for a youth murdered in a Czech nationalist protest, was equally searing and exquisite. Beethoven’s Waldstein sonata was immaculately realised, vigorously thought through, with a perfectly moderated allegretto tempo for the finale; and in the second half Beethoven’s subtle little F sharp sonata, a full-dress, four-movement structure, but coming across in this masterly account as a dramatic unity."
Paul Driver, Sunday Times, November 2008
'Perpectives 3' / Beethoven & Schubert
"Listeners who've followed Andreas Haefliger's solid virtuosity and serious, thoughtful musicianship will find no surprises here... Haefliger's innate affinity for Beethoven's Op 28 Sonata manifests itself via the pianist's relaxed tempi and ample tone. Taste and proportion govern his penchant for rhetorical broadenings and tenuti... he Appassionata’s outer movements achieve a happy fusion of drama, cumulative sweep and textural clarity.”
Gramophone Magazine, June 2008
“Zuhörer, die Andreas Haefligers solide Virtuosität und ernsthafte, durchdachte Musikalität verfolgt haben, werden hier nicht überrascht sein. Seine Neigung zu rhetorischen Verbreiterungen und Tenuti werden von Geschmack und Sinn für Proportionen bestimmt. Die Außensätze seiner „Appassionata“ erfreuen durch eine gelungene Fusion von Dramatik, Spannungsbogen und Klarheit der Textur.”
Gramophone Magazine, June 2008
“The ultimate praise of Haefliger’s technical equipment might be that one is simply never aware of it; one hears only beautiful, fluent music-making, unimpeded by the physical. My avoidance of comparisons in this review is deliberate. It seems to me that, among the more interesting contemporary pianists assaying the Viennese classical canon, Andreas Haefliger is in a class all his own.”
International Record Review, April 2008
“Das höchste Lob für Andreas Haefligers Technik könnte sein, dass man sich ihrer einfach niemals bewusst ist; man hört nur von Körperlichem ungestörte, wunderbare, fließende Musik. Mir scheint, dass Haefliger unter den interessanteren Pianisten, die sich heute den Kanon der Wiener Klassik vornehmen, eine eigene Kategorie beansprucht.”
International Record Review, April 2008
Konzerthausorchester Berlin & Gilbert Varga / Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5
“Haefliger never attacks the piece too directly, and this pianist has few competitors musically to fear in this generation.”
Berliner Zeitung, May 2008
“an Musikalität hat dieser Pianist heute in seiner Generation wenig Konkurrenz zu befürchten”
Berliner Zeitung, May 2008
“…Andreas Haefliger added great meaning with his nimble-fingered playing. This was faultless music making without exaggeration or personal quirks, truly at the service of Beethoven.”
Berliner Morgenpost, May 2008
“... Haefliger fügte seine fingerfertige Klavierkunst aufs verständnisinnigste ein. Es setzte, im Dienst an Beethoven, ein tadelloses Musizieren ohne Übertreibungen und interpretatorische Privatinteressen.”
Berliner Morgenpost, May 2008
Philharmonia Orchestra & Christoph von Dohnányi / Beethoven Piano Concerto No.3
"Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto brought an outstanding partnership with the Swiss pianist Andreas Haefliger. Having heard Dohnányi accommodate himself to various ‘star’ pianists in this concerto, with Haefliger one had by contrast the satisfying sense of a genuine marriage of musical minds. Like Alfred Brendel (with whom Dohnányi collaborated in this work last year), Haefliger is a player with a fine sense of classical style, clean without being prissy, dovetailing beautifully in his exchanges with the orchestra yet able to touch on deeper things as in the solo with which the Largo begins which stole in with an almost improvisatory feel. The finale had a dry wit, full of character yet avoiding any hint of overstatement. Dohnányi pounced in cat-like style at the danger-point in the coda."
Classical Source.com, April 2008
Lucerne Piano Festival / Beethoven & Schubert
“Den persönlichsten Eindrunk unter den erstmals am Piano-Festival auftretenden Pianisten hinterliess gestern Morgen im Konzertsaal Andreas Haefliger. Das Ereignis war hier die feinen Zwischentöne in Schuberts verloren kreisender letzten Sonate.“
Neue Luzerner Zeitung, November 2007
BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Beethoven
"... with Haefliger indulging Beethoven's romantic lyricism, this was a refreshingly different interpretation."
The Guardian, June 2007
Vienna Musikverein / Tonkünstlerorchester Orchester / Ravel
"The solo part was played with excellent technique and shaping by Andreas Haefliger."
Kurier, June 2007
Perspectives 2 (Avie) /Beethoven, Bartok & Brahms
"The fabulous Swiss pianist Andreas Haefliger plays works by Bártok, Beethoven and Brahms under the title ‘Perspectives 2” (on 2 CDs). He is always coherent and technically excellent. Brahms sonata in F minor is especially worth a listen."
Wiener Kurier, May 2007
“Der ausgezeichnete Schweizer Pianist Andreas Haefliger spielt unter dem Titel “Perspectives 2” (auf zwei CD’s) Werke von Bártok, Beethoven, und Brahms. Stets stimmig, technisch exzellent. Vor allem die f-Moll-Sonate von Brahms lohnt das Hören.”
Wiener Kurier, May 2007
"Perspectives 2 reflects Haefliger's thoughtfulness in programme-building, as well as his musicianship and selfless virtuosity. He conceives Beethoven's Sonata No 27 on a large scale, with pronounced dynamic contrasts and rhetorical underpinnings... Haefliger colours the main theme's decorative manifestation with exquisite shadings...
…His mastery in Bartók's Out of Doors suite comes as no surprise: notice in the finale how he his animated left hand clarifies the music's polyrhythmic momentum...moments abound where Haefliger gives in to Brahms's unbridled energy: listen to him gather steam en route to the finale's coda and simply let things rip."
Gramophone Magazine, June 2006
"…the Brahms Piano Sonata No.3, given a splendidly sonorous, magisterial performance of great distinction."
Classic FM Magazine, May 2006
"A towering performance of Brahms' massive F minor Sonata sounds as revolutionary as everything that has gone before. Quirky, tremendous and highly recommended."
The Guardian, March 2006
Vienna Symphony Orchestra / Schumann
"…Andreas Haefliger created dreamlike moments at the keyboard with his soft, magical touch, playing romantically without gliding into the sentimental."
Vorarlberger Nachrichten, August 2005
BBC Symphony Orchestra / Grieg
"The welcome soloist was Andreas Haefliger, whose easy command of the keyboard meant that lyricism shone through even in the most technically demanding moments. He floated a dreamy line in the adagio and brought out the finale's dancing rhythm."
The Times, May 2005
Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra / Brahms
"The fabulous Andreas Haefliger was soloist in this Thursday concert and offered a brilliant piano performance, a steely will and Johannes Brahms in the style of Beethoven...One moment he is pushing the music forward with determination, in the next he's creeping right under the skin of the notes, with an intensity that almost makes time stand still. One minute he is intently watching what the orchestra is doing, the next he is leaning back listening to the music with relaxed concentration. In this sense, he's a man of extremes. But he's also a musician with such good taste and sense of form that his music never seems eccentric or posturing."
BerlingskeTidende, October 2004
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra / BBC Proms 2004: Beethoven
"Haefliger maintained refinement, eloquence and perspective, with a wonderful capacity for hushed, mellow playing that was not only right for the musical context but also utterly spellbinding. This was the most completely enjoyable performance of the Proms so far."
The Daily Telegraph, July 2004
Mozart Piano Sonatas (Avie)
"These are exquisite performances, beautifully recorded, of Mozart's last four sonatas… Haefliger's playing is unmannered, crystal-clear in figuration and poetic in phrasing."
The Sunday Telegraph, October 2003
"… this is always intelligent, deeply musical playing that will appeal to those who like their Mozart crisp, clear-eyed and athletic."
The Daily Telegraph, October 2003
In recital / Schubert, Beethoven, Ades & Mozart
"Haefliger really understands the art of putting together an intelligent and sensitive programme. ... The middle movement [of the Beethoven] was full of lyricism, and with the final movement he returned to the mood of the start, playing everything clearly and with control. …He played the Allegro with clear strength and brilliance, and after creating an unbelievable tension in the Adagio, he let the Allegretto follow with an almost playful jollity. And technically? A work of Swiss precision!"
Wiener Zeitung, May 2003
"Haefliger is one to take risks, which make him a fascinating artist…Haefliger then simply let the Mozart Sonata flow out of Adès's irresolution, lifting us from grief to serenity…"
The Guardian, April 2003
Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphonieorchester, Munich / Grieg
"Andreas Haefliger played the solo part with the necessary technical perfection and gave energetic momentum through his organic, never arbitrary rubato"
Münchner Merker, February 2003
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