"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." Chicago Tribune
Andreas Haefliger was born into a distinguished musical family and grew up in Switzerland, going on to study at the Juilliard School in New York. With his formidable technique and musicality, and his innate sense of architecture and phrasing, he was quickly recognised as a pianist of the first rank. Engagements with major US orchestras followed swiftly - the New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Pittsburgh, Chicago and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestras among them. In his native Europe too, Haefliger was invited and continues to return to 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 established himself as a superb recitalist, making his New York debut in 1988, and became a frequent performer at premier recital venues and festivals, notably the Lucerne and Salzburg Festivals, BBC Proms and the Wiener Festwochen.
Highlights of Haefliger's 2007/8 season include appearances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Esa-Pekka Salonen playing Beethoven's Emperor Piano Concerto no. 5, and with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Christoph von Dohnyani playing Beethoven's Piano Concerto no. 3 - a work he will also perform at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonie. He also performs Mozart with the Dallas Symphony, Atlanta Symphony and Milwaukee Symphony; Bartok's Piano Concerto no. 3 with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Louis Langree; and concerts with the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchester, Minnesota Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic and Singapore Symphony.
The focus of Haefliger's recital appearances in recent years has been an ongoing series Perspectives on Beethoven in which he performs the complete piano works of Beethoven alongside the music of related composers including Mozart, Bartók, Brahms, Janácek, Schoenberg and Ligeti. The recitals are being recorded for the Avie label, and forthcoming performances include at the Lucerne Piano Festival, the Wigmore Hall London, in Lisbon, Birmingham and Antwerp.
After his early recordings of Mozart Sonatas for Sony Classical, as well as Schumann's Davidsbündlertanze and Fantasiestücke, Schubert Impromptus, and Gubaidulina for Sony, more recently Haefliger has released a series of recital discs on the Avie label, all of which have attracted widespread critical acclaim, including a collection of Mozart's Piano Sonatas, shortly followed by Perspectives 1 and most recently Perspectives 2 with works by Beethoven, Brahms and Bartok.
Andreas Haefliger is represented by Intermusica.
Oct 2007 / 386 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.