Andreas Haefliger
Piano
"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
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| Andreas Haefliger biography |
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| Andreas Haefliger discography |
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| Andreas Haefliger press quotes |
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| Andreas Haefliger short biography |
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Photos |
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Andreas Haefliger (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
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Andreas Haefliger (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
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Andreas Haefliger (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
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Andreas Haefliger (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
Download |
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Andreas Haefliger (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
Download |
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Andreas Haefliger (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
Download |
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Andreas Haefliger (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
Download |
 |
Andreas Haefliger (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
Download |
 |
Andreas Haefliger (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
Download |
 |
Andreas Haefliger (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
Download |
 |
Andreas Haefliger (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
Download |
 |
Andreas Haefliger (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
Download |
 |
Andreas Haefliger (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
Download |
 |
Andreas Haefliger (credit: Marco Borggreve) |
Download |
Perspectives describes Andreas Haefliger's creative approach to programming, both in concert and for recordings. In recital Haefliger seeks to explore Beethoven's piano music as well as the music of composers who influenced, or were influenced by Beethoven - composers such as Mozart, Brahms, Janácek and Ligeti. Haefliger's Perspectives programmes are also being recorded for Avie Records and have received great critical acclaim.
On this page you can explore the recordings, hear Haefliger talking about the process of programme-building, and find details of future Perspectives programmes offered by Haefliger for performance in recital.
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Multimedia
Click here to watch a short film on Andreas Haefliger as he prepares to record Perspectives 4, the next disc in his critically acclaimed series for Avie Records.
Click on the link below to hear Andreas Haefliger in an extract from Liszt's Les Années de pèlerinage - Premiére Année: La Suisse: VIII (Le Mal du Pays), taken from Perspectives 5
Click on the link below to hear Andreas Haefliger in an extract from Beethoven's Hammerklavier sonata, taken from Perspectives 5:
Click on the link below to hear Andreas Haefliger in an extract from Janacek's piano sonata From the Street, taken from Perspectives 4:
Click on the link below to hear Andreas Haefliger in an extract from Beethoven's Piano Sonata No.21 in C major Waldstein, taken from Perspectives 4:
Click on the link below to hear Andreas Haefliger in an extract from Brahms's Piano Sonata No.2 in F sharp minor, taken from Perspectives 4:
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Perspectives 5
Beethoven Piano Sonata No. 29 in B-Flat Major, Op. 106, Hammerklavier
Liszt Années de pèlerinage; 1° années, Suisse: Chapelle de Guillaume Tell
“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
Perspectives 4
Janacek Piano Sonata 1.X.1905 From the Street
Beethoven Piano Sonata No.21 in C major Waldstein
Beethoven Piano Sonata No.24 in F sharp major
Brahms Piano Sonata No.2 in F sharp minor
"He shapes Janacek Sonata's brooding paragraphs in broad arcs, massive textures and with ample yet never excessive use of the sustain pedal. The interpretation convincingly contrasts with the leanness and urgency pianists such as Ivan Moravec... and Andras Schiff... convey. Haefliger's tonal palette yields similarly expressive dividends in Beethoven's Waldstein...
Following a spacious, lovingly inflected account of Op 78's first movement, 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. So what's in store for Perspectives 5?"
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
Perspectives 3
Beethoven Piano Sonata No.15 in D major Op.28 'Pastoral'
Beethoven Piano Sonata No.23 in F minor Op.57 'Appassionata'
Schubert Piano Sonata No.21 in B flat major D.960
"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...
The Appassionata’s outer movements achieve a happy fusion of drama, cumulative sweep and textural clarity.”
Gramophone Magazine, June 2008
“Haefliger’s aim is to illuminate the individuality of these three works ‘by placing them in tonal, dramatic and historic relief’. Penetrating playing.”
Classic FM 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
Perspectives 2
Beethoven Piano Sonata No.22 in F major Op.54
Bartók Out of Doors Suite Sz.81
Beethoven Piano Sonata No.27 in E minor Op.90
Brahms Piano Sonata No.3 in F minor Op.5
“Beethoven Piano sonatas: the best interpretations. The world-renowned pianist Andreas Haefliger proves himself in a very powerful and elegant performance.”
Live Magazine Vienna, June 2007
"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."
“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, 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
Perspectives 1
Schubert Piano Sonata in A minor D537
Thomas Adès Darknesse Visible
Mozart Piano Sonata No.17 in B flat major KV 570
Beethoven Piano Sonata No.32 in C minor Op.111
“Haefliger is superbly lucid and picturesque, his control exemplary.”
Gramophone, September 2004
“…a thoroughly enjoyable and thoughtfully planned piano recital.”
The Guardian, August 2004
“The figure in the title implies that Haefliger has embarked on a series of discs. I hope so… The freshness and thoughtfulness of the interpretations sell them convincingly.”
The Sunday Times, August 2004
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Andreas Haefliger