Antti Siirala
Antti Aleksi Siirala (born May 16, 1979 in Helsinki ) is a Finnish pianist .
His parents are the violinist Merit Palas and the pianist Jussi Siirala, both of whom teach at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
Life
At the age of seven he appeared for the first time as a soloist with an orchestra. In 1997 he won the International Beethoven Piano Competition Vienna as the youngest prizewinner in its history, in 2000 the London International Piano Competition and in 2003 both the AXA Dublin International Piano Competition and the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition (1st prize, gold medal and audience award). Winning the Beethoven competition resulted in the performance of all Beethoven piano works at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki over several years and a certain Beethoven focus in his repertoire.
Several substitutes for Hélène Grimaud , Emanuel Ax , Ivo Pogorelich or Yefim Bronfman helped him to gain more and more attention in the musical public from 2004 onwards. At his debut concert in Brussels he took over the direction of the orchestra from the piano due to the conductor's short-term illness. The Berliner Philharmoniker invited him to a piano recital in their own piano series in April 2010 (as one of four pianists alongside Pierre-Laurent Aimard , Lang Lang and Martin Helmchen ).
Conductors who work with Siirala include a. Herbert Blomstedt, Mikko Franck, Michael Gielen, Pietari Inkinen, Kristjan Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Sir Neville Marriner, Sakari Oramo, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Karl-Heinz Steffens, Osmo Vänskä and Mario Venzago.
A selection of the orchestras with which Siirala is a guest includes the radio symphony orchestras of Frankfurt (HR), Freiburg / Baden-Baden (SWR), Cologne (WDR), Helsinki, Stockholm, London (BBC), and the German Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Bamberger Symphoniker, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Wiener Symphoniker, Tonkünstlerorchester Wien, Orchester National de Belgique, City of Birmingham Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Residentie Orkest Den Haag, Swedish National Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, St. Petersburg Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Mostly Mozart Orchestra New York, San Francisco Symphony, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo.
Milestones were the recitals at the Lucerne Festival, Ruhr Piano Festival, in the Cologne Philharmonic, in the London Wigmore Hall, in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, in the Metropolitan Museum in New York, in the Tonhalle Zurich, in Brussels, Milan and Detroit. For 3 years Siirala was artist in residence in the "Junge Wilde" series at the Dortmund Konzerthaus.
His CD with Schubert transcriptions, published by NAXOS, received excellent reviews. She received the Editor's Choice Award from Gramophone Magazine. His CD with works by Brahms, which was published by ONDINE, received 6 out of 6 points in the Interpretation category at Piano News and was again selected by Gramophone Magazine as Editor's Choice. In 2010 BIS released the recording of Kalevi Aho's 2nd piano concerto (Lahti Symphony Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä), which was also premiered by Siirala.
His repertoire includes German classical and romantic as well as contemporary works. He gave premieres of works by Walter Gieseler, Kuldar Sink, Uljas Pulkkis and Kalevi Aho .
Discography
- Schubert Piano Transcriptions by Liszt, Prokofiev, Busoni and Godowsky. Naxos 8,555,997 (2003)
- Johannes Brahms: Sonata in F minor; 16 Waltzes. Ondine ODE 1044-2 (2004)
- Kalevi Aho: Piano Concerto No. 2. Lahti Symphony Orchestra / Osmo Vänskä. BIS-CD-1316 (2010)
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Siirala, Antti |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Siirala, Antti Aleksi |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Finnish pianist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 16, 1979 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Helsinki |