Babette Hierholzer

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Babette Hierholzer (born March 27, 1957 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) is a German-American pianist.

Life

She began playing the piano at the age of five and received her first lessons from Elisabeth Dounias-Sindermann and Wolfgang Saschowa . The age of eleven she made her debut in the Berlin Philharmonic with Mozart's Piano Concerto in A major KV 488. Her other teachers included in the following years Herbert Stessin, Lili Kraus , Claude Frank , Paul Badura-Skoda , Maria Tipo and Bruno Leonardo Gelber . Herbert von Karajan , for whom she auditioned, spontaneously invited her to concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic. This was followed by extensive concert activities in Europe, North and South America and Africa.

The works of Robert and Clara Schumann form a focus of their artistic activity . She played both Clara Schumann's Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 7, as well as her lesser-known concert movement in F minor (1847). She edited Clara Wieck's Quattre Polonaises pour le pianoforte op. 1 at the Ries & Erler publishing house. In 1983 she recorded the piano soundtrack for the film Spring Symphony by Peter Schamoni . In addition, she doubled in the film Nastassja Kinski as the piano-playing Clara Schumann.

In the early 1990s, she moved to the United States, where she continued her career. Babette Hierholzer is the niece of the surgeon Günther Hierholzer. In April 1995 she gave a concert with the cellist and university professor Esther Nyffenegger at the surgeons' congress in Berlin, where Günther Hierholzer was president.

In addition to her solo commitments, since 2004 she has formed the Duo Lontano together with the pianist Jürgen Appell, which can now look back on many years of successful concerts. Extensive tours have taken the duo to Italy, Germany, Venezuela, Mexico, Russia and the United States. In Caracas they played with the Orquesta Juvenil Simon Bolivar Mozart's Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra KV 365 under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel . In 2016 they made their debut with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Cuba in Havana and in 2018 they performed at the Festival de Inverno Petrópolis in Brazil. In January 2019, the duo went on a concert tour to China for the first time.

The Duo Lontano recorded a CD in 2015 in the Leipzig Gewandhaus with original works for piano for four hands by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy . In spring 2019 a CD with works by Franz Schubert was also released by GENUIN. A CD with music by Latin American composers was also released there in 2020.

Hierholzer has also been the artistic director of the German Forum in New York since 2005 , an organization that has made it its business to invite young performers from German-speaking countries to a debut concert in New York. The German Forum celebrated its 10th anniversary in December 2014 with a concert in the Bruno Walter Auditorium (Lincoln Center). The German Forum has now introduced more than 100 young musicians to the New York audience.

Hierholzer has also been the artistic director of the Rhinebeck Chamber Music Society since 2015. She lives in Upstate New York with her husband .

Discography

  • "Hommage à Watteau: Couperin, Debussy, Schumann" Marus / EMI Electrola 1985
  • “Robert Schumann: Exercises, Wieck Variations in F minor, Sonata in G minor op. 22, Carnaval op. 9” Marus / EMI Electrola 1986/87
  • "WA Mozart: Piano Works" Marus / EMI Electrola 1989
  • "Franz Schubert: Sonata in B flat major D 960" Marus / EMI Electrola 1994
  • “Children's scenes” with works by Robert Schumann, Clara Wieck, Alfredo Casella etc., Marus / Deutschlandradio 1997
  • “Domenico Scarlatti: Sonatas. Vol. I-III ", Marus / EMI Electrola 1985/1991 (Vol. I and II), Marus / DeutschlandRadio Berlin 2000 (Vol. III)
  •  “JS Bach: Transcriptions for Piano” GENUIN / Deutschlandradio Kultur 2003/2007
  • "Ferdinand Ries: Works for Violoncello and Piano" (with Nancy Green), JRI Recordings 2005
  • "WA Mozart: Piano Concerto KV 488" (with the Berliner Philharmoniker, conductor: Klaus Tennstedt ), Testament Recordings 2010
  • "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy: Works for piano 4 hands" (Duo Lontano), GENUIN 2015
  • “Schubert: Works for Piano Duo” (Duo Lontano), GENUIN 2019
  • "Latin. Piano music for four hands from South America ”(Duo Lontano), GENUIN 2020

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Spring Symphony, 1983. In: Schumann Portal. Retrieved June 2, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Ernst Kern : Seeing - Thinking - Acting of a surgeon in the 20th century. ecomed, Landsberg am Lech 2000. ISBN 3-609-20149-5 , p. 340.
  3. ↑ Duo Lontano | Petrópolis | Cineteatro do Museu Imperial | Dellarte Soluções Culturais. Retrieved June 2, 2020 (Brazilian Portuguese).
  4. ^ Stralsund - New York - Xi'an. In: port creative. Retrieved June 2, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Hierholzer, Babette
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-American pianist
DATE OF BIRTH March 27, 1957
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiburg in Breisgau