Kristian Bezuidenhout

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Kristian Bezuidenhout (* 1979 in South Africa ) is an Australian fortepiano player , harpsichordist and pianist of South African origin.

He is considered an expert in historical performance practice and especially in historical keyboard instruments, but is also associated with today's concert grand. "Crossing the border between composition and improvisation, he gives his interpretations of classical works a liveliness that you rarely get to hear in early music." Kristian Bezuidenhout became internationally known when he won First Prize and the Audience Prize in 2001 at the age of 21 won the international Musica Antiqua competition in Bruges.

Career and education

Kristian Bezuidenhout was born in South Africa in 1979. He grew up with his sister and brother in a family who loved classical music in King William's Town in eastern South Africa. Bezuidenhout's love for classical music was initially expressed in an intense collector's passion for classical recordings. For private, but also for political reasons, his parents left South Africa with their family in 1988 and moved to Australia; they did not want to live under the apartheid system . Bezuidenhout did not take piano lessons until 1988 in Australia. He continued his pianist training there. He continued his piano studies at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester ( New York State continues). At the beginning he studied playing the modern piano with Rebecca Penneys . However, he turned to historical instruments early on. He studied harpsichord with Arthur Haas , fortepiano with Malcolm Bilson and continuo playing and performance practice with Paul O'Dette .

Musical work

Bezuidenhout has made guest appearances as a pianist with numerous well-known ensembles for historically informed performance practice such as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra , Concerto Köln , the Collegium Vocale Gent or Les Arts Florissants . He has also been a guest of world-leading symphony orchestras such as the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra . Conductors such as John Eliot Gardiner , Philippe Herreweghe , Trevor Pinnock , Frans Brüggen , and Giovanni Antonini acted as his partners. Bezuidenhout has worked with soloists such as Jean-Guihen Queyras , Isabelle Faust , Alina Ibragimova , Carolyn Sampson , Anne Sofie von Otter and Matthias Goerne . From the piano he directed ensembles such as The English Concert , Tafelmusik , Juilliard415 , the Kammerakademie Potsdam , the Chiaroscuro Quartet and the Dutch orchestra of the 18th century . As a lied pianist, Bezuidenhout played songs by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann together with Mark Padmore .

Since 2009 Bezuidenhout has been cooperating with the Harmonia Mundi label on piano recordings . Awards include his recordings of all of Mozart's piano music, Mendelssohn's piano concertos with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and Schumann's Dichterliebe with Mark Padmore. In 2013 Gramophone Magazine nominated him “Artist of the Year”.

At the beginning of the 2017/2018 season, Kristian Bezuidenhout took over the artistic direction of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, succeeding Petra Müllejans, for three seasons alongside Gottfried von der Goltz . Bezuidenhout has been working closely with this orchestra for many years. The key experience for Kristian Bezuidenhout with regard to the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in his time as a record collector was the recording of Bach's B minor Mass under Thomas Hengelbrock . In 1999 he had similarly impressive live experiences as a listener with this orchestra in a concert with Elisabeth and Andreas Scholl in London. There were the Stabat Mater of Pergolesi 's cantatas Bach and on the program. Bezuidenhout's wish to make music with this orchestra himself was first fulfilled in May 2007 in Barcelona . As a substitute he played a Mozart piano concerto under Gottfried von der Goltz.

Kristian Bezuidenhout is visiting professor at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and at the Eastman School of Music .

Artistic evaluation

In an interview with Miquel Cabruja, he describes his inner development towards historical keyboard instruments: “When I started my training at the age of ten, I naturally played a modern piano. When I was about 14 I realized that Tchaikovsky or Prokofiev didn't really care. Instead, I was fascinated by Haydn and Mozart. But I was faced with an insoluble problem: I wanted to make this music by Mozart and Haydn just as exciting and full of energy as the former. But if you want to interpret Mozart or Haydn, you can't just start energetic on the modern instruments! I felt like I was in a straitjacket. But: Exactly what I have always longed for is possible on a fortepiano. You can put passion and emotions into the music [...] without it ever sounding coarse or exaggerated. ”The discovery of the fortepiano, especially in relation to Mozart's piano music, was a fundamental liberation for Kristian Bezuidenhout. The playing style of this instrument requires the greatest care, because only "when you open the locks of a fortepiano [...] the restrictions are forgotten." This is the only way to reproduce Mozart's piano music with the "incredibly engaging sensuality" that the concerts or recordings of Kristian Bezuidenhout distinguish.

Discography (selection)

Solo music
Chamber music
Songs
Solo concerts / orchestral works

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Miquel Cabruja. interview
  2. ↑ Miquel Cabruja.
  3. ↑ Bonn International Beethoven Festival
  4. ↑ Kristian Bezuidenhout gave Wolfgang Scherer an interview for SWR2 under the title “From record collector to pianist”. The interview was broadcast on December 20, 2017 at 8:03 p.m. during the break from the SWR2 evening concert live - 30 years of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra . Among other things, Bezuidenhout provided the following biographical information: 1. Kristian Bezuidenhout grew up in a family that was open and enthusiastic about classical music. 2. He comes from King William's Town in the east of South Africa. 3. The relocation from South Africa to Australia took place in 1988. 4. Bezuidenhout realized the family's passion for classical music for himself as a child, initially as a collector of classical records. 5. The story of the approach of Kristian Bezuidenhout and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (getting to know the record of the orchestra's Bach Mass in B minor with Thomas Hengelbrock, the first visit to a concert by this orchestra in 1999 in London, the first performance with this orchestra 2007 in Barcelona). This interview information is partly used in the article.
  5. ↑ Salzburg Festival 2018
  6. ↑ Beethoven Festival Bonn 2017
  7. ↑ Marco Borggreve, Askonas Holt
  8. ↑ direct and indirect quotations from: Miquel Cabruja. interview
  9. ^ Kristian Bezuidenhout, quoted from: Concert announcement , Burghof Kultur- und Veranstaltungsgesellschaft mbH, Lörrach
  10. ↑ Marco Frei: Singing and Drama. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , accessed on December 19, 2017.
  11. ↑ Introduction and tracks on the Harmonia Mundi label, accessed on December 19, 2017.
  12. ↑ Introduction and tracks on the Harmonia Mundi label, accessed on December 19, 2017.
  13. ↑ Introduction and tracks on the Harmonia Mundi label, accessed on December 19, 2017.
  14. ↑ Description, accompanying texts and reviews , accessed on December 19, 2017 from the Onyx label .
  15. ↑ Introduction and track list from the Harmonia Mundi label, accessed on 19. December 2017.
  16. ↑ Description at Atma Classique label (French / English), accessed on December 19, 2017.
  17. ↑ Description , at Atma Classique label (French / English), accessed on December 19, 2017.
  18. ↑ Introduction and track list from the Harmonia Mundi label, accessed on December 19, 2017.
  19. ↑ Introduction and track list from the Harmonia Mundi label, accessed on December 19, 2017.
  20. ↑ BR-Klassik CD recommendation , accessed on April 27, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Bezuidenhout, Kristian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian pianist and harpsichordist
DATE OF BIRTH 1979
PLACE OF BIRTH South Africa