Search - Burkard Schliessmann :: Chopin-Schumann 2010: Anniversary Edition [2-SACD Deluxe Digipak]

Burkard Schliessmann, who completed his musical studies as a pupil in the masterclass of Herbert Seidel, Shura Cherkassky, Bruno Leonardo Gelber and Poldi Mildner, is regarded as one of the influential pianists of the modern era. He has received numerous prizes and awards of merits for his interpretations. His interpretation of the Goldberg-Variations of J.S. Bach, worldwide released in 2008, has been awarded the Critics Choice Award 2008 by the American Record Guide, and at MusicWeb International it received the distinction Recording of the Year 2008. Earlier in 2004 his Chopin was appointed to Recording of the Year 2004 at MusicWeb International. In recognition of his accomplishments in research, his unique pianistic power and his pedagogical art he was awarded with the highest US-academic distinction, the Distinguished University Professor in January 2009 in New York. The concerts he gave in the USA, Japan, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and at European festivals including Paris, the Munich summer piano festival, the Frankfurt festival and the Mallorca/Valldemossa Chopin festival were all received with similar acclaim from public and critics alike. Famous critics have had no hesitation in placing him alongside the finest pianists: "This is the most imaginative playing one has heard yet on the level of Richter Michelangeli, Serkin, Wild, Could - the highest order of artistry" wrote the High Performance Review in the USA. Understandably, the West German TV-channel WDR in a Co-production with ARD, ZDF, ZDF, 3sat, the Bavarian TV-station BR, the Hessian TV-station HR, ARTE, and the US TV-channel Classic Arts Showcase invited the pianist to take part in TV-portraits which were widely praised. In his TV-recordings Burkard Schliessmann has collaborated with highly renowned regisseurs, such as José Montes-Baquer, Lothar Mattner, Enrique Sánchez Lansch, Claus Viller, Dieter Hens, Korbinian Meyer, Siegfried Aust and others. When he is working on a piece of music, Burkard Schliessmann always has Hegel in mind: "art isn't all about a pleasant or useful musical mechanism, but about laying bare the truth". After an initial, seemingly improvised phase, Schliessmann explores the smallest of structures, whilst at the same time conducting a rigorous analysis of the independent interfaces between the various parameters - melody, rhythm and harmony. The individual sound is always the carrier of the whole - suffused with its own idendity, interpreted through the personality of the performer. In addition to this Parameter Polyphony, Schliessmann always takes into consideration philosophy, literature, sociology, history of art and the natural sciences in his works. Underlying this analytical process is a profound understanding of musical composition and contemporary history. Thus Schliessmann is able to free himself from the background so carefully studied and bring to his work, thanks to an intuitive knowledge of these complex relationships, a fresh, almost improvised artistic interpretation, and this is all the listener perceives.