Recital András Schiff

Chamber music

Tuesday 3 August 2021
(1) 6 pm | (2) 8.30 pm, Saanen Church

András Schiff was born in Budapest in 1953. His mother originally wanted to become a pianist, his father was a gynecologist and an amateur violinist. The Hungarian pianist becomes very impassioned when the conversation turns to the piano. “Technique is discussed so much today: ‘This or that pianist has great technique.’ But this is usually misunderstood – a pianist who is acclaimed by music critics today as having ‘great technique’ is usually someone who plays the fastest and the loudest without any wrong notes. In contrast, I consider great technique to be an endless and vibrant conception and imagination of tone and the ability to create this. The manner of creating a colorful palette of tones is important. A pianist who only hears two colors cannot create great art. In this sense I consider Alfred Cortot, who often played wrong notes, to have had great technique because he could create an unbelievable abundance of colors on the piano; millions of colors – like a great painter.”

This concert is being filmed and recorded and can be viewed at a later point on gstaaddigitalfestival.ch. The Gstaad Digital Festival newsletter will inform you about the details of its publication.