In 2004 the excellent Swiss pianist Andreas Haefliger started to concoct programmes for recitals which he called "Perspectives"; each time he would present one or two Beethoven sonatas, mirroring works by other composers, from Mozart to Berio. The seventh episode in this musical saga was a successful performance, in 2016, at the Edinburgh festival. Hailed as "inspiringly commanding, thoughtful, lucid and sheerly beautiful" by the Scottish press, this recital programme makes up the content of this record.
The pivot of this new album is Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major, Op. 101 by Beethoven, one of the first to throw wide open the doors of a modernity which would defeat many composers. In this demonstration, Haeflinger makes use of the Sonata op. 1 of Berg; Franz Liszt, who he gives a luminous and teeming rendition of the debussyist chirruping of St. Francis of Assisi's Sermon to the Birds, followed by Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky: a version which both respects the text and offers an infinite variety of colours and atmospheres.
From a family steeped in high culture – his father was a great tenor – Andreas Haeflinger has pursued a discreet career without any great media fanfare, building a repertoire that runs from Bach to the present day, notably alongside the French composer Karol Beffa, whose piano concerto La vie antérieure he performed in 2012 with the Orchestre de Paris, conducted by Paavo Järvi. Many have praised the alloy of power, elegance, and poetry that characterises his art. He is a regular fixture with the greatest orchestras and the most respected concert halls. His vast discography also includes chamber music from the Takács Quartet and recitals of Lieder with Matthias Goerne. © François Hudry/Qobuz