* En anglais uniquement
After building a career as one of the finest cellists to emerge in the last quarter of the 20th century,
Heinrich Schiff established himself as an important orchestra conductor. He began playing piano when he was six, and took up cello at the age of ten. His major teacher was
André Navarra, with whom he shared the qualities of a lean, centered, yet singing tone and a lyrical approach to the instrument.
Schiff made his debut in Vienna in 1971 at the age of 20 and played with the major orchestras of Europe under such great conductors as
Bernard Haitink,
Sergiu Celibidache,
Colin Davis,
Christoph von Dohnányi,
Esa-Pekka Salonen,
Kurt Masur,
Michael Gielen,
Giuseppe Sinopoli, and
Claudio Abbado. He also appeared at the major festivals and concert venues of the U.S., Europe, and Japan. Meanwhile, he continued in conducting studies with
Hans Swarowsky, one of the great conducting teachers of the time.
In the 1980s he began recording extensively. His set of complete
Bach Suites won many recording prizes, and his performance of both
Shostakovich concertos, with the composer's son
Maxim Shostakovich conducting, won the Grand Prix du Disque and was found by the Stevenson Classical CD Guide to be the single classical compact disc in its survey that received the largest number of rave reviews from the English-speaking world's music critics. He won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis for the
Brahms Double Concerto, in which he partnered with
Frank Peter Zimmermann. He recorded virtually all the principal works of the standard repertory and other works such as those of
Bernd Alois Zimmermann and
Witold Lutoslawski. This reflected his interest in music of his own time: he premiered works of
Friedrich Cerha,
Hans Werner Henze,
Luciano Berio,
Krzysztof Penderecki, and
Ernst Krenek. He played the famous "Mara" Stradivarius cello made in 1711.
He made his professional debut as a conductor in 1986. He conducted several leading orchestras of the world, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the
Rotterdam Philharmonic, the
Houston Symphony, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the
Oslo Philharmonic, the
Philharmonia (London), and the Dresden State Orchestra. He began conducting opera at the Theatre le Monnaie in Brussels with The Magic Flute in December 1992, Fidelio in September 1993, and The Flying Dutchman in the Bern Stadttheater in 1994. He was the principal guest conductor of the
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie from 1990 through 1992 and was artistic director of the
Northern Sinfonia (in England) in 1990-1996. He was principal conductor of the
Copenhagen Philharmonic from 1996 to 1999.
In 1996 he was appointed principal conductor of the
Musikkollegium Winterthur, and in 1998 became principal guest conductor of the
South German Radio (SDR) Symphony Orchestra Stuttgart.