Pianist
Andreas Haefliger has led a multifaceted career, achieving broad acclaim not only as a soloist and recitalist but also as a chamber player and accompanist.
Mozart,
Beethoven,
Liszt, and
Schubert figure large in his repertory, but he also plays works by contemporary composers like
Sofia Gubaidulina and
Thomas Adès.
Haefliger has performed with such chamber ensembles as the
Takács Quartet,
Carmina Quartet, and
Safri Duo, and has concertized and recorded with his wife, flutist
Marina Piccinini.
Haefliger has also collaborated with his late father, famous tenor
Ernst Haefliger, and with baritone
Matthias Goerne.
Haefliger has performed at major music festivals and appeared as a soloist with leading orchestras from around the world. He has recorded for Sony, Avie, Decca, and other labels.
Haefliger was born in Berlin in 1962 and raised in Switzerland. He showed remarkable talent in his youth and at 15 enrolled at Juilliard, where Herbert Stessin was among his teachers. While there,
Haefliger was twice given the Gina Bachauer Memorial Scholarship Award. Although he was initially busy establishing his career in the U.S.,
Haefliger managed to debut with his Juilliard-trained violinist brother Michael at the 1985 Lucerne Festival in a program of works by
Beethoven,
Richard Strauss, and
Ives.
Andreas made his New York debut at the 92nd Street Y in 1988 in a wide-ranging program featuring music by
Beethoven,
Schumann,
Rachmaninov,
Schoenberg,
Schubert, and
Copland. Meanwhile, in the recording studio, he was also achieving success with efforts like his 1991 Sony release of Mozart sonatas.
Haefliger debuted at London's Wigmore Hall in 1993 and at the Proms as a soloist with the
Philharmonia Orchestra in 1994. That same year, he appeared in a program of
Beethoven and
Schumann works at the Rheingau Musik Festival in Germany. In 1998,
Haefliger accompanied
Goerne in acclaimed performances of
Schubert lieder at Alice Tully Hall in New York. That same season,
Haefliger debuted at Carnegie Hall. During the 2000 Lincoln Center Festival, he appeared with the
New York Philharmonic Orchestra under
Hans Vonk in an acclaimed performance of
Messiaen's challenging Turangalîla-symphonie.
In 2004,
Haefliger launched his ambitious recording project
Perspectives, a series that began on the Avie label devoted to the complete solo piano music of
Beethoven, with the inclusion of works by various other composers. The initial release offered the
Beethoven Sonata No. 32 and works by
Mozart,
Schubert, and
Adès.
Haefliger continued to score numerous successes in the concert hall as well, as evidenced by his 2007 appearance in Cardiff with the
BBC National Orchestra of Wales under
Thierry Fischer with an acclaimed performance of the
Beethoven Third Concerto, and his 2011 performance of the
Bartók Third Concerto with the
Philadelphia Orchestra under
Jonathan Nott. In 2017,
Haefliger signed an exclusive contract with the BIS label, issuing the
seventh volume of his Perspectives series in 2018. In 2020, he joined the
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor
Susanna Mälkki in a recording of
piano concertos by Ammann, Ravel, Bartók.