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Estefanía Montes Menéndezes@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594 -228
General Management
Anton Gerzenberg, piano
Gerzenberg was in a league of his own. He seemed in total control, armed with uncommon self-assuredness for a pianist of his age. (...) He looks every bit a potential leading light of his generation. James Imam, Musical America Worldwide
Born in 1996, pianist Anton Gerzenberg was catapulted onto the international classical music scene in June 2021, when he won the First Prize at the 15th Concours Géza Anda in Zurich. Since then he has established his presence in the music world with performances of both classical repertoire as well as the extended sound worlds of contemporary piano music, for which he has a particular affinity and likes to pair in conceptual programmes.
Highlights of the current season include a residency at the Konzerthaus Vienna, where he is represented as “Great Talent” and will perform in five concerts and various recitals, as well as in debuts with the Wiener KammerOrchester and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. The season will also feature a conducting debut with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, extended tours to South Korea, Taiwan, and Mexico, as well as a tour in Germany and Austria of the complete Ligeti Etudes for the celebration of Ligeti’s 100th birthday.
He has performed on numerous important stages worldwide such as the Tonhalle Zurich, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, KKL Lucerne, the Konzerthaus Vienna, Victoria Concert Hall in Singapore, the National Concert Hall of Taiwan, and with leading orchestras including the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, and Musikkollegium Winterthur, among others. Frequent musical partners include Martha Argerich, Ilya Gringolts, Julia Hagen, and Dora Schwarzberg, as well as conductors such as Paavo Järvi, Antonello Manacorda, Stefan Blunier, and Jonathan Stockhammer.
With repertoire ranging from Sweelinck to Lachenmann, he is a welcome guest in festivals like the Klavierfestival Ruhr, Accademia Chigiana, Rheingau Musikfestival, Schleswig-Holstein Festival, Berliner Klavierfestival, and the Martha Argerich Festivals in Lugano and Hamburg.
Anton Gerzenberg’s interest in new music was particularly supported by his studies with French pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard and has led him to work with numerous important composers of our time, among them Helmut Lachenmann, Unsuk Chin, and Marco Stroppa. In 2019, he was one of the co-founders of the ÉRMA Ensemble, an ensemble specialized in Contemporary Music. His studies led him also to Julija Botchkovskaia in Hamburg and Jan Jiracek von Arnim in Vienna; important mentors were Robert Levin, Alfred Brendel, and Bella Davidovich.
2022/23 season
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Ravel & Inspirations
M. Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales L. Godowsky: Symphonic metamorphoses of Johann Strauss themes: Artistic life - Die Fledermaus - Wine, women and song M. Ravel: Jeux d'eauF. Liszt: Jeux d'eau de Villa d'Este (Années de pèlerinage III)M. Ravel: Gaspard de la nuitM. Balakirev: Islamey
Schubert - Brahms - Liszt
F. Schubert: Sonata in A major D 664J. Brahms: Four Ballads op. 10F. Liszt: Années de pèlerinage I "Suisse"
HOMMAGE
W. A. Mozart: Rondo A Minor, KV 511R. Schumann: Kreisleriana, Op. 16 (dedicated to Frédéric Chopin)---Interval---F. Chopin:Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Op. 23Ballade No. 2 in F major, Op. 38 (dedicated to Robert Schumann)Ballade No. 3 in A-Flat major, Op. 47Ballade No. 4 in F minor, Op. 54
SUGGESTION DIABOLIQUE
C. Tausig: Das Geisterschiff, Op. 1cG. Ligeti: “Der Zauberlehrling“ / Etude No. 10S. Prokofiev: Toccata in D minor, Op. 11G. Ligeti: „L‘escalier du diable“ / Etude No. 13S. Prokofiev: Suggestion diabolique, Op. 4 / 4G. Ligeti: “Vertige“ / Etude No. 9F. Liszt: Mephisto Waltz Nro. 1, S. 514---Interval---S. Rachmaninoff: “Le petit chaperon rouge“ / Etude Tableau A minor, Op. 39 / 6G. Ligeti: “En suspens“ / Etude No. 11S. Rachmaninoff: Etude Tableau in E-flat minor, Op. 33 / 3G. Ligeti: “Automne à Varsovie“ / Etude No. 6S. Rachmaninoff: Piano Sonata No. 2 in B minor, Op. 36 (First Version)
"Piano soloist Anton Gerzenberg gracefully navigates through this grand work with elegant touch. The richness of colors he draws from the piano is radiant."
Markus Schramek, Tiroler Tageszeitung, 21.04.2024
"His {Anton Gerzenberg's} technical control is brilliant. So is his emphasis. "I wanted to be a volcanologist one day," he says later. Nothing came of it. But he channels the lava flow of Brahms' tones excellently."
Hans-Günter Fischer, Mannheimer Morgen, 10.4.24
"Prokofiev's extremely virtuosic and almost acrobatic way of writing for the piano requires a player with a steel finger and sometimes even iron fists.Gerzenberg, who played with unobtrusive ease, was perfectly up to the task and managed to bring some personal touches to a much-played concerto. Particularly admirable was the agility with which Gerzenberg moved from pearly bright fingerwork to steely strong chords and octaves."
Hannu Hirvelä, Tilaajille, 10/11/2023
"...with power and brilliant technique. It allows Gerzenberg many colours and valeurs of expression to let Ligeti's infinite notes buzz, hammer, flow, sparkle - or even swing and flatter. A rousing and enriching concert experience far from the "talent" category, which one would like to see more often in "regular" concerts in such form and quality."
Stefan Musil, Die Presse, 06/06/2023
"...extravagant virtuosity ... Here [Liszt's "Années de Pélerinage: Suisse] the piano sound suddenly breaks into a hundred colours ... Despite appropriate thunder, the piece sounds thoroughly differentiated."
Peter Uehling, Berliner Zeitung, 16/05/2023
"Gerzenberg was in a league of his own. He seemed in total control, armed with uncommon self-assuredness for a pianist of his age. [...] He looks every bit a potential leading light of his generation.“
James Imam, Musical America Worldwide, 16/06/21
"This rich concert experience, profound musicality and brilliant piano technique have benefited his multifaceted interpretations of Liszt as much as his interpretations of Brahms, Ravel and Bartók in recital."
Julia Spinola, Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), 06/06/21
"Suddenly there was a pianist on the stage who appeared as a background to the music and acted in such a way as to recognise the text of the notes in its subtlety. [...] He showed immense musicality, convincing in every nuance."
Carsten Dürer, Piano News 05/21