Severin von Eckardstein

Severin von Eckardstein_portret en profil_Credit Irene Zandel_IMG_8794.63a.jpg

Severin von Eckardstein

Piano

Severin von Eckardstein is managed in the Benelux by Ydeleine Berntsen.

Contact:
E: ydeleine.berntsen@interartists.nl

T: +31 6 25 46 18 66


Severin von Eckardstein has an already lengthy record of solo concerts and concerto performances on major stages around the world.

He has performed many highly acclaimed concerts in, amongst others, Berlin, Moscow, Madrid, London, Paris, New York, Amsterdam, Budapest, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Seoul and played at many reknown music festivals, including Klavier-Festival Ruhr, La Roque d’Anthéron in France, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Miami International Piano Festival, where he played the opening concert in 2009.

He has worked with conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Philippe Herreweghe, Lothar Zagrosek and Marek Janowski, and made important debuts, among others in 2007 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Paavo Järvi, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jaap van Zweden in 2012 and the Hungarian National Philharmony together with Zsolt Hamar in 2017. During the European lockdown in November 2020 he debuted with Mariinsky Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev and the Ural Philhamonic in Yekaterinburg, Russia.

As a frequent guest of the serie Meesterpianisten / Master Pianists series at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, von Eckardstein opened the gala concert celebrating the series’ 25th anniversary in 2012. In 2020 he was reinvited to the series for the 8th time.

He won prizes at numerous noteworthy international competitions, such as Ferruccio Busoni in Bozen (1998), Leeds International Piano Competition (2000), ARD-Competition in Munich (1999) and was awarded first prize at the Concours Reine Elisabeth in Brussels (2003). In 2002 he received the European Culture Prize and in 2003 the Echo Classic Prize. On several occasions he has been awarded special prizes for the Best interpretation of contemporary music.

Von Eckardstein‘s versatile repertoire spans from the baroque period to the 21st century. One of his special focuses is the demanding late romantic piano music of less known composers, especially Nicolai Medtner.

Chamber music also plays a significant role in his repertoire with performances at festivals such as the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, Finland, Delft Chamber Music Festival, The Netherlands, and the Risør Chamber Music Festival, Norway, where he appeared with cellist Heinrich Schiff. He has often given concerts with young and upcoming artists as well as highly renowned musicians, such as Andrej Bielov, Barnabás Kelemen, Isang Enders and Nicolas Altstaedt.

In 2015 he founded the chamber concert series “Klangbrücken” at Konzerthaus Berlin together with violinist Franziska Hölscher.

CD recordings with compositions by Medtner, Scriabin, Wagner, Schubert, Schumann, Debussy and others are highly regarded. His latest album of Dupont´s cycle “La maison dans les dunes” was awarded with “Diapason d´Or”. Two new recordings of sonatas by Prokofiev and works by Schumann and Jensen will be released soon.

Von Eckardstein was born in 1978 in Düsseldorf. His education in the musical arts was predominately shaped by his teachers Prof. Barbara Szczepanska, Prof. Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and Prof. Klaus Hellwig, University of Arts, Berlin, where he also successfully completed his studies (Konzertexamen). In an additional course of study at the International Piano Academy Lake Como, Italy, he profited from further instruction and inspiration. He took private lessons from teachers such as Alfred Brendel and participated in master classes of Vitalij Margulis, Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Alicia de Larrocha, Leon Fleisher and Menahem Pressler, to name only a few.

He himself has been serving as master class instructor on many occasions, among others in South Korea, Finland, Belgium and at the “UdK”, Berlin.


 
 

Reviews

[ … ] However, whether this tone now sings and talks, whether it stays flat or has its own hue; how the various tones and hues are transformed to an expressive speech of sound or phrase which grabs our soul. It is difficult to accomplish – not everyone can. I believe it is called: music. Severin von Eckardstein is a truly brilliant musician: and highly accomplished.
— Eleonore Büning (on Schumann CD)
Severin von Eckardstein is different to all the others, in his interpretations and in his programs.
(…) In Beethoven’s “32 variations on a theme”, he expressively showed all the different facets. Then, in the two pieces of Liszt, he dedicated his extraordinary dynamism to a poetic and dramatic expressiveness, a power that was carried through to the extreme in the Third Sonata of Scrjabin, as if a volcano erupted. But the enthusiasm in the main hall increased even more with the encores: a very delicately played “Dying Swan” of Saint-Saëns in the arrangement of Leopold Godowsky and the First Ballade of Chopin performed with passionate devotion. Indeed, a Master Pianist.
— De Telegraaf, Eddy Vetter
[… ] the playing is simply stunning - the consummate virtuosity is placed entirely at the service of the music and, astonishingly, one almost forgets that a full orchestra should be playing this […]
— 2. SA-CD.net, Polly Nomial (on Wagner CD)
Severin von Eckardstein: a pianist who has everything.
— Haagse Courant
Von Eckardstein’s exceptional talent as a pianist lies in the fact that he naturally moves on that metaphysical dividing line between dream and deed, imagination and materialized structure, desire and manifestation. His way of making music is reminiscent of flowing water, fluid and mobile, undulating without imposed limits, the light reflecting and breaking into fans of refined colours.
— De Nieuwe Muze, Wenneke Savenije
Scrabin’s sonata sounded like a summary of this evening: Von Eckardstein made the sonata shine like a diamond, always lighting up another facet. A flaming combination of poetry and passion, yet in total harmony.
— Trouw, Sandra Kooke
The deeply sensitive Von Eckardstein puts his heart and soul into every note he plays, thus creating moments of sublime beauty. His refined, intense, poetic and highly individual playing recalls great pianists from the past, like Wilhelm Kempff. Pure romance and centuries of European civilization can be heard in his playing. The depth with which Von Eckardstein played six Lieder ohne Worte by Mendelssohn, both touching and impressive, lifted the pieces from the level of alleged elegant pastime. By coloring even the most abstract passages with emotional depth, Von Eckardstein reached out to the audience with his interpretation of ‘Ellis’- 3 Nachtstücke für Klavier (1961) by Heinz Holliger and the European premiere of Paul-Klee-Blatt IV: Geröll (2007) by Martin Herchenröder.

Grand and compelling was the Sonata in B minor by Liszt with its flaming passion and lyricism. The highlight was Von Eckardstein’s ‘orchestral’ interpretation of the Sixth Sonata by Prokofiev, in which he dreamt of heaven and hell and all that is in between.
— NRC Handelsblad
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