Margarita Höhenrieder
EDVARD GRIEG - NORDLICHT
“You can hear how hard Margarita Höhenrieder is working for this sound as she is entering into a dialogue with the instrument. Trills roll more slowly; every register has its own character. The bass is grumbling; the treble is pearling and singing. And Margarita Höhenrieder elicits bright tonal colors out of the fortepiano.”
klassik-heute.de
“It’s amazing what acoustic perspectives are being opened up. Rarely has one experienced the first piano concerto in such schumannesque ways. And in the second piano concerto, during the slow movement, Margarita Höhenrieder elicits a kind of magic from her Pleyel which we hitherto expected only from modern grand pianos.”
rono.de
Morning mood, a mountain king, and Arabian dances do not really make us feel as though we are moving through the far North. Yet in the case of Peer Gynt, we are doing just that, even when Peer at times roves all over the world. In combination with Grieg’s piano concerto and a new work by Icelandic composer Hjálmar Helgi Ragnarsson, pianist Margarita Höhenrieder paints a multifaceted picture of Nordic soundscapes that promises fascinating tonal impressions.
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The North holds its very own fascination. Fantastical mythologies, Northern Lights, jagged fjords and barren landscapes have left an imprint on the local people and music. The figure of Peer Gynt, for example, created by poet Henrik Ibsen and cast for incidental music by Edvard Grieg, was one of those typically Nordic characters. Today, Grieg is often reduced to this particular work, which he later boiled down into two suites and rearranged for four-handed piano. Yet Grieg actually offers a noticeably diversified oeuvre. He has also served the great symphonic repertoire, for example with his piano concerto op. 16, which was inspired by Clara Schumann: In 1858, Grieg attended one of her performances in Leipzig, where she presented her husband Robert’s piano concerto in A minor.
Ten years later, Grieg chose the same key for his own piano concert. Pure coincidence? Be that as it may, the piano concert was a great success – even Franz Liszt performed the piece. Today, it is counted among the most beautiful and most popular piano works of Romantic music. In the present recording, pianist Margarita Höhenrieder, who is exceptionally well-versed in Nordic soundscapes, offers a fulminant interpretation of Grieg’s tonal worlds. She is supported by the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie under the direction of Jonathon Heyward. In addition to the piano concert, Höhenrieder has also recorded the two Peer Gynt suites, together with Finnish pianist Antti Siirala. “We both greatly enjoy playing four-handed piano. We have similar musical ideas, and it is always an inspiring experience to exchange ideas,” says Höhenrieder.
One of Icelandic composers Hjálmar Helgi Ragnarsson’ works completes this recording. Ragnarsson composed his piece ‘Stilla II’ only for left hand. “Stilla is an Icelandic noun which explains a state of calmness and quiet. It also refers to a formal arrangement, the positioning of various objects together like in a still life. As a verb, it has different meanings, one of them is to tune instruments,” explains the composer. The focus on only the left hand was a specification by the pianist, who also has other works for this particular and at once traditional format in her repertoire.
The outstanding Munich pianist Margarita Höhenrieder is highly appreciated in experts’ circles. As a soloist, she has performed multiple times with conductors Kirill Petrenko, Claudio Abbado, Lorin Maazel, James Levine, Riccardo Chailly, and with orchestras like the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Munich Philharmonics, New York Philharmonics, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden or the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Since her childhood, playing piano is in her blood. Höhenrieder has received awards at many international piano competitions. In 1981, she won first prize at the important BUSONI competition in Bolzano. Her artistic path has led her to the great musical centers of our globe, such as Berlin, Paris, Rome, Salzburg, Mexico City, and New York, where she celebrated her debut at Carnegie Hall with great success. Since 1991, Margarita Höhenrieder teaches as a professor at Musikhochschule Munich. Here, she passes on her multifaceted artistic experiences to highly gifted young pianists. In 2021, the label Accentus Music published all five piano concertos by Beethoven with Margarita Höhenrieder as soloist on DVD. On the DVD box, you can hear and see the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden under direction of Fabio Luisi, Chamber Philharmonics Amadè, the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn under direction of Leon Fleisher, Bamberger Symphoniker under Martin Haselböck, and the Bayerische Staatsorchester and Bruno Weil.
The Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie plays an indispensable part in the concert life of Ostwestfalen-Lippe and is an attractive cultural ambassador for the region beyond European borders. The great performance capacity, highly motivated professionalism, and thrilling joy of playing of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, which is one of three orchestras in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, is appreciated by renown conductors as well as highly ranked soloists. Their artistic diversity is on display in the roughly 130 concerts they play every year, a wealth of broadcast productions and CD recordings, and an expansive program for school and concert pedagogy presented to audiences. Jonathon Heyward is in the process of starting a career as one of the most exciting conductors on the international scene. He is currently musical directors of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, with which he debuted three performances in March 2022. Starting in the summer of 2024, Heyward will be the Renée and Robert Belfer musical director of the Lincoln Center’s festival orchestra.