Hindemith: Kammermusik, Vol. 1 Kronberg Academy Soloists, Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, Christopher Park, Xi Zhai, Brune Philippe & Christoph Eschenbach

Xi Zhai
piano playing is characterized by intense musical expression, extraordinarily cultivated touch, and brilliant technique, which is never used just for its own sake, but it completely serves the exploration of musical content, as intended by the composer.

Xi Zhai’s extensive repertoire ranges from the Baroque and masters of the Classical and Romantic era to contemporary composers. His repertoire for piano and orchestra includes the complete piano concertos by Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin, as well as works by Haydn, Schumann, Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich and other composers.

Xi Zhai was born in 1987 into a family of musicians in the Chinese province of Shanxi. He began playing the piano at the age of six and started his studies in 2001 with the distinguished piano teacher Dachun You in Shanghai. In 2002, Xi Zhai gave his first solo recital in his hometown of Taiyuan. After his studies with Dr. Zhe Tang and his graduation at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2009 he moved to Germany to continue his studies at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts in the master class of Prof. Joachim Volkmann, graduating in 2015 with a highly acclaimed concert exam. In addition to his piano playing, Xi Zhai is also active in chamber music, working with singers, and music for piano four-hands. He also studied rehearsal/coaching with Prof. Eugen Wangler, and orchestra conducting with Uwe Sandler.

Several awards, such as the Gold Medal of the Toyama Piano Competition in Shanghai and the Silver Medal of the Asian Music Competition in Hong Kong were the beginning of Xi Zhai’s international concert career. In October 2013, Xi Zhai was awarded a scholarship of arteMusica for his outstanding musical achievements. Furthermore he participated in numerous master classes, among others with distinguished artists such as Elizabeth Leonskaja, Sir Andras Schiff, Paul Badura-Skoda, Prof. Helmut Deutsch, Prof. Fou Tsong, Prof. Yehoved Kaplinsky and Prof. Arie Vardi.

Xi Zhai has performed in some of the most prestigious concert halls, such as in 2009 at the Grand Theatre in Beijing, and since 2011 he has performed several times at the ‘Alte Oper’ in Frankfurt, where he played for instance Johann Sebastian Bach’s monumental Goldberg-Variations.

Xi Zhai has been featured as soloist with several orchestras in China and in Germany. He has performed with renowned conductors such as Karsten Januschke, Erich Wächter, Elahiu von Erlenbach, Chen Xieyang, Bian Zhushan, Chen Zuohuang, and Fu Renchang.

Since April 2018 Xi Zhai holds a faculty position at the Frankfurt University of Music and Performing Arts.

Christopher Park
“Park is a pianist who captivates with his fascinating technical mastery, astounding musical maturity, and a particularly intense performance style” – this was the explanation given by the jury by the Stiftung Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival upon awarding Christopher Park the renowned Leonard Bernstein Award 2014. He thereby joined the ranks of noteworthy musicians such as Lang Lang, Lisa Batiashvili and Martin Grubinger, who all started their careers with this internationally sought-after award.

Numerous important ensembles have engaged Park, a Bamberg-born musician with German-Korean roots, including the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, both Frankfurt and North German Radio Symphony Orchestras, WDR Sinfonieorchester, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Frankfurt Opera Orchestra, Magdeburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Hungarian National Philharmonic, Spanish National Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of Galicia, Cape Philharmonic Orchestra, Zagreb Philharmonic Orchestra, China NCPA Orchestra, Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, Chambre Orchestra of Lausanne, English Chamber Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra and Bamberg Symphony, to name but a few. In November 2014, Christopher Park stood in for Emanuel Ax to great success with the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra, only a few months after his widely celebrated début in Hamburg.

So far he has worked with conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Jarvi, Sebastian Weigle, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Ion Marin, Zsolt Hamar, Roman Kofman, Paul Daniel and Dimitri Kitaenko. He has given concerts in Europe, Asia, America and New Zealand and played at events including the Ravinia Festival, the Lucerne Festival, the Klavierfestival Ruhr, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Quincena Musical de San Sebastián and the Burgos International Music Festival.

Christopher Park has been chosen as „Rising Star“ by the ECHO (European Concert Hall Organisation). Therefore he debuted in Europe’s renowned concert halls in London, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Vienna, Stockholm, Barcelona, Budapest, Lisboa and others.

Alongside his engagements as a soloist, for which he has gained recognition in the form of various scholarships and awards (e.g. the Rheingau Music Festival to support new talent), he is passionately involved in chamber music. He made his début in the Brahms Saal of the Vienna Musikverein at the end of 2014 with the Küchl Quartet, which comprises members of the Vienna Philharmonic. After that the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra nominated him as their candidate for the Credit-Suisse Award. He has also played with Avi Avital, Pablo Ferrandez, Marc Bouchkov, Richard O’Neill, Leticia Moreno, Adolfo Gutiérrez Arenas, the Pavel-Haas Quartet and accompanied singers including Sumi Jo. He has collaborated with John Neumeier on various projects such as Stravinsky’s Petrushka Variations, Schumann’s Kinderszenen and suites by Johann Sebastian Bach. ​

Next to his solo albums with Deutsche Grammophon, his CD with works by Schumann, Stravinsky and Neuwirth is celebrated in European magazines as "brilliant recording" and "reference version". It is released with Oehms Classics.

Christopher Park was influenced by two major musical traditions during his studies: the Russian school of Lev Oborin with Lev Natochenny as well as the German school of Wilhelm Kempff with Joachim Volkmann.

Bruno Philippe
Born in France in 1993, cellist Bruno Philippe studied at the Conservatoire National de Région (CNR) in Perpignan and later with Raphael Pidoux and Jérôme Pernoo at the Conservatoire de Paris. Alongside his cello studies at the Conservatoire, he has also taken part in masterclasses with Gary Hoffman, Steven Isserlis, David Geringas and Pieter Wispelwey. In 2010, 2014 and 2016 he was an active participant in Kronberg Academy's Cello Masterclasses. ​

Bruno Philippe is a regular guest at festivals such as the Pablo Casals Festival, the Cello Biennale Amsterdam and Les Vacances de Monsieur Haydn and has already appeared in concerts with leading artists such as Renaud Capuçon, Gary Hoffman and Lise Berthaud and has performed with numerous renowned orchestras, including the hr-symphony orchestra with Christoph Eschenbach. One of his main competition successes was winning third prize at the André Navarra International Cello Competition in Toulouse in 2011. He also won the CNR Chamber Music Prize in 2007 and was awarded the Prix Nicolas Firmenich de Violoncelle at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland in 2014. The same year he was awarded both third prize and audience prize at the 63rd ARD International Music Competition in Munich. In 2017 he became laureate at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition. In 2018 Bruno Philippe won Les Victoires de la Musique Classique. ​

In 2009 he recorded the Duo Op 54 No 1 by Jacques Offenbach (Integral Classic) with his former teacher, cellist Raphael Pidoux. In 2015 his recording of pieces composed by Brahms and Schumann which he recorded with the pianist Tanguy de Williencourt was released by the label Evidence. ​

In 2015, 2017 and 2019 Bruno Philippe took part in the Kronberg Academy Festival where he was awarded the Leyda Ungerer Music Prize 2015. In 2016 he participated in Chamber Music Connects the World. From 2014-2018 Bruno Philippe studied at Kronberg Academy with Frans Helmerson. These studies were funded by the Christa Verhein Stiftung. ​

This album contains no booklet.