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The Austrian pianist, Christopher Hinterhuber, studied with Alex Papenberg, Rudolf Kehrer, Avo Kouyoumdjian and Heinz Medjimorec at the University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. He took further keyboard instruction and with Lazar Berman, Louis Lortie and Alexander Longquich at the Accademia Incontri col Maestro in Imola, Italy, acquiring additional artistic input from such artists as Vladimir Ashkenazy. He also attended master-classes with Dmitri Bashkirov, Oleg Maisenberg, and Murray Perahia. In 2001, he won the second prize at the Beethoven Piano Competition in Vienna, Austria He has won numerous top prizes and honors at other the international piano competitions, including the Leipzig-based J.S. Bach Competition, Saarbrücken (Bach), Pretoria (Unisa), and Concours Geza Anda in Zürich (2000), among others. As “Rising Star” 2002-2003, he performed with violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja in the international series at the Carnegie Hall, New York and in all important musical centers in Europe.
Christopher Hinterhuber launched his international career in the 1990’s. He has performed at Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, Concertgebow, in Amsterdam, and in many other major venues; as well as in major festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein- Festival in Germany, Styriarte Graz, Carinthischer Sommer Ossiach, Mozartwoche in Salzburg, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Ruhr Piano Festival, Prague Autumn, and festivals in Vienna, Guadalajara and other locations. He made his orchestral debut in March 1999 performing Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 at the Musikverein in Vienna, with Yakov Kreizberg conducting. Since then he has performed as a soloist and with such orchestras as the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, New Japan Philharmonic, MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Wiener Symphoniker, Wiener Kammerorchester, Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Klangforum in Vienna, Staatskapelle Weimer, Zürcher Kammerorchester, among many others. The last few years have seen Christopher Hinterhuber playing under such conductors as Christian Arming, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Bertrand de Billy, Sylvain Cambreling, Beat Furrer, Howard Griffiths, Yakov Kreizberg, Adrian Leaper, Andrés Orozco Estrada, Dennis Russell Davies, Ari Rasilainen, Hubert Soudant, Alfred Eschwé and Bruno Weil. Highlights of the 2012-2013 season will be concerts in many cities in Europe, New Zealand and Japan.
Christopher Hinterhuber plays frequently chamber music with many members of the Wiener Philharmoniker includung concert masters Albena Danailova and Rainer Honeck and from the season 2012-2013 he he will join the Altenberg Piano Trio, which has its own series in the Musikverein in Vienna. He has performed chamber music also with the Hugo Wolf Quartett, the Ysaye Quartet, Ernst Kovacic, Christian Altenburger, and many others.
Christopher Hinterhuber gives often master-classes in Japan, Europe and South America and is professor for piano at the University for Music and performing Arts in Vienna since 2010.
Christopher Hinterhuber has successfully etched out a career as a specialist in the byways of the keyboard repertory. One finds works by Hummel and the piano concertos of Ferdinand Ries in his discography, along with other lesser known fare. And when the name of, say, Schubert appears on his recordings, it is in the genre of his four-hand compositions, not the sonatas or impromptus. Not that Hinterhuber eschews the staples of keyboard literature in the concert hall: as both a recitalist and soloist he plays a vast array of works by W.A. Mozart, Haydn, L.v. Beethoven, Schubert (the sonatas), Mussorgsky, S. Rachmaninov, Arnold Schoenberg, Ravel, Prokofiev, Messiaen, and many others. However, it is easy to understand why he has yet to record anything approaching warhorse status. He has generally garnered critical acclaim for both his live performances and recordings, and it is likely his star will continue to rise.
A special project was the sound recording (Schubert, S. Rachmaninov, A. Schoenberg) and filming (his hands) for the french-austrian movie La pianiste (The Piano Teacher) based on a novel by Elfriede Jelinek and directed by Michael Haneke, which was awarded the Great Prize of the Jury in Cannes in 2001. Hinterhuber has made many recordings with the Naxos and Kalrec labels, performing works by Haydn, Ries, Schubert and Zemlinsky. In 2003 Naxos released Hinterhuber's first recording, a disc of four-hand music by Schubert, with pianist Rico Gulda. “One of the best and most fascinating piano recordings of the year“ wrote the German magazine Fono Forum about his recording of Sonatas and Rondos by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, followed by an Editor‘s Choice by the renowned English Gramophone Magazine in February 2008 for the recording of works for piano and orchestra by Hummel (including the Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 116, Oberons Zauberhorn.). A recently finished project, the recording of all 8 Piano Concertos by Ferdinand Ries with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and other orchestras (the last Vol. 5 was released in 2012) has also brought him international notice. |
