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The German-American pianist, Burkard Schliessmann, completed his musical studies as a pupil in the master-class of Herbert Seidel, Shura Cherkassky, Bruno-Leonardo Gelber and Poldi Mildner.
Burkard Schliessmann is regarded as one of the influential pianists of the modern era. He has received numerous prizes and awards of merits for his interpretations. The concerts he gave in the USA, Japan and at European festivals including Paris, the Munich summer piano festival, the Frankfurt festival and the Mallorca/Valldemossa Chopin festival were all received with similar acclaim from the public and critics alike. Famous critics have had no hesitation in placing him alongside the finest pianists: "This is the most imaginative playing one has heard yet on the level of Richter, Michelangeli, Serkin, Wild, Gould - the highest order of artistry" wrote the «High Performance Review» in the USA. Understandably, the West German TV-channel WDR in a Co-production with ARD, ZDF «aspekte», ZDF-3sat, the Bavarian TV-station BR, the Hessian TV-station HR, ARTE und the US TV-channel «Classic Arts Show Case» invited the pianist to take part in TV-portraits which were widely praised.
By his TV-recordings Burkard Schliessmann has collaborated with highly renowned regisseurs, such as José Montes-Baquer, Enrique Sánchez Lansch, Claus Viller and Lothar Mattner.
When he is working on a piece of music, Burkard Schliessmann always has Hegel in mind: "art isn't all about a pleasant or useful musical mechanism, but about laying bare the truth". After an initial, seemingly improvised phase, Schliessmann explores the smallest of structures, whilst at the same time conducting a rigorous analysis of the independent interfaces between the various parameters - melody, rhythm and harmony. The individual sound is always the carrier of the whole - suffused with its own idendity, interpreted through the personality of the performer. In addition to this "parameter polyphony", Schliessmann always takes into consideration philosophy, literature, sociology, history of art and the natural sciences in his works. Underlying this analytical process is a profound understanding of musical composition and contemporary history. Thus Schliessmann is able to free himself from the background so carefully studied and bring to his work, thanks to an intuitive knowledge of these complex relationships, a fresh, almost improvised artistic interpretation, and this is all the listener perceives ...
Burkard Schliessmann has grown up with J.S. Bach. He had studied the complete organ works of J.S. Bach till the age of 21, and performed them by memory. He also studied organ officially - a seldom case, which really had been something special. He has also studied all J.S. Bach's major works on piano. He believes that "the study of Bach is essential for the comprehension of the whole literature. Without Bach one can't play Schumann, Chopin ... " The recording of Goldberg Variations (BWV 988), released in early 2008, is his J.S. Bach-debut. This recording was appointed "Recording of the Year 2008" in MusicWeb International, and was awarded as "Critics Choice 2008" in the highly-renowned USA Music Magazine American Record Guide (issue Jan/Feb 2009). He plans to record further J.S. Bach works, among these are the Art of Fugue (BWV 1080), the Partitas and the English Suites. |
