Dag Achatz

Dag Achatz

Dag Achatz is a Swedish virtuoso pianist and composer.[1] His recording for BIS of his own transcription, for piano 2 hands, of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring is widely acknowledged to be one of the great recordings of the 20th century. Leonard Bernstein asked him to transcribe his ballet, Fancy Free, which Mr Achatz then recorded along with his own transcription of Bernstein's Symphonic Danses from West Side Story.

Born in Stockholm in 1942 of a Swedish mother and a Viennese father, both musicians, he was raised in Switzerland, where he entered the Geneva Conservatory at age of 8. Graduating with honors, he continued his studies with Greta Eriksson in Stockholm, with Adolf Cortot and Guido Agosti in Siena, and with Susanne Roche and Vlado Perlemuter in Paris. In 1960 he claimed victory in the Rudolf Ganz Competition in Lausanne, and in 1964 took first price at the coveted Maria Canals Competition in Barcelona. He was also a prizewinner at the Bavarian Radio Competition in Munich and the Viotti Competition in Vercelli. He has since performed in more than 25 countries and in most major musical Centers, including London, Paris, New York, Boston, Berlin, Moscow, St Petersburg, Vienna, Tokyo and Beijing.

Mr Achatz has played more than 1000 recitals and has performed more than 240 times with orchestras including the radio orchestras of Stockholm, Munich, Paris, Stuttgart, Torino, Milan, and with the Orchestre de Pasdeloup of Paris, l´Orchestre de l´Opera de Monte Carlo, the Gewandhaus of Leipzig, the Staatskapelle of Dresden, and with the Philarmonic Orchestras of Stockholm, Oslo, Barcelona and Lisbon. He has participated in the international music festivals of Montreux, Aix-en-Provence and Savonlina in Finland. He has also collaborated with many eminent conductors, including Celibidache, Bernstein, Kertesz, Zinmann, Kamu, Maris Jansons and others. His master classes have taken him to the Academie-Festival des Arcs in France, the Institute of Advanced Musical Studies in Montreux, the Osaka Conservatory in Japan, and the Umea International Academy in Sweden. Dag Achatz serves frequently on the juries of international competitions, including those at Jaen, the Clara Haskil, Vercelli, Paris, Oporto, Munich, (Bavarian Radio Orchestra Competition), and many others.

In chamber music and lieder, he has performed with the Da Ponte Quartet, the Fresk String Quartet, with singers Barbara Hendricks, Birgit Finnilä, Hugues Cuenod and Joanna Porackova, and in four-hand music with Yukie Nagai. He has made more than two dozen recordings for BIS, CBS, EMI, Melodiya and Americus Records. His best-selling CD of the music of Gershwin, on the BIS label, has been widely praised, as are his recordings of Debussy, Ravel, Scriabin, Schumann, Liszt, Stenhammar, Grieg and many others.

Outside the established classical music world, he also worked on stage with French singer-songwriter Léo Ferré, during the mid-70's.

References

  1. ^ "DAG ACHATZ: Stravinsky's Sacre du Printemps". http://www.classicaltv.com/v980/dag-achatz-stravinskys-sacre-du-printemps. Retrieved 2010-01-29. "own arrangement for piano, recorded from the Kongressaal in Munich during the Munich Klaviersommer" 


This article on a classical pianist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.