Louis Schwizgebel
Louis Schwizgebel
Né à Genève en 1987, le pianiste helvéto-chinois Louis Schwizgebel a remporté à dix-sept ans le Concours international de sa ville natale et, deux ans plus tard, les «Young Concert Artists International Auditions» à New York. Il a été «BBC New Generation Artist» en 2013—2015. Il a étudié avec Brigitte Meyer à Lausanne et Pascal Devoyon à Berlin, puis s’est perfectionné à la Juilliard School avec Emanuel Ax et Robert McDonald, et à la Royal Academy of Music de Londres avec Pascal Nemirovski.
Louis Schwizgebel joue avec les plus grands chefs dans les salles les plus prestigieuses. Il a fait ses débuts à la Philharmonie de Berlin avec le violoniste Benjamin Beilman. On a pu l’entendre la saison dernière au Wigmore Hall de Londres, à la Klavierfest Ruhr, au Festival Pianissimmes de Paris, et en duo avec Alina Ibragimova. Il a enregistré pour Aparté les deux premiers concertos pour piano de Beethoven avec le London Philharmonic Orchestra dirigé par Thierry Fischer, un disque en solo, «Poems», comportant des œuvres de Ravel, Liszt, Holliger et Schubert, et les Concertos pour piano n°2 et n°5 de Saint-Saëns avec le BBC Symphony Orchestra dirigé par Fabien Gabel et Martyn Brabbins.
Louis Schwizgebel remercie, pour le soutien qu’il a reçu, le Migros Pour-cent culturel, la Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, la Mozart Gesellschaft Dortmund et l’Animato Foundation.
Born in Geneva in 1987, Swiss-Chinese pianist Louis Schwizgebel has been described as an “insightful musician” by the New York Times (May 2013) and “already one of the great masters of the piano” by Res Musica (July 2014). At the age of seventeen he won the Geneva International Music Competition and, two years later, the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York. In 2012 he won second prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition and was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2013-2015.
Schwizgebel has performed with many orchestras across the globe including the London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Wiener Symphoniker, Orchestre National de Lyon, Nagoya, Macao and Shanghai Philharmonic orchestras, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s (NYC) amongst others. He has worked with conductors such as Edward Gardner, Thierry Fischer, Joshua Weilerstein, Fabio Luisi, Leonard Slatkin, Louis Langrée, Alondra de la Parra, James Gaffigan and Fabian Gabel and in the coming seasons he looks forward to working with Ticciati, Shani, and Schønwandt amongst others.
He performs regularly in his native Switzerland, both in recital and with the symphony and chamber orchestras; he has played at all the major festivals including Progetto Martha Argerich, Menuhin Festival Gstaad and Verbier Festival. In 2014 he made his BBC Proms debut with an electrifying televised performance of Prokofiev’s First Concerto and recent recital highlights include performances at London’s Wigmore Hall, Fribourg International Piano Series, Munich’s Herkulesaal, and with violinist Benjamin Beilman his debut at the Berlin Philharmonie.
In the 2015/16 season Schwizgebel returned to the London Philharmonic, BBC Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Lucerne Symphony and made his debut with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich/Bringuier and Munich Symphony/Altstaedt. Further afield he made his debut with the Utah Symphony, NAC Ottawa, Winnipeg Symphony and Queensland orchestras and in solo recital he performs at London’s Wigmore Hall, Klavierfest Ruhr, at Festival Pianissimmes (Paris) and in duo with Alina Ibragimova. In SE Asia he performed his debut recital in Hong Kong and to returned to China for four concerts which include Beijing Concert Hall and Shanghai Symphony Hall.
Schwizgebel records for Aparté; his recording of Beethoven’s First and Second Piano Concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Thierry Fischer received critical acclaim with Gramophone magazine describing Schwizgebel’s performance as a “beautifully nuanced account.” His solo disc, Poems, which features works by Ravel, Liszt, Holliger and Schubert was given four stars by Germany’s Fono Forum who hailed Schwizgebel “a genuine virtuoso, a spirited young genius with real depth”. His recording Saint-Saens’s Piano Concertos Nos 2 and 5 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra was released in autumn 2015, with Radio Classique selecting it as ‘Disc du Jour’.
Schwizgebel studied with Brigitte Meyer in Lausanne and Pascal Devoyon in Berlin, and then later at the Juilliard School with Emanuel Ax and Robert McDonald, and at London’s Royal Academy of Music with Pascal Nemirovski.