Photo: Giorgia Bertazzi

A “poet at the piano” is MATTHIAS KIRSCHNEREIT, according to the „Süddeutsche Zeitung“. Wherever he performs, he captivates listeners with his gift for detecting and conveying the richness of feeling, narrative expression and thus the human traits in music. After devoting himself to the space between classical and romantic music with the hr-symphony orchestra with works by Hummel, Weber and Mendelssohn, he turned his attention now to Haydn. His CD “HAYDN: The Complete Piano Concertos” is a complete recording of the rarely played Haydn piano concertos with the WKO Heilbronn. In 2023 a new double album entitled “Time Remembered” was released by Berlin Classics. For this he piled together a very personal “playlist” from Bach to Bill Evans to through to Rachmaninoff and Toru Takemitsu.
Matthias Kirschnereit performs worldwide with leading orchestras such as the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, New City Philharmonic Orchestra Tokyo, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Camerata Salzburg and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. He worked with conductors such as Andrew Manze, Michael Sanderling, Alexander Liebreich and Yuri Temirkanov, among others.
An extensive discography has documented Matthias Kirschnereit’s work since 1989. His complete recording of the piano concertos Mozart has set standards; he received an ECHO Klassik for the world premiere recording of the reconstructed E minor piano concerto by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. Kirschnereit also devotes himself to unusual repertoire; he has recorded piano concertos by Julius Röntgen and Handel’s organ concertos were recorded in his own piano version. “Kirschnereit deserves all the praises coming to him these days!” Gramophone Magazine praised his solo CDs with piano works by Schumann (“Scenes”) and Schubert (“Wanderer Fantasy”).
Matthias Kirschnereit has been the artistic director of the „Tides Concerts“ since 2012. Every year, numerous artists of international standing accept his invitation to East Frisia and inspire an ever-growing audience. As a professor at the Rostock University of Music and Theater, he passes on his experience and his artistic ideals to future generations.