JOEY CALDERAZZO

PETRONEL MALAN

ALEXANDER PALEY

CLEMENS UNTERREINER

OVIDIO DE FERRARI

MIKHAIL PLETNEV

 

Sibylle Briner started playing the piano at the tender age of four.  One year later she joined the Conservatorium in her hometown of Lucerne and made her debut at the age of twelve with Beethoven’s piano concert No. 1.  After she was awarded first prize at the Hamburg Steinway competition 1987, she began studying piano under Hubert Harry at the Lucerne University of Arts.  In 1992 she received her Concert Diploma with distinction.  In the same year she was awarded first prize at the Concorso Musicale Europeo Cità di Moncalieri (Turin).

In 1993 a grant from the Dienemann foundation enabled her to start her postgraduate course at the Berlin University of Arts under Prof. Klaus Hellwig which in 1998 she continued at the Acadamy of Music "Hanns Eisler" under Prof. Georg Sava.  In 2001 she graduated with the highest grade, 1,0 summa cum laude.

Master classes with Leon Fischer, Malcolm Frager, Ivan Klansky, György Sebök and Murray Perahia as well as encounters with Vladimir Ashkenazy, Mstislaw Rostropowitsch and Claudio Abbado have further served to develop her artistic talents.  In the last few years she has repeatedly been involved in concerts during the Berlin Festival.  Furthermore, Sibylle Briner has appeared as a soloist at several other international festivals, including the renowned Lucerne Festival, the International Music Festival of Davos, the Classic Open Air Festival Berlin and the Turin Festival.

In addition to performing in concerts with an orchestra and conductor and giving piano recitals, chamber music has become an important focus for Sibylle Briner.  She has already worked with numerous distinguished musicians in this area, for example the Mandelring-Quartett, soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, musicians of the Hardenberg Trios (producing a joint CD with works from Beethoven, Brahms and Schostakowitsch).Together with the pianist Patrizio Mazola, they form the piano duo "Bern-Berlin".

Sibylle Briner regularly holds concerts with her sister, violinist Isabelle Briner (Mahler Chamber orchestra) and the duo "Classic meets Jazz" with saxophonist Gary Wiggins. Moreover, Sibylle Briner has developed, with the actor Peter Fitz and his daughter Hendrikje Fitz, a successful Ravel programme based on Jean Ehenoz’s Ravel book.

Sibylle Briner’s true passion lies in the piano works of Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as the music of the twentieth century, especially pieces inspired by Jazz (George Gershwin, Frank Martin, Caspar Diethelm etc.).  The exceptional young pianist has, since she was six, always experimented with a variety of music styles ranging from Bach to Erroll Garner, and like many great pianist (from Liszt to Gulda) before her, she occasionally enriches her recitals with her own improvisations or compliments these with well known film music from von Michael Nyman, Philip Glass or Yann Tiersen.

Sibylle Briner is known for her precision and spontaneity, virtuosity, tenderness and power and turns every one of her concerts into an unforgettable event.

Historical Composers & Artists

"After my coffee and cigar we went to one of the recording rooms where they had a Blüthner piano Well, this Blüthner had the most beautiful singing tone I had ever found. I became quite enthusiastic and decided to play my beloved Barcarolle of Chopin. The piano inspired me. I don’t think I ever played better in my life.“

Arthur Rubinstein 

„My Many Years“ (page 281)

 

„In das Exil nach Amerika begleiteten mich nur zwei Wesen von Bedeutung: meine Frau Natalja und mein kostbarer Blüthner.“

“There are only two important things which I took with me on my way to America. My wife Natalia and my precious Blüthner.”

Sergei Rachmaninoff

 

 “Almost in the middle of the room, the black Blüthner grand stood, free of music, book or photographs. Debussy was proud of his grand piano, and before I played he showed me a new device invented by Blüthner: an extra string set on top of the others. Although not touched by the hammers, it caught the overtones, thus increasing the vibrations and enriching the sonority. This was a piano he had rented during a stay in Bournemouth, and liked so well that he had bought it and had it shipped to Paris.” “He played a number of passages and the tone he extracted from the Blüthner was the loveliest, the most elusive and ethereal I have ever heard”. 

letter from Maurice Dumesnil, friend

Claude Debussy

Debussy's Blüthner at the Musée Labenche