BIOGRAPHY
His playing captivates from the very first note (...) Rarely do you hear such meaningful and intelligent performances.
– Neue Musikzeitung
The Swiss clarinettist Reto Bieri is one of the most fascinating musical personalities of our time, whether as a soloist, chamber musician, curator, or, more recently, also as a conductor with his interpretations of works from a wide range of eras and styles, but also with his unconventional concert programmes off the beaten track. From the 2024/2025 season, Reto Bieri will be artistic partner of the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic Orchestra.
He is a gifted programmer who knows how to turn his unusual ideas, which at first glance may seem rather bizarre, into musical gold.
– Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
A sound poet and eccentric at the same time, Bieri crosses boundaries in search of extraordinary perceptions and special moods. As well as performing well-known works, Bieri is also a prolific interpreter of new and contemporary music, combining different worlds in his staged concerts, questioning conventional concert rituals and collaborating with polarising artists on his "detours". On the occasion of his recent appearance at the Lucerne Festival, the Luzerner Zeitung described Bieri's concert project Out of the Box as "the craziest contribution of the entire festival".
Born in Zug (Switzerland) and raised with traditional folk music, Reto Bieri initially trained as a primary school teacher. He went on to study at the music academies in Basel and Zurich, and later at the Juilliard School of Music in New York. He has been influenced by a wide range of people, including the composers György Kurtág and George Crumb, the conductor Nikolaus
Harnoncourt, the musicians Eberhard Feltz and Heinz Holliger, the priest Werner Hegglin, the clown Dimitri and the writer Gerhard Meier. For many years Reto Bieri has enjoyed a close artistic collaboration with the exceptional Moldavian violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja. Together with her, he regularly develops extraordinary projects, such as the comic opera Vergeigt for the Basel Theatre in collaboration with director Herbert Fritsch, Phantasmagorien for the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and the film Ursonate based on a poem by Kurt Schwitters. Most recently, Reto Bieri and Patricia Kopatchsinskja together with pianist Polina Leschenko released the album Take 3 on the Alpha Classics label.
Reto Bieri is a regular guest with well-known orchestras and in major concert halls. He has recently performed at the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, in Wigmore Hall and at the Southbank Centre in London, in the Konzerthaus Vienna, the Essen Philharmonic, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, KKL Luzern, at the Théâtre du Jeu de Paume in Aix-en-Provence, the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest, the Franz Liszt Music Academy in Budapest, the Volkstheater Rostock, the Szczecin Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Basel Theatre.
His CD recordings, including the highly acclaimed album quasi morendo together with the Finnish string quartet Meta4, are released on the Munich cult label ECM.
Reto Bieri was artistic director of the DAVOS FESTIVAL – young artists in concert from 2013 to 2018. He is professor of Chamber Music at the University of Music and Theatre Munich and lecturer at ECMA (European Chamber Music Academy).
In 2023, Reto Bieri was awarded the Culture Prize of the Canton of Zug (Switzerland) in recognition of his work.
Status: September 2024
Changes and alterations require prior consultation with Grunau & Paulus Music Management.
Zwischen Stille und Entstehen von Klang – der Klarinettist Reto Bieri
Patricia Kopatchinskaja & Reto Bieri: Phantasmagoria | Hamburg International Music Festival
Patricia Kopatchinskaja & Reto Bieri - Milhaud Jeu
Regamey Quintett & Schoenberg string trio
Arnold Schönberg was 72 years old when he composed his String Trio op. 45, two years after suffering a severe heart attack. He confided to Thomas Mann at the time that the trio reflected his physical and mental state during this critical phase. The Swiss composer, pianist, music critic and writer Constantin Regamey, who is unfortunately little known today, was of Polish descent. He joined the Polish resistance against the Nazis in 1942 and wrote his quintet for clarinet, bassoon, violin, cello and piano during this difficult time.
Artist: Ilya Gringolts, Lawrence Power, Nicolas Altstaedt, Reto Bieri, Bram van Sambeek, Alexander Lonquich
Label: Alpha
Release: 11.04.2023
Patricia Kopatchinskaja - Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire
Delicate and grotesque.
Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, written in 1912, consists of 21 small melodramas for voice and five instruments based on poems by Albert Giraud. Schoenberg wanted the piece to be ironic, tender and grotesque at the same time, much in the manner of cabaret songs. Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, who occasionally excels as an actress, has performed the work on many stages around the world, including Germany and the United States, and here presents her Pierrot. Schoenberg's Fantasy op. 47, the Piano Pieces op. 19, and arrangements of Johann Strauss' Emperor Waltz, Kreisler's Little Viennese March, and Webern's Four Pieces for Violin & Piano op. 7 complete the program.
With Works by: J. Strauss II, A. Webern, F. Kreisler.
Artists: Patricia Kopatchinskaja (Violine & Sprechgesang), Meesun Hong (Violine & Viola), Julia Gallego (Flöte), Reto Bieri (Klarinette), Marko Milenkovic (Viola), Thomas Kaufmann (Cello), Joonas Ahonen (Klavier)
Label: Alpha
Release: 26.03.2021
Reto Bieri & Meta4 - Quasi morendo
Reto Bieri's solo album Contrechant, released in 2011, was universally praised at the time for the Swiss clarinettist's beautiful tone and his unusual expressiveness in combination with extended instrumental techniques. Quasi Morendo begins with a new take on one of the pieces from Contrechant, Salvatore Sciarrino's "Let Me Die Before I Wake" (1982), with its "whisper-quiet sound world of harmonics, multiphonics and tremolandos" (The Guardian). Bieri will then be accompanied by the Finnish string quartet Meta4 in a profound interpretation of Johannes Brahms' Quintet op 115 (1891).
Inspired by Brahms' friendship with clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld, this quintet sounds freer and more idyllic than the composer's earlier chamber music, but is also one of his most carefully constructed works. The album closes with Gérard Pesson's "Nebenstück" (1998), a ghostly new arrangement of Brahms' Ballade, Op. 10 No. 4.
Label: ECM
Release: 10.05.2019
Patricia Kopatchinskaja - Take Two
Label: Alpha
Release: 02.10.2015
Galina Ustvolskaya
The unique expressivity in the work of Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006) speaks to the listener with great directness and nuanced layers of sound, while the music's powerful rhythmic stringency bears witness to the intransigence in the composer's music.
To enter this sound world requires a special form of commitment and intensity. Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Markus Hinterhäuser perform the Sonata (1952) and Duet (1964) for violin and piano, and together with Reto Bieri, the Trio (1949) for clarinet (violin) and piano.
Label: ECM
Release: 12.09.2014
Contrechant: Music for Solo Clarinet
Reto Bieri was born in Zug, Switzerland, and grew up under the influence of Swiss folk music, before going on to study at New York’s Juilliard School. Besides the standard repertoire for his own instrument, he is especially interested in contemporary music and cooperation with contemporary composers forms an important part of his work: almost all of the pieces heard here were developed in collaboration with the composers. The result is a really outstanding album of new clarinet music which will be a reference work for players and listeners alike. Repertoire includes Luciano Berio’s “Lied”, Heinz Holliger’s “Contrechant” and “Rechant”, Elliott Carter’s “Gra”, Salvatore Sciarrino’s “Let me die before I wake”, Péter Eötvös’s “Derwischtanz”, and Gergely Vajda’s “Lightshadow-trembling”.
Label: ECM
Release: 30.09.2011
Schubert - Music for Clarinet & Piano
Approaches to Schubert...the clarinettist Bieri, trained at the Basel Musikhochschule and at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, feels particularly attracted to Schubert. He admires its simplicity, the natural flow, the endless melodies, the down-to-earth down-to-earthness in his dances, his "poetry of shyness". And so he transcribed the three "Sonatas for piano with violin accompaniment" from Schubert's early works as well as some of the German dances for clarinet and piano.
Musicians: Reto Bieri, Gerard Wyss
Label: Claves
Release: 12.05.2008