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Gilles Vonsattel
pianist
October 3, 2022Chicago Classical Review, Grossman EnsembleWhile most of the program selections were written for large chamber ensemble, the musical highlight of the evening came with George Benjamin’s Shadowlines for solo piano, performed by Gilles Vonsattel.
May 14, 2022NYTimes Reviews TON/Botstein/Vonsattel, Chávez Piano Concerto at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium"The revelation of the night may have been Chávez’s Piano Concerto, a three-movement work that functions more like one in two parts: a long first section of mercurial episodes, and another that grows from virtually nothing to a finale of brassy, enormous sound. Excitingly unpredictable — in its development, but also in its rhythms and sonorities — it provided a restless workout for the soloist, Gilles Vonsattel, who was coolly capable throughout, including as a sensitive partner during a long duet with the harpist Taylor Ann Fleshman in the second movement.
Sunday, October 10, 2021Strauss/Leimer recording with Bern Symphony Orchestra and Mario Venzago released on Schweizer FonogrAfter almost 70 years since the first recording by the composer himself under the direction of Herbert von Karajan, Schweizer Fonogramm presents a new recording of the Piano Concerto (Left-Hand) by Kurt Leimer (1920 – 1974). The highly talented pianist, later Mozarteum lecturer and internationally renowned virtuoso, was taken prisoner during World War II, came into contact with jazz music there and finally wrote his Piano Concerto for the Left Hand Alone for a colleague who had been injured in the war (the orchestration being supoorted by the conductor Kurt Overhoff). The stylistically versatile concerto in one movement combines numerous elements between romanticism, impressionism and Music Hall with an almost superhumanly difficult one-hand pianism and places the highest demands on the interpretation, not only in terms of craftsmanship but also in terms of fantasy and dialogue between soloist and orchestra. The context between virtuosity and wartime injury, this time in relation to the First World War, also characterizes the genesis of the Panathenäenzug op. 74 by Richard Strass (1927), who dedicated the work to the pianist Paul Wittgenstein (who suffered from the loss of his right arm ). When the elder composer heard the young Kurt Leimer play the Panathenäenzug in the 1940s, he was delighted with the latter’s playing and allowed a few adjustments in the solo part by the soloist, which found their way into the present recording. The studio recording took place under Covid 19 protection conditions in Bern in September 2020; the two solo parts taken by Swiss-American pianist Gilles Vonsattel. With the generous support of the Kurt Leimer Foundation.
Friday, November 08, 2019Cage's Sonatas and InterludesBut what made Gilles Vonsattel’s performance of selections from the piece — Sonatas I, II, V, the famous “Gemini” pair of XIV and XV, and XVI, with the Third Interlude in the middle — was hearing and seeing a concert pianist play this music. Vonsattel’s touch was superb, graceful and with fine and smooth gradations of dynamics. His rhythm in the swinging Sonata V was positively hip, and he was perfectly in tune with the zen expression of the work, the beautiful and mysterious “Gemini” music flowing through him and becoming a penumbra of sound and meaning he played within.
Saturday, September 14, 2019Camerata Pacifica turns 30 with Auerbach and Beethoven"with the vividly descriptive performance by Paul Huang and Gilles Vonsattel, however, I didn't need the dancers – but I would have liked to have had the score. After a while, 24 variations running together for more than 50 minutes turns into what the composer had in mind: the creation of a "continuum" across the short pieces, some less than a minute. Paul Huang and Gilles Vonsattel accomplished the task by being absolutely focused on making the most beautifully coherent sounds they could out of what Auerbach threw at them on a prelude by prelude basis, casually turning impossible feats of virtuosity into seamless parts of a larger whole.

Vonsattel worked as if he were revealing music out of sound the way Michelangelo revealed figures in stone. He had a wonderful light touch, but one was always aware that he could unleash formidable power at any moment."
Sunday, September 01, 2019Rakthausmarkt open air concert with Philharmonisches Staatorchester Hamburg and Kent Nagano"Aber da steht sowieso vor allem der Solist im Mittlepunkt. Und was Gilles Vonsattel auf und am Flügel an Farben une Rhythmen rausholte, wie seine Finger da über die Tasten rasten, als wären es kleine Krabbelwesen auf Dope, das war schon stark."
January 19, 2019Anthony Cheung's "All Roads" at Lincoln CenterPianist Vonsattel, perhaps channeling Strayhorn’s collaborator Duke Ellington, often used a stylish, percussive jazz touch to project melodies and chords, but could also summon a velvety Bill Evans sound when needed. The Escher Quartet matched him with focused, characterful playing. Far from tedious, the piece’s 25 minutes seemed to fly by, putting an upbeat conclusion on a challenging evening of chamber music.
June 22, 2018SWR Link to Schwetzingen Solo Recital
May 11, 2018Schwetzingen Festspiele Recital Review - Perfekter Anschlag - Mannheimer Morgen...Hier waren ganz andere Qualitäten gefragt, Anschlagsdifferenzierung zum Beispiel, und auch hier erwies sich Vonsattel als großer Meister. Er ist ein Perfektionist des Klavier-Anschlags, so viele Anschlags-Schattierungen hört man nicht oft. Vom explodierenden Vulkan bis zum schwelgerischen Tasten-Streichler beherrscht er die komplette Ausdrucks-Palette....
March 30, 2018CSO under Kent Nagano delivers a snazzy slice of vintage Bernstein (Chicago Tribune)Those who would lament Bernstein’s unfulfilled promise as a composer are urged to hear this performance, not only because it is terrific but because of the perspective in which it puts one of America’s greatest, if not the greatest, cultural icons and musical polymaths...Thursday’s soloist, Swiss-born American pianist Gilles Vonsattel, brought urbane charm and winning panache to the extensive solo part. His breezy, light-on-the keys approach to his jazz jam with CSO percussion players in the scherzo may have lacked the manic drive of Lukas Foss or the composer himself (a recording of the 1949 Boston premiere, with Bernstein at the keyboard, tells the tale) but it was fluid and rhythmically deft and it worked. So, for that matter, did everything else about the performance.
March 30, 2018Nagano, Vonsattel and CSO fete Bernstein in style (Chicago Classical Review)Gilles Vonsattel made a most impressive CSO debut in the symphony’s prominent keyboard part. The Swiss-American pianist kept his role in proper scale, skirting spotlight-grabbing concerto bravura, yet always fully serving the score’s lyrical and dramatic demands as needed. Vonsattel was especially inspired in putting across the jazz-based essence of Bernstein’s piano writing—in the “Masque” the pianist was less concerned with speed than style, tossing off the skittering syncopations with a light, kitten-on-the-keys panache that was delightful and felt just right.
February 22, 2018Shostakovich album on Claves reviewed by PizzicatoThe powerful performances by Gringolts, Haefliger and Vonsattel clearly convey the depth of feeling and the composer’s spiritual desolation. Not to be missed!
January 23, 2018ResMusica reviews Shostakovich recording (Vonsattel/Gringolts/Haefliger) on ClavesToutes les proportions étant gardées, les chambristes nous offrent une prestation cohérente, harmonieuse (aucune dominance de la part du violoniste virtuose ou de l’un de ses collègues, comme c’est parfois le cas pour ce type de productions) et optant pour les tempos justes, c’est-à-dire naturels dans leur fluidité, et ni exagérément allants, ni traînants....Gilles Vonsattel est un partenaire idoine pour Ilya Gringolts : il a la même respiration et il est précis quant à l’articulation, ce qui lui permet, entres autres, d’accentuer l’angoisse, mais aussi de soutenir la ligne « vocale » menée par le violon dans les passages où celui-ci « chante » une douce mélodie.
December 4, 2017Claves releases Shostakovich Trios and Violin Sonata with Ilya Gringolts and Daniel Haefliger
October 23, 2017Review of Solo Recital at Zeughaus Neuss, Germany (Webern, Brahms, Beethoven, Schumann)"...enormous technical ability...a great piano solo evening." - NGZ Online
May 8, 2017" Vibra la sala Tlaqná con Gilles Vonsattel, Liszt y la OSX, en Xalapa, Veracruz "Vibra la sala T7 may 2017 8:32 AM
Por: Daniella Ovalle - xeu Noticias



La Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa junto con el pianista Gilles Vonsattel y el compositor austro-húngaro Franz Liszt, hicieron vibrar el Centro Cultural Tlaqná la noche del viernes, en Xalapa, Veracruz.

Durante el concierto se interpretaron obras de Liszt, Beethoven y Strauss, pero fue la maravillosa interpretación del pianista suizo-americano Gilles Vonsattel junto con el burleske de Strauss y con la Sinfonía No. 2 de Beethoven que el público vibró también.

La cadencia acostumbrada del director titular Lanfranco Marcelletti y la magnífica interpretación de Gilles Vonsattel crearon la perfecta armonía junto con los integrantes de la Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa y como de costumbre pusieron de pie al público.
March 24, 2017CMS of Lincoln Center Solo Recital availableDussek, Beethoven, Janacek, Liszt, Rzewski, and Debussy....
March 17, 2017SDZ reviews Münchner Philharmoniker, Kent Nagano, Gilles Vonsattel at the Gasteig"...It almost felt like a special concert at the Munich Biennial..."
January 22, 2017Hartford Courant Reviews HSO Beethoven and Ravel - Smirnoff/VonsattelThe jazzy, chamber-like qualities of this concerto emerged without effort, but the real test of any soloist in the Ravel is the opening of the second movement. Vonsattel let it play without pushing and pulling and teasing and the music revealed deep inner beauty and subtle humor. Early in the concerto Vonsattel showed how the piano can sizzle in F-sharp major, and later how it can interact seamlessly with the HSO woodwinds.
November 9, 2016Frankfurter Allegemeine Zeitung Review (Eleanor Büning)"...there spanned companionship throughout time and space - heard through the fine piano coloring and lyrical phrases of the Swiss American pianist Gilles Vonsattel...he knows how to make music speak, from George Benjamin's canonic Shadowlines to Robert Schumann's great C Major Fantasy. And he proved to be a clever lion of the keyboard in Frederic Rzewski's Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues."

Manchmal schien es, auch die Musikstücke seien miteinander befreundet. Was nicht verwunderlich ist im Kontext der zweiten Wiener Schule, in der sich das Samstagskonzert fast ausschliesslich tummelte. Dass aber Johannes Brahms mit dem die Tonart noch suchenden Beginn seines h-Moll-Intermezzos op 119 offenbar eine direkte Fortsetzung der Variationen op. 27 von Anton Webern verfasst hatte, obgleich doch letzteres Stück erst dreiundvierzig Jahre später entstand, war uns vor dem Freitagskonzert noch nie aufgefallen: Da spannt sich das Band der Freundschaft quer durch Zeit und Raum – hörbar gemacht durch die feinen Pianofarben, die lyrischen Phrasierungen des schweizerisch-amerikanischen Pianisten Gilles Vonsattel, der hierzulande noch allzu unbekannt ist. Vonsattel liebt Altes wie Neues. Er weiß, wie man Töne zum Sprechen bringt, in George Benjamins kleinen kanonischen Etuden ebenso wie in Robert Schumanns großer C-Dur-Fantasie. Und ist auch ein gewitzter Tastenlöwe, etwa in Frederic Rzewskis „Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues“.

September 8, 2016Live from Lincoln Center Airs 9/9, 9 p.m. on PBSThe Chamber Music Society goes to Shaker Village, KY, for the first off-campus Live from Lincoln Center ever. Gilles Vonsattel performs Gottschalk's "The Union" for solo piano, and Copland's "Appalachian Spring" with the Escher Quartet, David Finckel, Paul Neubauer, Arnaud Sussman, Kristen Lee, DaXun Zhang, Tara Helen O'Connor, David Shifrin, and Peter Kolkay.
March 3, 2016Gramophone reviews Shadowlines"...Shadowlines..thoroughly succeeds. The dazzling sheen that Vonsattel brings to the rapidly descending scales of Scarlatti connects with Debussy darting all over the keyboard throughout 'Feux d'artifice'...whose harmonic blurrings relate to the stained-glass harmonies Messiaen patented early on in his early Preludes. Likewise, the linear rigor of Webern's variations take root and alluringly branch out in Benjamin's 'Canonic Preludes'...suavely executed and gorgeously engineered."

February 16, 2016Serene Fire in Palo Alto
February 16, 2016Review of CMS concert in San Diego - A Great Musical Reckoning"Why do young musicians continue to form chamber music ensembles, in the face of chancy economic prospects and the strapped budgets of presenting organizations? They do it because they hope that through hard work and fanatical commitment , they may be able to play, and move audiences, as the four men who appeard on Sunday night did."
February 16, 2016Review: Chamber Music Society...delivers an exquisite recital"...Gilles Vonsattel delivered inspired moments in the opening Allegro ma non troppo...the ethereal Andante cantabile demands a sensitive palette of weighted color at the piano, and Vonsattel created a serene reverie without ever breaking form."
January 24, 2016Tampa Bay Times reviews concert with the Florida OrchestraPianist trills, 'lion's roar' surprises at 'Mozart&More'..."Vonsattel handed a gift-wrapped package to the audience directly from the 18th century."
November 19, 2015Badische Zeitung reviews Merlin/Vonsattel recital - "A completely convincing partnership"
October 28, 2015NY Times (Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim) reviews Shadowlines"In this age of iTunes it’s easy to pick – and discard – individual tracks from a recording. But a great recital, like the one captured on this mesmerizing disc by the immensely talented pianist Gilles Vonsattel, is more than the sum of its parts."
October 28, 2015New solo recording out now - music of George Benjamin, Scarlatti, Webern, Messiaen, and DebussyFrom the liner notes:


This recording is built around George Benjamin’s Shadowlines, the composer’s 2001 mature, large-scale work for the piano. A series of “prismatic canons” that form a cumulative structure, Shadowlines is a work of astonishing depth and subtlety which holds great treasures for listener and performer. Every moment is carefully sculpted; intricate details and textures evolve within rigorously and beautifully conceived large forms....
October 28, 2015Gilles Vonsattel named 2016 Andrew Wolf Award recipientIn early 1986, many of Andrew Wolf's friends and colleagues established a specially endowed prize that would encourage other chamber music pianists. Because Andrew Wolf was philosophically opposed to musical competitions—which could damage the careers of those who did not win—the procedure for selecting the recipient of the Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award does not involve any public competition. Rather, it involves a process of confidential nominations and a review of nominees through tapes and public performances. Only the names of award recipients are announced to the public. The award recipient must be a pianist under the age of forty who is an American citizen or permanent resident of the United States and has made a serious commitment and contribution to the chamber music field.

The first Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award was presented to pianist Jeffrey Kahane in the summer of 1987. Other recipients include: Lydia Artymiw, 1989; Christopher O'Riley, 1991; Wu Han, 1993; Anne-Marie McDermott, 1995; Jeremy Denk, 1999; Jonathan Biss 2001; Natalie Zhu, 2003; and Max Levinson, 2005.

March 19, 2015American Record Guide reviews performance with Danish Quartet"The musical depths the Danes and Vonsattel brought were astonishing. They missed none of the excitement either. Their convincing performance often created a huge sound in a relatively small performance space. It was akin to a big romantic piano concerto."
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE March/April 2015

March 12, 2015Berg KammerKonzert streamed live, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Friday the 13th (March!), 20:30
December 9, 2014Holliger CD continues to earn critical praiseAwarded a 5/5 from FonoForum (DE), the GENUIN album has now been named Classic Voice's disc of the month.
September 23, 2014RomancendresDim the lights, put some good headphones on, turn the phone off, enjoy...
August 6, 2014CD of Music of Heinz Holliger released on Artist ConsortReview from Classical Modern Music Blogspot
July 24, 2014Daily Camera ReviewMozart K. 467 with Carlos Miguel Prieto at Colorado Music Festival
July 22, 2014Listen to KVOD's Live Broadcast from Bravo! VailAnne-Marie McDermott, Gilles Vonsattel, and Third Coast Percussion perform Bartók's Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, and Steve Reich's Sextet, at 6 p.m. Mountain Time
June 7, 2014Master of the NightWashington Post reviews Freer gallery solo recital - Beethoven/Liszt/Schumann/Debussy
April 20, 2014From Liszt's Soliloquies to Labor BluesReview of 4/18 Bargemusic solo recital in NY Times by Zachary Woolfe
April 11, 2014Washington Post reviews Quartet for the End of TimeReview by Charles Downey of CMS concert at the Library of Congress, including Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps with Jörg Widmann, Nicolas Dautricourt, and Nicolas Altstaedt
October 6, 2013Review of Springfield Symphony Opening NightThe Republican reviews Springfield Symphony's Opening Night concert - Ravel G Major Concerto: "His dexterity was blindingly precise from the lightest touch to the most peremptory outburst. In the languid central adagio, he made the piano sing as few players can. Articulation such as this allows the listener to hear the “music between the notes” and to briefly forget that the piano is essentially a percussion instrument."
August 2, 2013Music in FocusDebussy's La cathédrale engloutie, from Music@Menlo
May 20, 2013Neue Zürcher Zeitung review of Swiss Chamber ConcertsAlfred Zimmerlin reviews Gilles Vonsattel, Jürg Dähler, and Daniel Haefliger performing George Benjamin, Martin Schlumpf, Hans Ulrich Lehmann, and Robert Schumann
April 8, 2013Review of Wigmore Solo Recital
April 4, 2013BBC In Tune Live Performance and Interviewwith Sean Rafferty
February 28, 2012Le Soleil review - Vonsattel, OSQ, and Fabien GabelReview by Richard Boisvert of the Feb. 27 concert with the Orchestre Symphonique du Québec and Fabien Gabel; Mozart Concerto No. 9 "Jeunehomme"
October 20, 2012Zachary Woolfe review in the NY TimesMr. Vonsattel and the cellist Nicolas Altstaedt stormed moodily through Heinz Holliger’s “Romancendres”....
August 13, 2012NY Times Review - Bard Festival


July 26, 2012Review of San Franciso Symphony concert


June 1, 20122012 Summer

A wonderful couple of months to look forward to. Great repertoire, fantastic colleagues. A return performance with the San Francisco Symphony at Davies Hall under conductor Michael Francis, festival appearances at the Bard, Bridgehampton, Music From Angel Fire, and Strings music festivals, a solo recital on Nantucket, and a first trip ever to Israel to be a part of the Jerusalem Academy...and I'm getting married !


December 2011Solo CD named one of 2011's Top Classical Albums of the Year by Timeout NY



A "wanderer between worlds" (Lucerne Festival), "immensely talented" and "quietly powerful pianist" (New York Times), Swiss-born American Gilles Vonsattel is an artist of extraordinary versatility and originality. Recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, laureate of the Honens, Cleveland, and Dublin competitions, and winner of the Naumburg and Geneva competitions as well as the 2016 Andrew Wolf Chamber Music Award, he has appeared with the Boston Symphony, Tanglewood, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Gothenburg Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, and Detroit Symphony Orchestra, while performing recitals and chamber music at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Ravinia, Tokyo’s Musashino Hall, Wigmore Hall, Bravo! Vail, Music@Menlo, the Gilmore festival, the Lucerne festival, and the Munich Gasteig. His 2014 New York solo recital was hailed as “tightly conceived and passionately performed…a study in intensity” by The New York Times.

As a soloist he has also appeared with the Warsaw Philharmonic, Calgary Philharmonic, Edmonton Symphony, l’Orchestre Symphonique du Québec, Boston Pops, Nashville Symphony, Musikkollegium Winterthur, Staatskapelle Halle, and L’orchestre de chambre de Genève. Chamber partners include musicians such as James Ehnes, Frank Huang, Ilya Gringolts, Nicolas Altstaedt, David Shifrin, David Finckel, Stefan Jackiw, Jörg Widmann, Gary Hoffman, Carter Brey, David Requiro, Paul Huang, Anthony Marwood, Paul Neubauer, Paul Watkins, Philip Setzer, Emmanuel Pahud, Karen Gomyo, David Jolley, Stella Chen, and Ida Kavafian. He has appeared in concert with the Emerson, Pacifica, Orion, St. Lawrence, Ebène, Danish, Miró, Daedalus, Escher, and Borromeo Quartets. Mr. Vonsattel is Principal Pianist of Camerata Pacifica, a member of the Swiss Chamber Soloists, and plays alongside Ida Kavafian and David Jolley in Trio Valtorna. Deeply committed to the performance of contemporary works, he has premiered numerous works both in the United States and Europe and worked closely with notable composers such as Jörg Widmann, Heinz Holliger, and George Benjamin. His recording for the Honens/Naxos label of music by Debussy, Honegger, Holliger, and Ravel was named one of Time Out New York’s 2011 classical albums of the year, while a 2014 release on GENUIN/Artist Consort received a 5/5 from FonoForum and international critical praise. His solo release (2015) for Honens of Scarlatti, Webern, Messiaen, Debussy, and George Benjamin’s Shadowlines received rave reviews in Gramophone, The New York Times, and the American Record Guide.

Recent highlights include a performance of Carlos Chávez's Piano Concerto in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium with The Orchestra Now, a debut at Mainly Mozart in San Diego, a critically acclaimed recording of music by Richard Strauss and Kurt Leimer with The Bern Symphony Orchestra and Mario Venzago for the Schweizer Fonogramm label. In 2025, Vonsattel begins a three year complete Beethoven piano sonatas cycle for Camerata Pacifica. He will perform the entire cycle over the 2026-7 season for both Music@Menlo and at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Mr. Vonsattel received his bachelor’s degree in political science and economics from Columbia University and his master’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal. He is Professor of Piano at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Gilles Vonsattel is a Steinway Artist.