Gerhard Oppitz
Pianist Gerhard Oppitz is noted for his complete recorded cycles of the music of various composers. He was a longtime member of the faculty at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich.
Oppitz was born in Frauenau, Bavaria, in what was then West Germany, on February 5, 1953. He took up the piano at five, and at 11, he gave his first public recital in Stuttgart. There, he was heard by a local music professor, Paul Buck, with whom he studied. He went for further studies with Hugo Steurer in Munich. However, his major mentor was pianist Wilhelm Kempff, whom he met in 1973. The regard was mutual; before his death, Kempff stated that he thought Oppitz could continue the pianistic tradition of which he himself was a part. In 1977, Oppitz won the Artur Rubinstein Competition in Tel Aviv, Israel, becoming the first German pianist so honored. In 1978, he recorded his first LP. Three years later, he joined the faculty of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich, becoming the school's youngest instructor in history.
As a recording artist, Oppitz focused mostly on mainstream repertory from Mozart to the late 19th century, but as a performer, he also often played modern works by Boulez, Henze, Ligeti, Messiaen, and others. He is fluent in seven languages and is a licensed pilot who often flies his own plane to concert engagements. He has appeared as a concerto soloist and recitalist in many of Europe's major concert halls. Oppitz is widely recognized as a specialist in the music of Brahms, whose complete works for keyboard he recorded. He has also recorded the complete piano sonatas of Beethoven and Mozart and the complete solo piano works of Schubert and Grieg. Oppitz has made one of the few recordings of Max Reger's difficult Piano Concerto, Op. 114. He has recorded for various labels, but the majority of his work has been released by RCA and, more recently, by Hänssler Classic. Oppitz retired from the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in 2013 but continued to perform and record. In 2023, he released an album of Schumann's piano works on Hänssler Classic. By that time, his recording catalog comprised some 75 CDs, plus LPs from the late '70s and early '80s.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Weber: Complete Works For Piano And Orchestra
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 10 Apr 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Zemlinsky: Clarinet Trio, Op. 3 - Schoenberg: Chamber Symphony No. 1, Op. 9
Eduard Brunner, András Adorján, David GerIngas, Gerhard Oppitz, Dmitry Sitkovetsky
Chamber Music - Released by Tudor on 1 Jul 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Piano for Relaxation
Classical - Released by RCA Victor on 25 Dec 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 4 & 5
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 26 Aug 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 3
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 4 Nov 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Piano Works
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 17 Nov 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Piano Sonata No. 3, Op. 5 & 4 Klavierstücke, Op. 119
Classical - Released by Orfeo on 1 Jan 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
SCHUBERT, F.: Piano Works, Vol. 2 (Oppitz) - Piano Sonatas Nos. 1 and 20, D. 157, 959 (Franz Schubert)
Classical - Released by haenssler CLASSIC on 1 Sep 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
SCHUBERT, F.: Piano Works, Vol. 1 (Oppitz) - Piano Sonata No. 18, D. 894 / 3 Klavierstucke, D. 946 (Franz Schubert)
Classical - Released by haenssler CLASSIC on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Klavierkonzert Nr. 1
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 11 Aug 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Strauss: Enoch Arden, Op. 38, TrV 181
Gerhard Oppitz, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau
Classical - Released by haenssler CLASSIC on 4 Aug 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Sonatas for Violin and Piano
Lydia Mordkovitch, Gerhard Oppitz
Chamber Music - Released by Chandos on 1 Jun 1985
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Rhapsody 79, Fantasy 116, Variations Paganini
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 23 Feb 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos. 1, 8, 14, 18, 23, 26, 32
Classical - Released by haenssler CLASSIC on 3 Apr 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Reger: Clarinet Sonatas, Op. 49 & Romanze in G Major
Eduard Brunner, Gerhard Oppitz
Chamber Music - Released by Tudor on 3 Jun 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Ballads, Variations
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 31 Dec 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Violin Sonata in A Major & Fantasie in C Major
Lydia Mordkovitch, Gerhard Oppitz
Classical - Released by Chandos on 1 Oct 1988
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Weber: Chamber Works
Gerhard Oppitz, Pavel Gililov, Eduard Brunner, András Adorján, Boris Pergamenschikow
Chamber Music - Released by Orfeo on 1 Jan 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven : Sonates pour piano n°4, 9, 10, 19 & 20 (Vol. 3) (Gerhard Oppitz)
Classical - Released by haenssler CLASSIC on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 2, Violin Concerto
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 26 Sep 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Cto. No. 2 - Bavarian Radio
Classical - Released by RCA Red Seal on 22 Sep 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo