Daniel-Ben Pienaar
Pianist Daniel-Ben Pienaar is known for unconventional approaches to the conventional repertory. He tends to perform and record large cycles of a single composer's works in a consistent and unusual style.
Pienaar was born in South Africa, a fact to which he attributes his original style. "[In] South Africa, I did not have teachers from any of the established traditions that train young people so effectively," he told Pamela Hickman. "My technical upbringing was not systematic in any way. I never did any kind of technical exercises or studies, always real music." The son of a minister and chaplain, he was raised on a South African military base near Kimberley and in Port Elizabeth. Pienaar won several national competitions and was invited to perform concertos with several of South Africa's leading symphony orchestras. That earned him a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy in London, where he has lived since he was 18. In his university studies, he was influenced not only by pianist Christopher Elton, but by viol player and musicologist Laurence Dreyfus, and by trumpeter and recording theorist Jonathan Freeman-Atwood, with whom he later recorded a group of trumpet-and-piano arrangements of music from various eras. He received the Queen's Commendation upon graduating in 1997. Pienaar toured often in Japan from 1999 to 2005 and has continued to tour as a recitalist, not only in Britain but in Japan, Singapore, and his native South Africa, among other countries.
Pienaar is especially noted for his recording career, which began in 2003 with an album of Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1, BWV 846-869, undertaken after a period of concentrated study of the pieces. He has tended toward cycles and recordings of synoptic works or sets of works. In 2008 and 2009, he recorded the complete piano sonatas of Mozart for the Avie label, and for the same label, the complete sonatas of Beethoven from 2012 to 2014. He has recorded mostly for the Linn and Avie labels, issuing The Long 17th Century: A Cornucopia of Early Keyboard Music on the latter imprint in 2020. Pienaar teaches at the Royal Academy of Music, where he is a Fellow and holds the title of Lecturer in Performance Studies.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography
17 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller
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Haydn - 48 Piano Sonatas
Classical - Released by AVIE Records on 25 Aug 2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Byrd - Pavans & Galliards, Variations & Grounds
Classical - Released by AVIE Records on 18 Nov 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: The Piano Sonatas
Classical - Released by AVIE Records on 8 Dec 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert : 12 Great Piano Sonatas
Classical - Released by AVIE Records on 20 Nov 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Long 17th Century: A Cornucopia of Early Keyboard Music
Classical - Released by AVIE Records on 7 Feb 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Bach: Goldberg Variations
Classical - Released by AVIE Records on 11 Oct 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Trumpet Masque
Daniel-Ben Pienaar, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood
Classical - Released by Linn Records on 14 Apr 2008
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
A Bach Notebook for Trumpet
Daniel-Ben Pienaar, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood
Classical - Released by Linn Records on 15 Apr 2013
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: The Palatine Sonatas, K. 301-306
Daniel-Ben Pienaar, Peter Sheppard Skærved
Classical - Released by Athene on 8 Apr 2022
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
La trompette retrouvée
Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, Daniel-Ben Pienaar
Classical - Released by Linn Records on 1 Feb 2007
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
An English Sett for Trumpet
Daniel-Ben Pienaar, Jonathan Freeman-Attwood
Classical - Released by Linn Records on 22 Jun 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Romantic Trumpet Sonatas
Jonathan Freeman-Attwood, Daniel-Ben Pienaar
Classical - Released by Linn Records on 1 Feb 2011
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Book 1 CD1 Well-Tempered Clavier
Classical - Released by Magnatune on 29 Apr 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Diabelli Variations
Classical - Released by Avie Records on 9 Oct 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Book 1 CD2 Well-Tempered Clavier
Classical - Released by Magnatune on 29 Apr 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Book 2 CD1 Well-Tempered Clavier
Classical - Released by Magnatune on 29 Apr 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Book 2 CD2 Well-Tempered Clavier
Classical - Released by Magnatune on 29 Apr 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo