Herbert Schuch

Pianist Herbert Schuch is noted for unusual thematic programs that attract concert audiences and recording buyers alike. He has recorded duo piano repertory with his wife, pianist Gülru Ensari. Schuch was born in Timisoara, Romania, in 1979 and took up the piano there as a child. He also studied the violin for ten years. In 1988, he moved with his family to Germany. Schuch attended the Mozarteum in Salzburg, studying piano with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling, and he was heavily influenced by later lessons with pianist Alfred Brendel. His early career was given impetus by wins at three major competitions in the same year (2005): the Casagrande Competition, the London International Piano Competition, and the International Beethoven Competition in Vienna. The year 2005 also saw Schuch release his debut album, a recital of works by Ravel and Schumann on the Oehms Classics label. He continued to record for Oehms into the mid-2010s. Schuch has played concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, and the Camerata Salzburg, among other top groups. He has been a frequent guest at seasonal events, such as the Salzburg Festival, the Heidelberger Frühling, and the Ruhr Piano Festival. Especially noteworthy are Schuch's thematic solo recitals such as Invocation, made up of works by Bach, Liszt, Messiaen, Murail, and Ravel, that evoke the sounds of bells. He performed the program at the Salzburg Festival, the Frauenkirche in Dresden, and the Berlin Philharmonie, among other venues. He is also an enthusiastic chamber player who toured in 2017 with violinist Julia Fischer and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott. Schuch recorded the Invocation program in 2014 for the Naïve label. He recorded seven albums for that label, anthologized in 2015 as The Oehms Classics Recordings. After that, Schuch also recorded for CAvi-Music, Orfeo, and Berlin Classics before signing with Sony Classical and releasing the album Beethoven's World, containing little-known works by Salieri, Hummel, and Jan Václav Voříšek in 2020. Schuch has also released a series of duo piano albums (both piano four-hands and two-piano) with Ensari on the CAvi-music label, beginning with Go East! in 2017. The duo has sought to illuminate music connected with their respective ethnic origins. In 2022, Schuch backed cellist Daniel Müller-Schott on the album Edvard Grieg: The Cello Works. He and Ensari returned in 2024 on the Naïve label with the recital Eternity.
© James Manheim /TiVo