Andreas Staier
Andreas Staier is one of the foremost authentic-instrument keyboard players in the classical music world. He has performed with many of the world's top historical instrument ensembles and performers and has toured and recorded extensively.
Staier was born on September 13, 1955, in Göttingen, then in West Germany. His early training was on the modern piano. Courses in realizing continuo parts in Baroque music at the Hannover Conservatory led him to study harpsichord. He continued his studies in Amsterdam, where his primary teachers in harpsichord and early music were Gustav Leonhardt, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and Ton Koopman. His interest in the fortepiano began when he discovered the difference in sound and interpretation that results when that instrument is used for playing composers contemporary with it, especially Mozart and Beethoven.
In 1983, Staier joined Musica Antiqua Köln as its harpsichord player, then resigned from the ensemble in 1986 to embark on his solo career on both harpsichord and fortepiano (and, on occasion, clavichord). He also began teaching at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, Switzerland, where he was on the faculty from 1987 to 1996. Staier's recording debut came in 1989 on the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi label with the album Bach: Clavierfantasien.
His recital programs and recordings include the standard Baroque composers, but also earlier music and Spanish keyboard works. He looks for important links among compositions of various eras. He waited nearly a quarter of a century to play the Goldberg in public; his long-awaited first performance of it was in Montréal at the end of April 2000. Staier has performed in major festivals and most of the major concert halls of the world and has toured throughout Europe, North America, Asia, and South America.
Staier frequently works with other renowned artists, including Anner Bylsma, Tatiana Grindenko, René Jacobs, and various important early music ensembles. One of his closest partnerships is with tenor Christoph Prégardien, who sings with him in the early Romantic repertory. Their recording of Schubert's Winterreise on Teldec won six major international recording prizes. In 2007, Staier won the prestigious Diapason d'Or award for his album Mozart am Stein vis-à-vis, played not on a harpsichord nor a fortepiano but on an instrument called a vis-à-vis that is a hybrid of the two. Recording for Harmonia Mundi, Staier maintained a vigorous schedule in the 2010s and into the 2020s. In 2015, he released a group of Brahms clarinet sonatas with Lorenzo Coppola, bringing his historical practice into the late 19th century: he used an 1875 Steinway piano that Brahms was known to have liked. He also continued to make acclaimed harpsichord recordings, including a 2015 set of Bach harpsichord concertos in which he was teamed with the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra. Staier remained active during the COVID-19 pandemic, releasing Bach's complete Well-Tempered Clavier and, on the Alpha label, the Baroque recital Méditation in 2024. By that time, his recording catalog comprised some 80 items.
© Joseph Stevenson & James Manheim /TiVo
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Schubert: Lieder after Mayrhofer
Andreas Staier, Christoph Prégardien
Vocal Music (Secular and Sacred) - Released by Warner Classics International on Aug 10, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
C.P.E. Bach: Kammermusik/Chamber Music
Chamber Music - Released by Deutsche Harmonia Mundi on Aug 26, 1990
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Sonatas for Piano and Violin Nos. 1 & 2
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Aug 26, 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Piano Sonata, K. 331 "Alla turca"
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Jun 12, 2012
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Concertos pour piano
Andreas Staier, Jean-Michel Forest, Concerto Köln
Classical - Released by CapriccioNR on Mar 1, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
DHM Splendeurs: Purcell, Lawes, Locke, Matteis
Andreas Staier, Pedro Memelsdorff
Chamber Music - Released by Deutsche Harmonia Mundi on Apr 1, 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven & Hummel: Piano Trios
Andreas Staier, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Daniel Sepec
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Nov 6, 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
John Come Kiss Me Now. Virginal Music of William Byrd
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Jan 1, 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 16 & 3 Impromptus, D. 946
Classical - Released by Warner Classics International on May 1, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Domenico Scarlatti: Sonatas
Classical - Released by Deutsche Harmonia Mundi on Jan 1, 1991
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
J.L. Dussek: Sonatas
Classical - Released by Deutsche Harmonia Mundi on Feb 1, 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Haydn: "Concerti per il clavicembalo"
Andreas Staier, Freiburger Barockorchester, Gottfried von der Goltz
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on Jan 1, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Piano Sonata No. 16, D. 845 - Pauset: Kontra-Sonate
Classical - Released by AEON on May 15, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Klavierkonzerte Beethoven Zeit
Andreas Staier, Jean-Michel Forest, Concerto Köln
Classical - Released by CapriccioNR on Jan 1, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Schubert: Impromptu, Op. 90: Sonatina, Op. 137 (Edition Ruhr Piano Festival, Vol. 20) (Live)
Michael Barenboim, Andreas Staier, Elena Bashkirova, Dennis Russell Davies, Maki Namekawa
Classical - Released by Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Berlin on Jan 23, 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo