Nelson Goerner
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Generally ranked among the leading Argentinian pianists of his generation, Nelson Goerner is best known for his interpretations of the works of Chopin. Indeed, half or more of his discography of 20 or so recordings is devoted to music by Chopin. Yet his repertory is fairly broad, taking in works by Beethoven, Schumann, Liszt, Busoni, Rachmaninov, Janácek, and such contemporary composers as Edward Gregson and Jon Lord. Goerner's interests extend to chamber music, as well: he often collaborates with other musicians or ensembles, like the Takács Quartet and violinists Vadim Repin and cellist Steven Isserlis. Goerner also performs two-piano repertory with his wife Rusudan Alavidze and famous virtuoso Martha Argerich. Goerner has toured the Americas and made many appearances in Japan, the U.K., Italy, France, Germany, and elsewhere. Goerner's recordings are available from EMI, Chandos, Cascavelle, and other major labels.
Nelson Goerner was born in San Pedro, Argentina, in 1969. He could read and write by age three and studied piano from his childhood. Goerner's advanced studies were at the Buenos Aires Conservatory, where his teachers included Juan Carlos Arabian.
In 1986 Goerner won the Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Buenos Aires and shortly thereafter debuted with the Buenos Aires Philharmonic Orchestra. While regularly appearing in concert afterward, he continued studies with Carmen Scalcione. With the help of Martha Argerich, he received scholarship monies for studies at the Geneva Conservatory under Maria Tipo.
In 1990 Goerner won the Concours International d'Execution Musicale Genève, effectively launching his international career. Thereafter he would make regular appearances at such prestigious venues as the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Milan's Sala Verdi, and with major orchestras like the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony, London Philharmonic, and Tokyo NHK Symphony.
EMI released Goerner's debut album in 1997 to rave reviews, an all-Chopin disc that included the Third Sonata. By the early years of the new century Goerner was a major presence on the international scene. His January 2003 recital of works by Schumann, Debussy, and Stravinsky in London's Wigmore Hall was one of many critical triumphs.
A string of successful recordings followed, including his 2005 Rachmaninov CD, on Cascavelle, that included the challenging Second Sonata, and his 2008 EMI recording of Lord's Piano Concerto. Goerner's 2009 appearance at the Verbier Festival in performances of Beethoven and Chopin received rave reviews both at the time and when issued on a Euroarts DVD in October 2010. Similar artists
Albums
17
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Classical - Released September 24, 2013 | Zig-Zag Territoires
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Diapason d'or -
4 étoiles de Classica -
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Solo Piano - Released May 20, 2016 | Alpha
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5 de Diapason -
Gramophone Editor's Choice -
Choc de Classica
He is nicknamed ‘the poet of the piano’, an epithet confirmed by each of his appearances in concert or on record, most recently with his multi-award-winning Debussy and Chopin albums. Nelson Goerner already has an imposing discography, but this is the first time he has tackled Beethoven on a recording: he has chosen the ‘Hammerklavier’, a work of unparalleled dimensions, complexity and profundity . . . But is this artist, whom a Buenos Aires newspaper praised after a recital at the famous Teatro Colon for his ‘ability to combine intellectual lucidity, undeniable depth, and a technical ease that enables him to express his ideas’, not the perfect interpreter for that monumental composition? ‘Here is a sonata that will make pianists work hard’, said Beethoven to his publisher after labouring on it for almost three years, at a time when his deafness was constantly worsening. Forty-five minutes of immense difficulty for the performer (and also the listener?): between a first movement as fiery as Beethoven ever wrote and a finale that seems to foreshadow jazz improvisations, comes a splendid and deeply moving slow movement that Goerner renders with deep emotion. He then invites us to move from the monumental to the miniature, with the Six Bagatelles op.126, subtle gems of late Beethovenian style, constructed with formidable skill.
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Solo Piano - Released October 6, 2017 | Alpha
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5 de Diapason -
4F de Télérama
‘Sophisticated colourist and cerebral virtuoso though he is, Nelson Goerner nevertheless brings out the moments of weakness, the hesitations, the lightning passions in the labyrinth of Chopin’, wrote Diapason on the release of the Preludes in 2015 (Diapason d’Or, Choc de Classica). ‘Serenity’, ‘balance’, ‘clarity’, ‘phrasing’ are the key words that recur in reviews of the discs and concerts of the Argentine pianist, whose fifth solo release on Alpha this is. His latest venture is a complete recording of the Nocturnes, a highpoint of Chopinesque poetry. These twenty-one miniatures accompanied Chopin over a good part of his life, for he composed them between 1827 and 1848. They are tributes to Italian bel canto, expressing reveries but also complexity of feeling and a profundity that far transcends their apparent simplicity. Nelson Goerner’s feeling for melody and tempo works wonders in these pieces, which he recorded in the ideal surroundings of the Salle de Musique of La Chaux de Fonds (Switzerland). © Alpha
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Solo Piano - Released November 3, 2015 | Alpha
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Diapason d'or -
Choc de Classica
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Keyboard Concertos - Released September 30, 2018 | Cascavelle
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Diapason d'or
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Chamber Music - Released November 28, 2005 | Warner Classics
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Diapason d'or
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Classical - Released October 21, 2014 | Zig-Zag Territoires
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Concertos - Released September 24, 2013 | Alpha
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Classical - Released September 30, 2018 | Cascavelle
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Concertos - Released March 23, 2018 | Alpha
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It seems that international recognition has at long last arrived for Argentine pianist Nelson Goerner, even if he had been known on the professional circuit for many years. His most recent recital albums, of Debussy, Schumann, Chopin, and Beethoven were met with rave reviews: and here he is today in one of the greatest concertos in the repertoire. Recorded in concert in Tokyo on 20 May 2009, with the excellent NHK Orchestra, this is a particularly sumptuous rendition of the Second Concerto by Brahms, twilit and intimate, with a velvet piano sound and well-chosen phrasing that provides a perfect match for Brahms's long melodic motifs. Tadaaki Otaka attentively follows his soloist's every move, supporting him with broad gestures from the podium. Discovered by Martha Argerich during an audition for gifted children in Buenos Aires, Goerner was sent to work in Geneva with Maria Tipo, where in 1990 he would win first prize at the International Competition, giving a magisterial rendition of Rachmaninov's Third Concerto with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Since then, he has travelled the world, building his career stone by stone, taking his time, and only bringing pieces before the public when they are perfectly ripe. This is a thrilling version of a major work by Brahms, even among the already-crowded discography – from which it can be hard to choose. © François Hudry/Qobuz
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Classical - Released May 1, 2010 | CD Accord
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Classical - Released April 8, 2015 | Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina
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Classical - Released December 4, 2007 | Irco Video
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Classical - Released April 8, 2015 | Narodowy Instytut Fryderyka Chopina
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Classical - Released October 6, 2017 | Alpha
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Classical - Released November 9, 2010 | Wigmore Hall
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Classical - Released September 6, 2010 | WIGMORE HALL
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