A Pianistic-Musical Promise

CD Review by Walter Eigenmann in Magazine ‚Glarean‘, March 31th 2017

If a twenty-four-year-old plays the piano like Hanna Bachmann, one calls this in truth a discovery – despite the inflation of child prodigies these days. During her studies, the young Austrian dedicated herself mainly to Beethoven, giving her debut with Beethoven at the Beethovenfest Bonn in 2015 – and now presents Beethoven’s sonata ‘Les Adieux’ together with Janacek’s sonata 1.X.1905 and Schumann’s second sonata op. 22 on her first CD recording. What is more, she adds the last sonata of the Austrian-Hungarian composer and pianist Viktor Ullmann who was born in 1898 and murdered by the Nazis in Auschwitz in 1944 to these ‘classical’ pieces which is a surprise. 

So to say, from Beethoven through the romanticism to Ullmann, student of Schönberg – is this the pianist Bachmann’s grand field of tension, who apparently does not know any stylistic reticence despite (or due to?) her youthfulness? And to be noted, neither technical obstacles: especially Bachmann’s Schumann and also the last movement of Ullmann testify of enormous brilliance, combined with a sensible touch and sense of tone at the same time. If one is to take this CD debut of Hanna Bachmann as a pianistic promise, one expects to hear a lot from this young artist in the future.

The label TYXart, which has been active for five years only and is located in Nittendorf in Regensburg deserves to be especially acknowledged here since they offer a quality frame in their new series ‘Rising Stars’ where young musicians like Hanna Bachmann publish their debut recordings. Even more since showing promising new talents in this classic and CD market in general which is full of new publications brings artistic and financial risks. Following this path determined over years on a high editoral level deserves respect – and the curiosity of music enthusiasts!

The conclusion: The young, but pianistically and musically very mature Austrian pianist shows to be brilliant with a molded selection of repertoire and stylistic broadness in her CD debut already. The German label TYXart presents Bachmann as a sensitive artist with sonatas by Beethoven, Janacek, Schumann and Ullmann and thus raises hope for more new recordings by this pianist.

Beautiful Hard Work for Award-Winning Music

Chosen as one of the ’50 Köpfe von morgen’ (‘Vorarlberger Nachrichten’, February 24th 2017)

Even Kirill Petrenko, General Music Director at the Bavarian State Opera and future Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, was really impressed by her playing and called Hanna Bachmann a „mature personality at the piano“. On her first CD, which was recorded at the concert hall „Arlberg 1800“, she played works by Janacek, Beethoven, Ullmann and Schumann. Continue reading “Beautiful Hard Work for Award-Winning Music”