„An eccentric sonic wizard on the clarinet.“ – Magazin Ensemble
„His playing captivates from the first note (…) It is rare to hear such manifest interpretations, borne by such high musical intelligence.“ – Neue Musikzeitung
„He is a gifted programmer who can convert unusual ideas, which may indeed seem bizarre at first glance, into musical gold.“ – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The Swiss clarinettist and improviser Reto Bieri has been playing solo and chamber music for over 20 years. The former artistic director is currently bringing a fresh concept to the classical music scene with his brilliant, poetic theme evenings à la DAVOS FESTIVAL in cooperation with various chamber orchestras and accompanied by long-standing chamber music partners – in particular violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja.
In the 2020-2021 season, Reto Bieri will perform together with the WDR Sinfonieorchester, the Camerata Bern and in the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. Furthermore, he will be again on stage with various chamber music projects: together with Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Meesun Hong, Thomas Kaufmann, Julia Gallego, Jonas Ahonen and members of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, he is going to play in the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London as well as in the Bamberg Concert Hall and in the Alte Oper Frankfurt. Other artists Reto Bieri will be working with this season are Paulina Leschenko, Dominik Susteck, Sarah Maria Sun, Lin Liao and David Philip Hefti.
Reto Bieri regularly performs with renowned orchestras, and at various festivals and prestigious institutions. He releases CD recordings with the Munich-based cult label ECM, most recently the highly praised album quasi morendo with string quartet meta4 from Finland.
Reto Bieri grew up with Swiss folk music. Following formative experience playing dance music in taverns and training as a primary school teacher he initially attended music academies in Basel and Zurich, before studying at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in New York. He was particularly influenced by the composer György Kurtág and his encounters with the writer Gerhard Meier, musician Eberhard Feltz and the clown Dimitri.
In 2001, Reto Bieri was the winner of the Tribune International des Jeunes Interprètes, the competition for European radio stations. Since this success he has worked internationally as a soloist and chamber musician. He is a regular guest at various festivals and well-known institutions.
Reto Bieri played with numerous orchestras, including the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio, the Bruckner Orchester Linz, the Münchner Kammerorcheser, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra, the Oxford Chamber Players, the Brandenburgische Philharmonie, the Borusan Orchestra, the Züricher Kammerorchester, the Camerata Zürich, the Basler Sinfonieorchester, the Kammerorchester Basel, the Kremerata Baltica, the Sinfonieorchester Luzern and the Orquesta Sinfonica de Navarra under well-known conductors such as Vladimir Fedoseyev, Kurt Masur, Dennis Russel Davies and Kristjan Järvi.
Highlights of the past seasons included Concerts in the Wigmore Hall in London, in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and at Schloss Elmau.
Bieri's passion is primarily chamber music. He is regularly working together with renowed artists like Heinz Holliger, Gidon Kremer, Zoltan Koscis, Alexander Lonquich, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Sol Gabetta, Ilya Gringolts, Pekka Kuusisto, Nicolas Altstaedt, Herbert Schuch and Fazil Say, as well as with various string quartets such as the Quatuor Ardeo (Paris), the Amaryllis Quartet (Cologne), the Szymanowski Quartet (Warsaw), the Borusan Quartet (Istanbul), the Meta4 Quartet (Helsinki), the Quatuor Hermès (Paris), the Quarteto Casals (Barcelona), the Casal Quartet (Zurich) and the Rosamunde Quartet (Munich).
Reto Bieri served as Artistic Director of the Swiss DAVOS FESTIVAL – young artists in concert between 2013 and 2018. Since 2012 he has taught at the University of Music in Würzburg, Germany as Professor of Chamber Music. He lives with his family in a remote Swiss Alpine location in the Bernese Oberland.
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Zwischen Stille und Entstehen von Klang – der Klarinettist Reto Bieri
Patricia Kopatchinskaja & Reto Bieri: Phantasmagoria | Hamburg International Music Festival
Patricia Kopatchinskaja & Reto Bieri - Milhaud Jeu
Regamey Quintett & Schoenberg string trio
Arnold Schönberg was 72 years old when he composed his String Trio op. 45, two years after suffering a severe heart attack. He confided to Thomas Mann at the time that the trio reflected his physical and mental state during this critical phase. The Swiss composer, pianist, music critic and writer Constantin Regamey, who is unfortunately little known today, was of Polish descent. He joined the Polish resistance against the Nazis in 1942 and wrote his quintet for clarinet, bassoon, violin, cello and piano during this difficult time.
Artist: Ilya Gringolts, Lawrence Power, Nicolas Altstaedt, Reto Bieri, Bram van Sambeek, Alexander Lonquich
Label: Alpha
VÖ: 11.04.2023
Patricia Kopatchinskaja - Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire
Delicate and grotesque.
Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, written in 1912, consists of 21 small melodramas for voice and five instruments based on poems by Albert Giraud. Schoenberg wanted the piece to be ironic, tender and grotesque at the same time, much in the manner of cabaret songs. Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja, who occasionally excels as an actress, has performed the work on many stages around the world, including Germany and the United States, and here presents her Pierrot. Schoenberg's Fantasy op. 47, the Piano Pieces op. 19, and arrangements of Johann Strauss' Emperor Waltz, Kreisler's Little Viennese March, and Webern's Four Pieces for Violin & Piano op. 7 complete the program.
With Works by: J. Strauss II, A. Webern, F. Kreisler.
Artists: Patricia Kopatchinskaja (Violine & Sprechgesang), Meesun Hong (Violine & Viola), Julia Gallego (Flöte), Reto Bieri (Klarinette), Marko Milenkovic (Viola), Thomas Kaufmann (Cello), Joonas Ahonen (Klavier)
Label: Alpha
VÖ: 26.03.2021
Reto Bieri & Meta4 - Quasi morendo
Reto Bieri's solo album Contrechant, released in 2011, was universally praised at the time for the Swiss clarinettist's beautiful tone and his unusual expressiveness in combination with extended instrumental techniques. Quasi Morendo begins with a new take on one of the pieces from Contrechant, Salvatore Sciarrino's "Let Me Die Before I Wake" (1982), with its "whisper-quiet sound world of harmonics, multiphonics and tremolandos" (The Guardian). Bieri will then be accompanied by the Finnish string quartet Meta4 in a profound interpretation of Johannes Brahms' Quintet op 115 (1891).
Inspired by Brahms' friendship with clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld, this quintet sounds freer and more idyllic than the composer's earlier chamber music, but is also one of his most carefully constructed works. The album closes with Gérard Pesson's "Nebenstück" (1998), a ghostly new arrangement of Brahms' Ballade, Op. 10 No. 4.
Label: ECM
VÖ: 10.05.2019
Patricia Kopatchinskaja - Take Two
Label: Alpha
VÖ: 02.10.2015
Galina Ustvolskaya
The unique expressivity in the work of Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006) speaks to the listener with great directness and nuanced layers of sound, while the music's powerful rhythmic stringency bears witness to the intransigence in the composer's music.
To enter this sound world requires a special form of commitment and intensity. Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Markus Hinterhäuser perform the Sonata (1952) and Duet (1964) for violin and piano, and together with Reto Bieri, the Trio (1949) for clarinet (violin) and piano.
Label: ECM
VÖ: 12.09.2014
Contrechant: Music for Solo Clarinet
Reto Bieri was born in Zug, Switzerland, and grew up under the influence of Swiss folk music, before going on to study at New York’s Juilliard School. Besides the standard repertoire for his own instrument, he is especially interested in contemporary music and cooperation with contemporary composers forms an important part of his work: almost all of the pieces heard here were developed in collaboration with the composers. The result is a really outstanding album of new clarinet music which will be a reference work for players and listeners alike. Repertoire includes Luciano Berio’s “Lied”, Heinz Holliger’s “Contrechant” and “Rechant”, Elliott Carter’s “Gra”, Salvatore Sciarrino’s “Let me die before I wake”, Péter Eötvös’s “Derwischtanz”, and Gergely Vajda’s “Lightshadow-trembling”.
Label: ECM
VÖ: 30.09.2011
Schubert - Music for Clarinet & Piano
Approaches to Schubert...the clarinettist Bieri, trained at the Basel Musikhochschule and at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, feels particularly attracted to Schubert. He admires its simplicity, the natural flow, the endless melodies, the down-to-earth down-to-earthness in his dances, his "poetry of shyness". And so he transcribed the three "Sonatas for piano with violin accompaniment" from Schubert's early works as well as some of the German dances for clarinet and piano.
Musicians: Reto Bieri, Gerard Wyss
Label: Claves
VÖ: 12.05.2008