Echo Klassik Award 2009
Silent for 50 days and now three entries within 10 minutes – I know, inflationary, but what can one do, I had a long flight (from Berlin via Munich and Philadelphia to Puerto Rico) and tons of time to kill. Sorry for this overload of blog entries, but I thought I should write my astonishment and excitement about the latest award I have received. More than two years ago, April 5 2007 I wrote the following blog:
https://www.albangerhardt.com/frames.pl?path=https://www.albangerhardt.com/blog/?p=57
and now, about 10 days ago, this recording, the Double-Reger-Whopper (2 cd’s), won the Echo Klassik Award 2009!On the one hand is exciting news for me because it is, at least in Germany, great PR for free; on the other hand I was really amazed that “strange” and not really loved repertoire like the Reger Sonatas and Suites would stand a chance against all these wonderful recordings out there. To be honest, my pianist Markus Becker and me were hoping for the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, just because this rare German repertoire hasn’t been recorded together and the fact that we did it well enoughto be able to attract some nice reviews – but no, they chose something more mainstream. That the jury of the Echo Award “found” us was therefor so much more surprising especially since Hyperion cd’s traditionally don’t receive this honour too frequently (it’s a different market, I guess).
I am also very happy for poor old Reger himself who is more and more recognized as the difficult but highly talented composer he was. No, he was no Brahms nor Berg, but for me he was an important composer during that crucial time, the turn from 19th to 20th century, and his contribution shows very well the struggle of many artists trying to find themselves in that pre-World-War decadent Europe. I struggled immensely learning these 7 pieces (4 sonatas with piano and 3 solo suites), almost became depressed by going deep into this multi-level musical bunker, and it feels very nice to know that it was not for nothing. Thanks!