Michael Endres

"A feast of song inspired piano music

Programme notes;

Schubert’s works are influenced by his repetoire of six hundred songs The two Fantasies are no exception.

The first work, the Grazer Fantasy was found in 1869 and is much more lyrical than the mighty Wandererfantasy, where Schubert ventured out into the virtuoso writing. The title is derived from the song "The Wanderer”, which forms the 2nd movement, a series of Variations.

The piano as a singing instrument has inspired composers to transcribe songs, originally composed for voice and piano to just the piano.  The second half of the program contains a variety of these highly inspired  transcriptions, featuring some of the most popular songs of the classic repertoire. Transcribers are Franz Liszt, Peter I. Tschaikowsky, Percy Grainger,  Earl Wild and George Gershwin." 

German Pianist Michael Endres performs worldwide as soloist and chamber music partner.  He has won prizes such as the Concours Geza Anda (Zurich) and First & Special Prizes at the International Schubert Competition (Germany) among others. His extensive prizewinning discography of 32 CD’s  include cycles of the complete sonatas by Mozart, Schubert, Weber and the complete works of Ravel and Gershwin as well as works by Schumann. Endres covers a wide repertoire including seldom played composers like Leopold Godowsky, Gabriel Faure, Charles Ives and Eduard Tubin. Leading US critic Richard Dyer from the Boston Globe called him ”one of the most interesting pianists recording today”, the New York Times wrote: ”the performances with pianist Michael Endres were revelatory” and the Gramophone Magazine stated: ”he is an outstanding Schubert interpreter”.