Elected ECHO Rising-Star for the 2015/2016 season, Luxembourg pianist Cathy Krier has enjoyed
great success in the most prestigious concert halls in Europe. Her programmes, combining classical
and modern periods and featuring works by Rameau, Schubert, Ravel and Berg, as well as a piece
specially written for her by the German composer Wolfgang Rihm, were highly praised.
Cathy‘s passion for music always drives her to go beyond conventions. She loves to work on special
projects and pushes her boundaries to go beyond herself and arouse her curiosity and that of her
audience. This includes well-thought solo programmes as well as collaborations with choreographers
such as Elisabeth Schilling (Hear Eyes Move with Études pour piano by György Ligeti), musical journeys
for younger audiences (Clara! – A compositional journey with music by Clara Schumann and Catherine
Kontz, directed by Tobias Ribitzki), music theatre (Funeral Blues – the missing cabaret, directed
by Olivier Fredj), projects with her chamber music partners Laurence Koch (violin) and Nils Kohler
(clarinet) and an annual cycle for Yoga at the Phil at the Philharmonie Luxembourg.
Cathy Krier has given successful concerts at the Bozar in Brussels, the Barbican Centre in London,
the Philharmonie 2 in Paris, the Sage Gateshead, the Philharmonie Luxembourg, the Laeiszhalle in
Hamburg, the Konzerthaus Dortmund, the Palau de la musica in Barcelona, at the Calouste Gulbenkian
Fondation in Lisbon, at the Palace of Arts (Müpa) in Budapest, Konserthus Stockholm, Concertgebouw
Amsterdam, Cologne Philharmonie, Casa da musica in Porto, Musikverein Vienna, Town Hall in
Birmingham, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden as well as at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
Radio and television appearances – as seen on Daniel Hope‘s musical journey EUROPE@HOME on
arte – frame Cathy‘s busy artistic schedule.
Born in Luxembourg, Cathy Krier began her piano studies at the Luxembourg Conservatory at the
age of five. At the age of 14, she was admitted to Pavel Gililov‘s virtuosity class at the Hochschule
für Musik und Tanz Köln. She received further musical impulses from Dominique Merlet, Robert Levin,
Homero Francesch and Andrea Lucchesini, with whom she continued her studies at the Scuola di
Musica di Fiesole.
Since 2018, Cathy Krier holds a professorship in piano at the Conservatory of the City of Luxembourg,
where she also lives with her family.
The Frenchman Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important music theorists in the history of Western music. He introduced the term of the"subdominant" and divided chord structures into triads (chords with three notes) and tetrads (chords with four notes), and laid the foundation for the modern study of harmonics. Yet, he was also a seminal composer, and his contribution to the development of opera should not be underestimated. In the first 40 years of his life, Rameau remained in obscurity as an organ player in the country side of France. In 1722, he moved to Paris, where he published his Traite de l'Harmonie (treatise on Harmony). Here, Rameau was recognised as a major music theorist and teacher, and soon he would achieve fame as a harpsichordist and composer. Yet, Rameau had even greater ambitions. He desired to become an opera composer. His first operas Hippolyte et Aricie, Castor et Pollux en zijn opera-ballet Les Indes Galantes became huge hits. The music was harmonically a lot complexer than the audience of the time was used to, yet it was also more dramatic. Rameau received financial support from the fabulously rich La Pouplinière and his ties with the royal court. Around 1750, Rameau was at the peak of his fame and his works were being performed throughout France. However, he slowly lost the support of the philosophers and artists of the Enlightenment and after his death in 1764 his operas went into oblivion. Only in the last couple of decades, his music was rediscovered and Rameau gained the attention he deserves.
György Ligeti is considered as one of the most important representatives of the postwar avant garde, next to Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luciana Berio and Iannis Xenakis. While the science fiction classic 2001: A Space Oddyssey created publicity for Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra in particular, most of the impressive music comes from Ligeti's Atmosphères and his Requiem. Ligeti's somber sounds could also be applied to happier things: in his obscene and death-defying opera Le Grand Macabre he would mock the horroreffects of experimental music in a hilarious manner.
Ligeti's maniac experiments often exceeded the human measure (think of his virtuoso Etudes for piano). Perhaps his most consequent work is the purely mechanic Poème Symphonique for 100 ticking metronomes. Legend goes that its première was recorded only to be archived with the note: never to be broadcasted again!
Play album
