“Tanja Huppert played herself into our hearts tonight!” Steinway House Hamburg wrote about her concert evening that ended with standing ovations – and this is the tenor that the German-Ukrainian pianist from Munich always hears from the concert guests. The sensitive and passionate artist knows how to capture her audience and to let them go home touched. “… I think that music can really work wonders and really defeat all evil and that’s actually what’s important to me” she says in her video portrait that was released on YouTube and Vimeo in December 2018 and has already impressed classical musicians and organisers.

Huppert currently studies a large selection of musical images from the modern work “Book of Stars” by composer and Orff pupil Wilfried Hiller and prepares a programme for his jubilee concert. She is also practicing three piano suites by George Frideric Handel and the Sonata No. 8 by Sergei Prokofiev. These, along with other works from her repertoire, will be the subject of her next concerts.

Huppert was particularly praised for her interpretation of the Goldberg Variations by Johann Sebastian Bach. She could convince the chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Kirill Petrenko. He described her interpretation as “characterized by great musicality, creativity and high technical skills”. Also Bernhard Kerres, director of the Wiener Konzerthaus from 2007 to 2013, was impressed: he called it “A fascinating, soft, sometimes introvert, then again feminine interpretation of wonderful beauty”.

In 2009 she recorded Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Jeunehomme” concerto with Bamberg Symphony at the invitation of Jonathan Nott, the long-time principal conductor of Bamberg Symphony, followed by an invitation to record further piano works at Bayerischer Rundfunk, including Ravel’s “Gaspard de la nuit” and sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti, both of which have been played on the radio since then, most recently in January 2019 on BR-Klassik. After the rapid completion of both recordings, Jonathan Nott wrote in a recommendation that Tanja Huppert possesses “a wonderful balance between technical ability, musicality, inspiration and wit”.

Tanja Huppert showed her enthusiasm for playing the piano already at a very early age and hence played Tchaikovsky’s “1st Piano Concerto in B-flat minor, Op. 23” with great success already at the age of 15. After an early degree at the Lysenko Music Boarding School in Kiev and a diploma with distinction at the Kiev Tchaikovsky Music Academy, she went to Munich to continue her studies at the University of Music and Performing Arts. There she received lessons from Prof. Michael Schäfer and her concert diploma in 2006; she also received a scholarship from the Munich publishing house G. Henle and the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben. This was followed by postgraduate studies in Munich. In 2007 Joachim Kaiser described her as a “highly gifted pianist with her own musical profile”.

Tanja Huppert lives with her husband in Munich. When she takes a time-out, she prefers to go into nature or a beautiful museum for old painting.

Last updated: 28/07/2019 (486 words)

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Goldberg Variations

For me, they are one of the most beautiful works for piano, and they vividly illustrate Bach's ingenious foresight for the musical possibilities to come with the advent of the piano. At the same time, they represent a wonderful counterpoint to the fast-moving habits of our time and are therefore very topical from my point of view. I also offer this programme as a matinée.

Johann Sebastian Bach Goldberg Variations (BWV 988)

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Viennese Classicism

Programme text follows.

J. Haydn: Piano Sonata C Major Hob. XVI:48
J. Haydn: Andante con variazioni for piano F minor Hob. XVII:6
J. Haydn: Piano Sonata in E Minor Hob. XVI:34

Franz Schubert: Moments musicaux D. 780 op. 94:
   No. 1 in C major, No. 3 in F minor, No. 6 in A flat major.
Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata No. 30 op. 109

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Free Beauty

The 18th century was a century of music making, music was above all the art of performance. Still not about "opus music", which is fixed in the score down to the last detail and is correspondingly faithful to the work. to be performed. Composers saw themselves above all in the service of the audience. It was about arousing and and thus performances always strived for a balance between composition and performance. Improvisation. Instrumentalists possessed great freedom in dealing with tempo, phrasing, and And you're not the only one. Frequently, it can already be seen from the musical notation that, detached from the meter and time signature was composed. Especially in the "freyen Fantasie", a particularly popular genre. When Immanuel Kant in his "Critique of Judgment" writes about "free beauty", he refers to to the "free fantasies" of his famous contemporary Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach. The works to be performed show how multifaceted composers were in this environment. Since is the improvisational character of the preludes in Handel's suites. Or C.P.E. Bach's Sonata in F minor, in whose third movement is the Fantasy Principle. Thirty years later, the Mozart before going to press all the omens in his C minor fantasy to the free flow of modulation not to put obstacles in the way. And finally, there is Josef Haydn's handwritten addition "near as free fantasy" in the touching coda of his last piano work. The programme is complemented by piano arrangements of famous chorales by Johann Sebastian Bach. This is also done with the intention of making this 18th century a time to be experienced by the listener, in which religion, despite all its upheavals, continued to exert a decisive influence.

J. S. Bach/M. Hess: Jesus remains my joy
G. F. Händel: Suite E Major HWV 430
D. Scarlatti: Sonata in G minor K. 8 and Sonata in D Major K. 380
J. P. Rameau: La Livri and L'Égyptienne
J. S. Bach/F. Busoni: Come now, Saviour of the heathen BWV 659

J. S. Bach/F. Busoni: I call to You, Lord Jesus Christ BWV 639
C. P. Bach: Sonata F minor Wq.63.6 / H.75
W. A. Mozart: Fantasy C minor KV 475
J. Haydn: Andante con variazioni for piano F minor Hob XVII:6
J. S. Bach/W. Kempff: Befiel Du Deine Wege BWV 272

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