*06.12.1954, Schaffhausen
"Composing is a circling of a nucleus that one does not quite reach. In the end there is still dissatisfaction - that will then be the next composition."
"Art is world experience, is knowledge, is emotional education. But this also requires the awareness that some things have not yet been understood. That's how I feel. And that doesn't just apply to Contemporary Music. Even Mozart will never be fully understood."
Beat Furrer
(citations: Interview with Maria Scholl for APA, source: www.oe1.orf.at)
Beat Furrer explores music in all its sound spaces and expandings. Each work emerges anew from an attitude of exploring unknown possibilities. The piano is constantly an important theme in his works, both as a solo instrument and in chamber music. Among his most important piano compositions are the Piano Concerto (2007), Phasma (2002) and the "Drei Klavierstücke" (2003/2004).
Discover Beat Furrer's music enjoying the PIANOVERSAL listening tips!
PIANOVERSAL listening tips: Beat Furrer
"You don’t have to know, you have to be open, you have to discover a new world."
"There were never so many composers as today and of course there are many good composers. What you can complain about is the musical education, in schools, somehow you have to learn the language, you have to understand a tradition."
Beat Furrer
Source: Prime Time Russia TV - youtube
Piano Concerto (2007)
Nicolas Hodges - piano; WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, dir. Peter Rundel.
Studie for Piano (2011)
Nicolas Hodges - piano
PIANO MUSIC
Voiceslessnes - The Snow Has No Voice (1986), 3 Klavierstücke (2004), Phasma (2002)
spotify_Furrer_piano_music
Nicolas Hodges - piano
Kairos 2005
Recordings of various chamber music with piano and piano concerto
spotify_beat_furrer_works
Artists: Petra Hoffmann, Eva Furrer, Benjamin Kobler, Ekkehard Windrich, Ringela Riemke, Tora Augestad, Uli Fussenegger, Nicolas Hodges
Kairos 2008
"Spur" for piano and string quartet (1998)
Frank Gutschrmidt - piano, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin
Presto (1998) (from Nuun - 1996)
Eva Furrer - flute, Marino Formenti - piano
ARIA (2001)
youtube_Furrer_Aria
Petra Hoffmann (soprano), Lucas Fels (cello), Christian Dierstein (percussion), Shizuyo Oka (clarinet), Barbara Maurer (viola), Klaus Steffes-Holländer (piano), and Melise Melliger (violin)
Exciting insights in the composer's way of thinking can be found in Beat Furrer's Master Class at IRCAM (2016) (2 hours of video)
youtube_Furrer_Master_Class_Ircam_2016
A lot of further information about Beat Furrer can be found on the composer's website:
beatfurrer.com
Discover the PIANOVERSALRegister ! All of Beat Furrer's piano music is listed.
Beat Furrer: composer of the week No. 30 / May 2019
PIANOVERSAL