Michael Endres


Michael Endres is a German pianist.
He was professor for piano from 1993 to 2004 at the Hochschule fuer Musik in Cologne, until 2009 at the Hochschule Hanns Eisler in Berlin—since autumn 2009 at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand until February 2014 and from March 2014 until 2018 at the Barratt Due Institute of Music in Oslo, Norway. He resides currently in New Zealand.

Early life and training

He was born 1961 in Sonthofen in the Oberallgäu region of the Bavarian Alps and studied with Hugo Steurer, Klaus Schilde and Karl Hermann Mrongovius in Munich, then with Jacob Lateiner at the Juilliard School New York, where he received his master's degree - and later with Peter Feuchtwanger in London.
For many years, Michael Endres was the pianist to the late baritone Hermann Prey.

Repertoire

As well as specializing in Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Ravel, he has a wide repertoire including the somewhat neglected composers Carl Maria von Weber, Leopold Godowsky, Gabriel Fauré, Sir Arnold Bax and Eduard Tubin. His comprehensive recordings include the complete sonatas of Franz Schubert, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Carl Maria von Weber and Arnold Bax, the complete piano works of Maurice Ravel and George Gershwin as well as a complete recording of the 400 dances of Franz Schubert, the 48 Songs without Words by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and 3 CDs of works by Robert Schumann. In March 2018 the 13 Barcarolles by Gabriel Faure were added to his discography. His recordings have received many prizes including Choc du Musique and Diapason d'Or and he has appeared at many major festivals and concert-halls around the world, such as the Salzburg Festival, Wigmore Hall London, Newport Festival, Wiener Musikverein and Suntory Hall, Tokyo.

Style

His playing is often described as subtle, elegant and refined regarding his recordings, where he does not take the dramatic elements of the music to the extreme. This is more than compensated for by the insights that he brings and the remarkable clarity of his readings and playing. On concert stage he often follows a riskier approach. The Boston Globe reviewer Richard Dyer described him as following during his Newport Festival debut:

Recordings