Alexander Krichel – Pianist
Official website of German pianist and ECHO Klassik award winner Alexander Krichel – concert dates, audio samples, photos, videos and news.
Repertoire
From Beethoven and Liszt to Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Ravel – the internationally renowned pianist is known for his captivating interpretations of the most demanding works of piano literature. After an all-Liszt debut album and five more CD productions with Sony Classical, Alexander Krichel signed an exclusive record agreement with Berlin Classics in 2021. The pianist’s current release juxtaposes Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” with George Enescu’s 2nd Piano Suite.
Alexander enjoyed his training with two of the greatest Russian pianists of the present day. In Hanover, he was the last student of Vladimir Krainev at the University for Music, Drama and Media before graduating with the highest distinction from the Royal College of Music in London where he studied with Dmitri Alexeev.
Whether in a solo recital, with chamber music partners or as the soloist of a piano concerto with symphony orchestra – Alexander Krichel can be heard in concerts all over the world, from Shanghai, Tokyo, Kyoto to Warsaw, St. Petersburg, Bucharest and Latin America. In Europe he has already played the most famous concert halls, such as Hamburg Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle, Berlin Philharmonie and Konzerthaus, Munich Herkulessaal and Prinzregententheater, Cologne Philharmonie, Stuttgart Liederhalle, Vienna Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Zurich Tonhalle and many more. He has performed with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, the Bremen Philharmonic, the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra underwell-known conductors such as Andrew Manze, Markus Poschner, Wojciech Rajski, Andrew Litton, Jonathan Nott, Christoph Poppen and Michael Sanderling. He also regularly performs chamber music with the Shanghai String Quartet, the Goldmund Quartet, the String Quartet of Berlin Philharmonic, the Amaryllis Quartet and has collaborated on several projects with Juliane Banse, Albrecht Mayer and Matthias Höfs, among others. He has thrilled audiences at numerous festivals, including the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Ruhr Piano Festival, Bad Kissingen Summer Festival and the Festival de Música de Marvao.
The classical musician is not only present on stage, he is also co-founder and artistic director of the award-winning festival “Kultur Rockt” as well as artistic director of the chamber music concert series “Kammermusik am Hochrhein”. Since 2018, he has also been a permanent jury member of the Fanny Mendelssohn Förderpreis. Away from the piano, Alexander Krichel is passionate about mathematics, natural sciences and foreign languages. He is involved in projects that give children and young people access to classical music and is committed to hospice work.
Other Fields
During the Corona lockdown, Alexander Krichel found his way to his audience with unusual ideas and streaming concerts. In May 2020, he initiated the world’s first classical music concert in a drive-in cinema, which was broadcast by WDR, 3Sat and arte. A short time later, his audience followed him in a video diary from a hotel suite in Hong Kong, where he had to quarantine for 14 days before a concert. For Beethoven’s 250th birthday, Krichel, together with the Meininger Hofkapelle, brought Beethoven’s 5th Piano Concerto “Emperor” to the stage of the Staatstheater and via live stream to viewers from all over the world. He also played a solo recital with Beethoven, Schumann and Liszt for an online-only audience at Essen Philharmonie. In 2022, Alexander Krichel played several benefit concerts in Ulm and Kreuzlingen in aid of the people in Ukraine. In cooperation with the local Lions and Rotary Clubs, considerable sums were donated for the war-torn country.