Biography
Associate artist 2023 of the renowned “Festivals de Wallonie”, Swiss pianist and composer Beatrice Berrut has been called “an artist who calmly reveled in multiple layers of genius and beauty “ by the Irish Times and a “standout in all categories, who gave electrifying accounts of Chopin and Bach’s works”. (Cleveland Plain Dealer) Following Mahler’s statement “tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire”, she is a trailblazing artist who wrote a paraphrase on Arnold Schoenberg’s legendary work “Transfigured Night” which was saluted by the composer’s son and is now sought-after by the pianists community. Her dynamic work as a successful soloist, composer, arranger and artistic director of her own festival “Les Ondes” in Switzerland has positioned her as a cultural visionary on the European arts scene.
Berrut’s recent and upcoming onstage adventures include soloist appearances on major European stages with major European orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra for a Mozart tour stopping by – among others – at the Cadogan Hall in London and the Victoria Hall in Geneva, sold-out concerts live broadcast by the German radio NDR at the Hannover Staatsoper with the Niedersächsisches Staatsorchester under conducting legend Mario Venzago, recitals presenting her unique take on Mahler’s symphonies in famous halls such as the Vienna Konzerthaus or the Wigmore Hall in London. Her art of transforming Mahler’s titanic orchestra into rich and lush piano scores is highly regarded by her peers as well as by the press, as these lines from Le Monde attest : “her treatment of Gustav Mahler’s symphonies consists in transforming the solid gold of the orchestra into the liquid gold of the piano”.
Her musical roadmap seeks inspiration from the legacies of European spiritualty and mysticism, excavating the broad landscape of the music of composers like Bach and Liszt to create a series of acclaimed recordings that serve as gathering spaces for her listeners to find common ground and shared experience. Her award-winning discography and her new collaboration with refined and luxurious French label La Dolce Volta has a strong media presence and has largely contributed to establish her as an artist that counts in the European arts, by having her invited to interview and perform for TV shows such as Deutsche Welle’s news show, TV 5 Monde’s cultural show, France 3’ Victoires de la Musique, RTS, Classic FM or ARTE.
Being convinced that there is only good and bad music, Beatrice is fluent through the composing genres, and has been commissioned to write works for classical music series as well as for electro music festivals and for movies. Her music is rooting in European tradition – with a special hint of Ravel and Scriabin-like colors for their diabolic virtuosity – and mingles with ethereal influences from American minimalism and with the heroic rhetoric of movie music. Her creativity also has led her to remake songs by MUSE and Walt Disney Classics in order to make them sound like virtuoso piano pieces by romantic composers such as Rachmaninoff, Chopin or Liszt. As Mark Twain is supposed to have said: “they didn’t know it was impossible, so they did it!”
Both an iconoclast and an ardent defender of classical tradition, Beatrice’s strong will to democratize classical music and to overcome boundaries between genres has led her to create her own festival, where traditional classical music concerts meet klezmer, jazz or flamenco. She also enjoys collaborating with eclectic artists such as world champion ice skater Stéphane Lambiel for an upcoming magic-themed show that will explore the initiatory path of a youngster, or with contemporary dance Bonn-based company “Cocoon Dance” for a performance around Beethoven’s Geister Trio at the Bonn Beethoven Fest. She has been chosen by the Geneva Observatory and the European Space Agency to play her own character in a short-movie presenting the GAIA mission, where parallels are drawn between the tasks of a concert pianist and the ones of an astrophysicist.
Beatrice Berrut has been a Bösendorfer artist since 2013. This long and fruitful collaboration between the Viennese company and the Swiss pianist is the hallmark of the slightly different sound of Beatrice’s recordings.
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