Daniel Propper, pianist

Daniel Propper and The Goldberg Variations

“I was thirteen years old when I first heard The Goldberg Variations. It was a revelation, I was almost hypnotized. From that day on onwards, I dreamt of interpreting them myself. Three years later, when I finally had the score in my hands, the work began with my Swedish professor. Fascinated, I worked on them with many pianists. The great Tatiana Nikolaieva encouraged me enormously in this task. For a year, I even studied them on the harpsichord. All these people helped me find my way. I pay tribute to those no longer here to hear me play”

The pianist Daniel Propper played The Goldberg Variations in public for the first time at the age of nineteen. Two years later, in 1990 he was discovered by Tatiana Nikolaieva at the Salzburg Summer Academy. He was accorded the Academy Laureate and received the town prize, while at the same time he was introduced to the general public at a concert at the great festival, The Salzbuger Festspiele. His interpretation of The Goldberg Variations was broadcast by Austria radio. A month later, at a concert in Germany, broadcast on national radio, the critics were astounded and the composer Gyorgy Ligeti even declared that it was an interpretation of a genius.

However, the young pianist was in no hurry. He pursed his studies at the famous Juilliard School in New York before returning to Stockholm, then settled in France, where for two years took the finishing course of the Conservatoire National Superieur De Musique de Paris (1996-1980).

After years of musical experience and enlargement of his repertoire, he came back to the Goldberg Variations, notably at an Easter Sunday concert in 2003, and then on the occasion of the artist Axel Arno’s film at Angoulême in October 2003.

(in French only)

Le nouveau DVD des Variations Goldberg de Serge-Gauthier Pavlov
I Découvrez le nouveau DVD Goldberg I

Le DVD des Variations Goldberg d'Axel Arno
I Découvrez le DVD Goldberg I

Revue de presse du DVD Variations Goldberg

Le Monde de la musique - Décembre 2004 - par Philippe Venturini
Les «Variations Goldberg » en images
"L'interprétation (de Daniel Propper) finement nuancée cerne en quelques traits le caractère de chaque variation sans ignorer la ligne directrice. Cet ancien élève de Tatiana Nikolaïeva, hôte des festivals Piano aux Jacobins et Piano en Valois, offre une lecture intime et hautement spirituelle de la partition."

Piano Magazine - n° 44 - Janvier/Février 2005 - par Philippe Olivier
"Le pianiste est Daniel Propper, encouragé antan par Tatiana Nikolaïeva et possédé à un tel point par la quatrième partie de la Klavierübung qu'il a suscité l'enthousiasme de György Ligeti en personne. Le soundtrack du présent produit, réalisé sur un Fazioli en l'église luthérienne Saint-Marcel de Paris en mars 2004, est une merveille de grandeur, de goût et de conviction. En cela, il affirme à quel point le palmarès des interprètes du BWV 988 est un classement fluctuant."

Zurban - 10 Novembre 2004 - par Alain Cochard
"A partir d'un des plus beaux enregistrements de cet ouvrage sur piano moderne, le plasticien Axel Arno a conçu un film où images abstraites et regards de femmes se mêlent. Aux paysages sonores répondent des paysages chromatiques dont l'imagination se délecte...Ces Goldberg feront date dans l'histoire des rapports du DVD et de la musique classique. "