“As the performance progresses, it becomes increasingly apparent that Vandewalle is striving to give each variation its own character and point of view.”
JED DISTLER, GRAMOPHONE UK
The pianist Daan Vandewalle is an internationally acclaimed performer of 20th and 21st century piano music.
His repertoire consists hundreds of pieces, integrales largely of well-known composers of the 20th century such as Ives, Messiaen, Schonberg as well as numerous premieres that resulted from intense collaborations with composers of today.
He has performed in a wide range of venues, from small underground clubs, the experimental music scene to established venues such as the Prague Spring Festival, the Lincoln Centre en Carnegie Hall New York, Auditorio Nacional Madrid, the Mozarteum Salzburg, Theatre des Chatelets Paris, Konzerthaus Berlin and many others.
Special projects include his life-long collaboration with the American composer Alvin Curran which resulted in a series of 6 hour marathon performances of the piano cycle Inner Cities, a series that was released on a Long Distance classics/Harmonia Mundi cd box (2005).
Other recording projects included the complete piano music of Gordon Mumma (2008 NWR) and his debut recording of the Ives Concord sonata (1996) which was met with rave reviews in the American press.
He premiered dozens of new pieces e.g. Frederic Rzewski, Clarence Barlowe, Maria De Alvear, Fred Frith and Gordon Mumma. He is one of the only pianists in the world who play the entire Opus Clavicembalisticum by Sorabji.
Recent projects included the playing of the Ligeti piano concerto at Carnegie hall New York and at the Prague Spring Festival, the premiere of Frederic Rzewski’s piano concerto ‘A dog’s Life’ with the Asko|Schönberg Ensemble and Peter Rundel and a premiere of a concerto by Marc Sabat;
Apart from his work as a soloist he forms a piano-duo with the legendary Australian pianist Geoffrey Douglas Madge, and duos with cellist Arne Deforce and singer Salome Kammer.
Since 2001 he teaches piano at the conservatory of Ghent, University of Ghent College.
Frederic Rzewski:
World premiere of the Frederic Rzewski piano concerto ‘Songs of Insurrection’ in Canada, Netherlands, South America and Belgium.