©Photo: Kaupo Kikkas

©Photo: Sim Canetty-Clarke

Alban Gerhardt

Cello

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“A magician of cantabile playing and a master of virtuosic panache”
(Tagesspiegel)

Having launched his career with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Semyon Bychkov in 1991, Alban Gerhardt has since gained recognition as one of the most versatile cellists, highly regarded for his performances, from solo Bach through the classical and romantic canon to collaborations with several contemporary composers.

For over thirty years, he has made a unique impact on audiences worldwide with his intense musicality, compelling stage presence and insatiable artistic curiosity. His gift for shedding fresh light on familiar scores, along with his appetite for investigating new repertoire from centuries past and present, truly set him apart from his peers.

Notable orchestra collaborations include Concertgebouw Amsterdam, London Philharmonic, all of the British and German radio orchestras, Berliner Philharmoniker, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Orchestre National de France as well as The Cleveland, Philadelphia, Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras, under conductors such as Kurt Masur, Christoph von Dohnányi, Christian Thielemann, Christoph Eschenbach, Michael Tilson Thomas, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Vladimir Jurowski, Kirill Petrenko and Andris Nelsons.

Gerhardt recently premiered a new cello concerto by Julian Anderson with Orchestre National du France, following on from the success of his performances of Brett Dean’s concerto premiered with Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Berliner Philharmoniker and played with Minnesota Orchestra, New York Philharmonic and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. This coming season he performs the Anderson concerto with the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and the Dean concerto with ORF Radio Symphonie Orchester Wien and London Philharmonic Orchestra. Gerhardt has a residency with the Orchestre de chambre de Paris. He also performs with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Konzerthaus Berlin, and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra.

Gerhardt has won several awards, and his recording of Unsuk Chin’s Cello Concerto, released by Deutsche Grammophon, won the BBC Music Magazine Award and was shortlisted for a Gramophone Award in 2015. Gerhardt has recorded extensively for Hyperion; his recording of complete Bach suites was released in 2019 and was one of the Sunday Times top 100 CDs of the year (all genres included). His recent album Shostakovich: Cello Concertos with the WDR Sinfonieorchester, Köln and Jukka-Pekka Saraste, was awarded the International Classical Music Award in 2021.

He is a keen chamber musician; his regular performance partners include Steven Osborne and Cecile Licad. Most recently he has collaborated on a new artistic project ’Love in Fragments’ with violinist Gergana Gergova, choreographer Sommer Ulrickson, and sculptor Alexander Polzin. A poetic union of music, movement, sculpture and the spoken word, the project successfully premiered at 92^nd St Y in New York. In the upcoming season, he embarks on a trio tour with Markus Becker and Veronika Eberle. Recital engagements include Théâtre de la Ville in Paris and Wigmore Hall in London.

Gerhardt is passionate about sharing his discoveries with audiences far beyond the traditional concert hall: outreach projects undertaken in Europe and the US have involved performances and workshops, not only in schools and hospitals, but also pioneering sessions in public spaces and young offender institutions.

Alban Gerhardt plays a Matteo Gofriller cello dating from 1710.

Alban Gerhardt - New collaboration with the Alliage Quintett (recorded at Kulturraffinerie K714 Monheim) © Alliage Quintett

Alban Gerhardt - Bach: solo cello suites © A Fly on the Wall afotw.com

Dmitri Shostakovich - Cello Concerto No. 2, Opus 126 | WDR Sinfonieorchester | © WDR Classik

Alban Gerhardt - Brett Dean's Cello Concerto

Alban Gerhardt: Elgar - Cello Concerto, conducted by Susanna Mälkki at Festival de Lanaudière © PRODCAN

Alban Gerhardt on Mstislav Rostropovich © © Hyperion Records Ltd

Alban Gerhardt - Rostropovich: Moderato from Etudes for Cello Solo © © A Fly on the Wall afotw.com

Alban Gerhardt - Unsuk Chin: Cello Concerto (extract) © © Berliner Philharmoniker Digital Concert Hall

Alban Gerhardt - Britten: Cello Concerto (extract) with Orquesta Sinfónica de RTVE © Alban Gerhardt

Alban Gerhardt - Bach: Suite No.6 - Prelude © © Alban Gerhardt

Alban Gerhardt - Schumann: Cello Concerto - 1st Mvt (extract) © Hyperion records

Alban Gerhardt - Prokofiev: Symphony-Concerto in E Minor - Andante (extract) © Hyperion records

Alban Gerhardt - Sergei Rachmaninov: Vocalise Op.34 No.14 © Hyperion

Alban Gerhardt - Mstislav Rostropovich: Humoresque Op.5 © Hyperion

Alban Gerhardt - Fauré: Cello Sonata No.2 - Andante (extract) © Hyperion records

Alban Gerhardt's Dupont Underground Session © maD Cap

“Playing with beefy, bronzed tone, Gerhardt was a miracle of precision, omnipresent throughout and generating a powerful sense of camaraderie with his orchestral fellows.”

(Clive Paget, Musical America, February 2020)

“The commanding soloist, in his Philharmonic debut, was Alban Gerhardt, who also played the work’s world premiere with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, in 2018, and its American premiere with the Minnesota Orchestra in November… Mr. Gerhardt played incisively and brilliantly.”

(New York Times, January 2020)

“Gerhardt, gently authoritative, immediately captured attention with his rich tone and nuanced phrasing in the Tchaikovsky. His 1710 Goffriller cello is evidently a ravishing instrument with an especially vibrant and dark lower register. Performing the Fitzenhagen version of the Rococo Variations each section naturally acquired its own distinct character in Gerhardt’s hands and, while the virtuoso passages were dispatched with effortless panache, it was the slower variations that lingered in one’s mind.”

(Bachtrack, October 2018)

“Gerhardt brilliantly surmounted the concerto’s challenging intricate rhythms, especially in the passages of Shostakovich-like relentlessness. Sustaining a rich tone and crystalline articulation, Gerhardt was equally assured in the sections of fast virtuosic passagework, extended sequences of high harmonics and subdued sotto voce gestures.”

( Brett Dean’s dream concerto makes virtuosic bow, The Australian)

“Dream-like moments drifted into more agitated passages, Gerhardt weaving virtuosically through the orchestra, relishing the tender moments and setting off a raucous frenzy in the ensemble as the Concerto reached its climax, before winding its way to a smouldering finish, a final curl of sound spiralling upwards like smoke. The Concerto, particularly in the hands of an advocate as fine as Gerhardt, is a fascinating, multi-hued work that will no doubt reward repeated listening.”

(The Limelight, August 2018)

“Gerhardt’s technique is as formidable as his musicality. His extensive range of volumes and articulations and the energy-filled rubato (never veering towards sloppiness) made this a distinctive interpretation.”

(Australian Book Review, August 2018)

“Gerhardt produced a great piece of musical acting, musing at the start and then infused with valour. His playing was always magnificent, his tone clear and focused. He shaped Strauss’s twisting lines with great style and threw off his vaunting leaps with panache.”

(The Strad, June 2018)

“German cellist Alban Gerhardt’s approach to this concerto struck a rewarding balance between passionate yearning and driving the music forward, ever conscious of its final goal. From the passionate double-stops of the opening, Gerhardt made his cello sing, employing a wide, intense vibrato. The accompaniment by the NSO was sensitively handled, the orchestra always listening to the cello’s mellow voice and adjusting their dynamic range accordingly. Gerhardt’s laser-like intonation was particularly impressive as he soared stratospherically. […] In the third movement Lento, the orchestra and cellist breathed as one, creating a moment of serene beauty. Gerhardt’s top notes shone with ethereal splendour, while the stillness he imbued his pianissimos with were equally impressive. In the final movement, he navigated the virtuosic rhapsodic passages with all the agility and sure-footedness of a Chamonix goat.”

(Bachtrack, February 2018)

[about the Rostropovich Encores recording] “Gerhardt is very much his own man, and in Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise, Debussy’s Clair de lune and Ravel’s Pièce en forme de habanera he achieves a poetic grace and calm….[He] also discovers a piquant litheness and uncluttered ease in Stravinsky’s Russian Maiden’s Song. Enhanced by lucid and expertly balanced engineering, his is a highly engaging recital.”

(The Strad, March 2017)

“Dutilleux’s music needs forthright performance if it’s not to sound precious, a lesson cellist Alban Gerhardt has clearly learned. His performance of Dutilleux’s cello concerto Tout un Monde Lointain had a noble expansiveness free of the febrile fidgety quality that can sometimes creep into Dutilleux’s fluttering gestures.”

(Daily Telegraph, May 2016)

“No praise is too high for Alban Gerhardt’s musicianship, commitment and technique.”

(International Record Review)

“The calm authority and probing insight make him one of the finest cellists around — expressive, unshowy and infinitely classy.”

(The Guardian)

“Gerhardt’s playing is phenomenal, flipping between warmth and prickly brilliance.”

(Theartsdesk.com, August 2014)