The Times“It was playful, assertive, intelligent music-making, with bone-china clarity from Piemontesi”
The New York Times“Mr. Piemontesi drew out the reflective undercurrents even while playing with grace and élan… I hope he returns to New York soon.”
Bachtrack“Piemontesi’s reentry balanced lyricism with panache, and he sailed through the movement’s octaves, trills, rapid runs and other technical hurdles with thorough command and conviction, pointing towards a coda grand and victorious.”
The Cleveland Plain Dealer“[Piemontesi] played with grace, delicacy, and wonderful awareness of his musical partners … The sheer variety of pianistic touch was a joy to behold. Legato and pianissimo weren’t just smooth and soft here. In Piemontesi’s hands, they were silken and preciously quiet.”
The Times.“He devoted the first half to Bach, a tremendous, majestic unfolding chiefly of Busoni arrangements of organ works…Here was a new immensity of approach, and it resulted in a mesmerising, prodigious account of Rachmaninov’s Sonata No 2 … and, though it may, with its irresistible blend of swashbuckling power and searching reflectiveness, have felt like the ultimate piano sonata before, it certainly did so in Piemontesi’s triumphant rendering.”
The Wall Street Journal“[Piemontesi] performs these three outstanding works with fleet fingers and exceptional insight. His deep affinity for the music is evident in the way he captures the ebb and flow of each movement; the pearlescent tone he delivers when appropriate; and the abundance of telling details…”
Francesco Piemontesi is a pianist of exceptional refinement of expression, which is allied to a consummate technical skill. Widely renowned for his interpretation of Mozart and the early Romantic repertoire, Piemontesi’s pianism and sensibility has a close affinity too with the later-19th– century and 20th-century repertoire of Brahms, Liszt, Dvořák, Ravel, Debussy, Bartók and beyond. Of one of his great teachers and mentors, Alfred Brendel, Piemontesi says that Brendel taught him “to love the detail of things”.
Beginning his 2025/26 season, the “Wizard of Sound” (Neue Zürcher Zeitung) returns to Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, where he was formerly Artist in Residence, for world premiere performances of Beat Furrer’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 2 with Jonathan Nott, and later with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Poppe). Elsewhere, Piemontesi returns with Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 to Leipzig Gewandhausorchester and Manfred Honeck, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Emelyanychev), Dresden Philharmonic (Tjeknavorian), and on tour with Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Thomas Søndergård. “A Mozartian to cherish” (The Guardian), Piemontesi performs Mozart’s Concerto No. 27, K. 595 with the Toronto Symphony (Gabel) and Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería (Prieto), and Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 with Israel (Mälkki) and Seoul (Nott) phillharmonics and Iceland Symphony Orchestra (Saraste).
Praised as “sensitive and intense… lively and introspective…” (Seen and Heard International) in Beethoven, Piemontesi makes his debuts with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Nathalie Stutzmann) and Detroit Symphony Orchestra (Jader Bignamini) in Piano Concerto No. 1. With Robin Ticciati, he returns to the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France in Concerto No. 4 and Baltimore Symphony with Hannu Lintu. He joins Gianandrea Noseda and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra on tour with Concerto No. 5.
In recital, Piemontesi delivers pure piano poetry to Musikverein Vienna, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, Schubertiade, Basel, Siena and Alicante. He maintains a close relationship with London’s Wigmore Hall, including his celebrated Mozart Odyssey, Schubert piano sonata cycle, and his ongoing Beethoven piano sonata cycle. He also collaborates with Augustin Hadelich in recitals across the United States, weaving the sonatas for violin and piano of Debussy, Poulenc and Franck with works by de Grigny, Rameau and Kurtág.
Piemontesi appears alongside the world’s leading orchestras from the Berliner Philharmoniker to the New York Philharmonic and from London to NHK Symphony Orchestras and is a regular guest at festivals such as the Salzburg, Lucerne, Schleswig-Holstein Musik festivals, as well as the BBC Proms. Recent highlights include appearances with the Boston Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Swedish and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestras, Orchestre de Paris, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. He has performed with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt, Karina Canellakis, Elim Chan, Ivan Fischer, Fabien Gabel, Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Daniel Harding, Manfred Honeck, Marek Janowski, Paavo Järvi, Ton Koopman, Joana Mallwitz, Zubin Mehta, Roger Norrington, Gianandrea Noseda, Thomas Søndergård, Yuri Temirkanov and Robin Ticciati. As adept on the concerto stage as he is in smaller chamber combinations, Piemontesi appears with a variety of partners including Leif Ove Andsnes, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Leonidas Kavakos, Stephen Kovacevich, Heinrich Schiff, Christian Tetzlaff, Jörg Widmann, Tabea Zimmermann, Janine Janssen, Augustin Hadelich and the Emerson Quartet. In the past he has appeared in many prestigious venues including Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall and David Geffen Hall in New York. He has performed at the Edinburgh, Verbier and Aix-en-Provence Festivals, La Roque d’Anthéron, and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festivals and at New York Mostly Mozart.
His latest release on Pentatone is dedicated to two of the most demanding works of piano literature: The Transcendental Etudes and the B minor Sonata by Franz Liszt. BBC Music Magazine awarded this disc 5 stars, praising it as “a noble reading,” with Piemontesi “deploying all the weapons in his armoury to pin us in our seats for this wordless but eloquent story.” Other recordings include a 2022 recording for Pentatone of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G Major, Messiaen’s Oiseaux exotiques and Schönberg’s Piano Concerto with Orchestre de la Suisse Romande as part of his residency there; Schubert‘s last three Piano Sonatas; Liszt’s Années de Pèlerinage for Orfeo; Mozart’s Piano Concertos with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra on Linn. Piemontesi also demonstrated his deep affinity with Debussy’s Impressionist world in his recording of the Préludes for Naïve. In fall 2025, Piemontesi releases the first of two Brahms discs, featuring the composer’s late solo piano works and concertos with Leipzig Gewandhausorchester and Manfred Honeck.
Born in Locarno, Francesco Piemontesi studied with Arie Vardi before working with Alfred Brendel, Murray Perahia, Cécile Ousset and Alexis Weissenberg. He rose to international prominence with prizes at several major competitions, including the 2007 Queen Elisabeth Competition. From 2012 to 2025, Piemontesi served as the Artistic Director of the Settimane Musicali Ascona, leaving a lasting imprint on one of Europe’s most respected music festivals.
SEPTEMBER 2025
