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 also a close affinity with the later 19th century and 20th century repertoire, of Brahms, Liszt, Dvořák, Ravel, Debussy, Bartók, Messiaen, Stockhausen and beyond. Of one of his great teachers and mentors, Alfred Brendel, Piemontesi says that [Brendel] taught him “to love the detail of things”.
Born in Locarno, Francesco Piemontesi studied with Arie Vardi before collaborating 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, and between 2009-11 he was chosen as a BBC New Generation Artist. Invitations in Europe have come from a.o. the Edinburgh Festival, Salzburg, Lucerne, Verbier, and the Schleswig-Holstein festivals.
Francesco appears with major ensembles worldwide: Los Angeles Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, NHK Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony,, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Zubin Mehta, Charles Dutoit, Neeme Järvi, Yuri Temirkanov, Sir Roger Norrington, Ivan Fischer, Manfred Honeck, and Sir Roger Norrington.
Piemontesi is also a natural chamber musician and plays with a variety of partners – Leif Ove Andsnes, Yuri Bashmet, Renaud und Gautier Capuçon, Emmanuel Pahud, Heinrich Schiff, Christian Tetzlaff, Tabea Zimmermann and the Emerson Quartet.
Francesco Piemontesi has released a number of fine recordings for Decca, Warner and Naive Classique. In 2012, Piemontesi was announced as Artistic Director of the Settimane Musicali di Ascona.
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