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Biography
Detlev Eisinger was born in Munich and started playing the piano at the age of seven. At 13 he gave his first recital and performed his first piano concerto with an orchestra.
He studied under Walter Krafft (like Dinu Lupatti, a proponent of the famous Rumanian school) and later with Professor Erik Then-Bergh at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, passing his state examination with distinction (‘mit Auszeichnung’). A scholarship then took him to the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.
He studied under Walter Krafft (like Dinu Lupatti, a proponent of the famous Rumanian school) and later with Professor Erik Then-Bergh at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, passing his state examination with distinction (‘mit Auszeichnung’). A scholarship then took him to the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.
On completing his studies, Eisinger embarked on a busy concert career with a series of concerts at home and abroad, appearing in Munich, Vienna, Graz, Salzburg and Klagenfurt, during which he gave performances of the complete Well Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach. He also appeared at Menton, Paris, Montpellier, at the Kissinger Sommer, the Richard Strauss Festival in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and at the Kodály Festival in Hungary. In addition, he completed five concert tours in South Africa, followed by performances of piano concertos and recitals in many European capitals, in Canada and in the USA, and a number of recordings for radio and on CD.
He has delighted audiences with his hugely popular lecture recitals (Gesprächskonzerte), where he introduces an audience to a piece of music by elucidating particular aspects of it and illustrating these by means of musical examples.
Eisinger is able to take his listeners deeper inside the music and thus help them gain greater pleasure from it, an approach which has proved particularly successful with more complex works, such as Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and Beethoven’s cycle of 32 piano sonatas.
Eisinger is able to take his listeners deeper inside the music and thus help them gain greater pleasure from it, an approach which has proved particularly successful with more complex works, such as Bach’s Goldberg Variations, Beethoven’s Diabelli Variations and Beethoven’s cycle of 32 piano sonatas.
Eisinger’s lecture performances providing introductions to Richard Wagner’s dramatic works – an undertaking, which, for a pianist, is quite out of the ordinary – are further testament to his versatility. In the period from 2002 to 2008, he was commissioned by the Bayreuth Festival to give introductions to all the Wagner operas in the form of matinée lecture recitals, and, as a result, was invited to appear at a number of other opera houses and festivals both in Germany and abroad. The Wagner Festival at Wels in Upper Austria, where he has been invited to appear over many years, is one notable example.
Primarily a solo artist, Eisinger also enjoys playing chamber music and accompanying performers of the German art song (Lied), among them the highly acclaimed Hermann Prey and Kieth Engen.
Beginning in 2012, he has developed a close collaboration with the violinist Franziska Pietsch, resulting in several well-received concerts and recordings. A first collaboration on CD appeared in 2014 on the Musicon label. Following the release of their 2015 album on the audite label, they are now planning their next recording.
Currently, Detlev Eisinger is busy recording on CD the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, accompanied by his explanatory comments and illustrated by excerpts from the music; he is also involved in recording (by popular demand) his introductions to all Richard Wagner’s operas, along the lines of his Bayreuth matinée lecture recitals.
Beginning in 2012, he has developed a close collaboration with the violinist Franziska Pietsch, resulting in several well-received concerts and recordings. A first collaboration on CD appeared in 2014 on the Musicon label. Following the release of their 2015 album on the audite label, they are now planning their next recording.
Currently, Detlev Eisinger is busy recording on CD the complete Beethoven piano sonatas, accompanied by his explanatory comments and illustrated by excerpts from the music; he is also involved in recording (by popular demand) his introductions to all Richard Wagner’s operas, along the lines of his Bayreuth matinée lecture recitals.