Artists

Biography:

Daniel-Ben Pienaar enjoys an international reputation for his unusual musicianship, in particular for his highly individual readings of the German piano classics and for playing an extensive repertoire of pre-Bach works on the piano. He is noted for a sizeable discography including much-praised complete traversals of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, Goldberg Variations, as well as the sonata cycles of Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. He has made the first complete recordings of the keyboard works of Jacobean composer Orlando Gibbons and of the mature piano music of South African composer Arnold van Wyk, and the first recording on piano of Gaspard Le Roux’s Pièces de clavessin (1705). Pienaar is an elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music, where he lectures, and a Professor of the University of London.

‘Interpretations where within the letter critically observed, a numinous potency breaks free’ — Gramophone

‘Pienaar responds with an astonishing range of expression and colour’ — Sunday Times (London)

‘A veritable Mo Farah of the keyboard’ — BBC Music Magazine

‘One of the most exciting pianists of his generation’ — Rondo Magazin (Germany)

‘One of the most original pianists on the current scene’ — AllMusic

‘Daniel-Ben Pienaar’s ear for details and subtleties has planted a seed….which just makes most other recordings seem a bit ‘flat’’. — MusicWeb International