As a cellist, Schiff has performed with many of the leading conductors such as Abbado, Celibidache, Colin Davis, Dohnanyi, Eschenbach, Gielen, Haitink, Harnoncourt, Jansons, Masur, Salonen, Sawallisch, Sinopoli, Tennstedt, Welser-Möst, Daniel Harding. Recent engagement highlights have included playing with the Berlin PO with Sir Simon Rattle in the Salzburg Easter Festival, performing with the Vienna Philharmonic with Zubin Mehta and with the Bayerischer Rundfunk and Mariss Jansons. Heinrich Schiff has also appeared with the Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de Lyon, Rotterdam PO, Tonhalle, Northern Sinfonia and the BBC SO on tour in Germany.

Schiff is a highly respected chamber musician and over the years has appeared regularly with the Alban Berg Quartet, and in recital with a number of pianists including Leif Ove Andsnes, Lars Vogt, Till Felner, Oli Mustonen and Elisabeth Leonskaja. He is a regular guest at the Salzburg and Edinburgh Festivals and at the major European concert halls: the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Wigmore Hall and the South Bank Centre in London, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and the Tonhalle in Zürich. Contemporary music plays an important part in his artistic work and Schiff has collaborated with and commissioned works by major contemporary composers such as Berio, Casken, Henze, Lutoslawski and Penderecki.

In March 2004, Heinrich Schiff was appointed Chief Conductor of the Vienna Chamber Orchestra. He has previously held conducting positions with the following orchestras: Artistic Director of the Northern Sinfonia 1990-1996, Principal Conductor of the Copenhagen Philharmonic and of the Musikkollegium Winterthur, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and of the Radio Sinfonie Orchester Stuttgart. He is in demand internationally as a guest conductor with orchestras such as the Philharmonia, BBC Scottish SO, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Munich Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, Orchestre de Paris, Rotterdam PO, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Oslo PO, Camerata Salzburg, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, City of Birmingham SO, Halle, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. Future engagements include returning to the Orchestre de Paris and making his debut both conducting and playing with the Residentie Orkest.

Schiff has released a number of recordings conducting the Northern Sinfonia, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and the Philharmonia with repertoire ranging from Haydn and Beethoven to Schreker, Krenek and Lutoslawski. As cellist, apart from his prize-winning Bach Solo Suites (EMI) and Shostakovich concertos (Philips), which won the Grand Prix du Disque, Schiff has also recorded the Dvorak cello concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic (Previn), the Schumann concerto with the Berlin PO (Haitink), and the Brahms Double Concerto with Frank Peter Zimmermann (Sawallisch), the latter being awarded the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis. In 2000 he released the complete Beethoven works for cello and piano with Till Fellner on Philips. His most recent release, a recording of Cerha’s cello concerto of which Schiff is the dedicatee, has received widespread critical acclaim.

Heinrich Schiff plays ‘The Mara’ (Stradivarius 1711) and ‘The Sleeping Beauty’ (Montagnana 1739).

Heinrich Schiff is represented by Jessica Ford at Intermusica, jford@intermusica.co.uk.

December 2009 / 542 words. Not to be altered without permission. Please destroy all previous biographical material.

Conducting/cello discography

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Schiff conducts and plays
Shostakovich Cello Concerto No.1 / Weill Threepenny Opera Suite / Schumann Symphony No.2
“Toscanini, Casals, Barbirolli, Rostropovich: all cellists who became conductors, two of them great ones. To that quartet we must now add Heinrich Schiff…

Schiff gave us a reading [of Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto] of unflashy expressiveness, sustained and pungent, summoning an orchestral collaboration of driving precision. The central cadenza was a particularly moving highlight, Schiff responsive to the ruminative restraint of the composer’s thinking.

From the scarcely-disguised political irony of this Cold War piece we moved to the Third Reich satire of Weill’s Threepenny Opera Suite, Schiff’s throwaway directing perfectly capturing the sarcasm of this fractured score aching with suppressed warmth…

Schumann’s Second… is a difficult piece to make work. Its central movements are more easily memorable than the selfconscious strugglings of the outer ones, but Schiff’s determined advocacy made the whole interpretation one of a piece...”
Birmingham Post, October 2008

Alban Berg Quartet Farewell Concert, Queen Elizabeth Hall / Schubert String Quintet in C
“…cellist Heinrich Schiff joined them for the String Quintet in C. Many have argued that this is the definitive lineup for the work: very few performances, I suspect, have articulated what George Steiner called its "griefs and ceremonies" with quite such force as we experienced on this occasion. Calm became tragedy in a flash. Schiff, taking the first cello part, consequently became the effective outsider in the Andante, his reiterated pizzicatos underscoring the phrases of his colleagues with intimations of both obsession and consolation. This was a tremendous interpretation…”
The Guardian, June 2008

National Symphony / Minczuk / Shostakovich Cello Concerto No.1
"… for its concert last night at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, the NSO brought in Heinrich Schiff, one of the few cellists who can stand comparison with Slava... from the opening bars of the concerto, he showed truly impressive command of and feeling for this music. Schiff made the brusque four-note motif that opens the concerto incisive and driving, launching a first movement filled with rich detail yet charged with momentum...the slower melodies of the Moderato blossomed with unfussy poise in Schiff's hands, and during the long solo cadenza, he made the silences around his soft pizzicato notes as dramatic as his most fevered virtuoso flourishes..."
The Washington Post, November 2007

Recital, St George’s Bristol / Bach Cello Suites
“While [Schiff’s] virtuosity was most apparent in the preludes and the final gigues, for Schiff the emotional core of the Suites resided in the Sarabandes. He delivered them with grace and composure, radiating their purity, particularly heartfelt in his encore of the Sarabande from Suite No 3 in C minor.
The intimacy and immediacy of these suites was intense, but Schiff's demeanour was one of great humility, concerned only to suggest that Bach's is the music of the spheres.”
The Guardian, July 2007

Hallé Orchestra / Rory Macdonald conducts Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 2 / Schiff conducts Brahms Symphony No.2
“Heinrich Schiff was the soloist in Shostakovich’s enigmatic Second Cello Concerto. Playing with a delicious, resonant tone throughout, Schiff dominated with some wonderful Cadenze playing … the beauty of this performance was all in the detail. Fanfare from the two horns and the brooding melancholy that underpinned all the work, added to Schiff’s sheer presence, made this performance a rewarding one. Schiff himself finally took up the baton for the second half …Pure lyricism throughout, yearning cellos, a delightful, pastoral Intermezzo and a boisterous finale gave to Schiff as much success as conductor as he had as soloist.”
Musical Opinion, January 2007

EMI Schubert String Quintet Recording with Alban Berg Quartet
"Confined to only one recording, my vote would go to the Alan Berg Quartet with Heinrich Schiff; a performance that reconciles romantic expressiveness with a classical sense of architecture. As ever, the Alan Berg are ultra-scrupulous in their balancing of voices and their adherence to Schubert’s markings. The famous theme in the first movement is truly pianissimo, with the first violin flickering like a will o’ the wisp above the dulcet cellos. The adagio is as ethereal as Schubert can have envisaged, the scherzo is magnificently rugged, while the finale’s hazy floating episodes have never sounded more magical."
The Daily Telegraph, September 2005