BIOGRAPHY
Herbert Schuch is a pianist who not only makes music sound, but also makes it speak. Throughout his impressive career, he has remained faithful to his credo that music is a language and a form of dialogue. For over twenty years, he has enriched the international piano scene with his meticulously crafted concert and recording programmes.
Schuch was born in Banat, Romania, in 1979 and grew up as a member of the German-speaking minority. In 1988, his family emigrated to Germany, which he perceived as a return to familiar surroundings. He began his studies at the Mozarteum University Salzburg with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling at the age of 12, and later Alfred Brendel became a formative mentor.
His repertoire is unusually broad in terms of both style and content. As well as the standard works by composers such as Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven and Schumann, it encompasses works by contemporary composers and influences from the Middle East. He often develops his concert programmes through creative collaborations with musicians such as the pianist Gülru Ensari, with whom he has released numerous recordings, as well as the clarinettist Sebastian Manz, the cellist Daniel Müller-Schott and the Franui Music Ensemble.
His discography now comprises over 20 albums, including award-winning recordings of rarely heard piano concertos by Erwin Schulhoff and Viktor Ullmann with the WDR Symphony Orchestra. In 2022, he released four new albums, highlighting his artistic versatility. His most recent release is a recording of Johannes Brahms' two piano concertos with the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Tung-Chieh Chuang. The album was released by the French label Naive, with which Schuch has an exclusive contract.
Schuch's artistic curiosity is reflected in his performances at some of the world's most prestigious concert halls – from the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the Vienna Konzerthaus to the Kennedy Center in Washington. He has performed with renowned orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic and the Camerata Salzburg, as well as with distinguished conductors including Pierre Boulez, Kent Nagano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Markus Poschner. His passion for chamber music has led him to collaborate regularly with musicians such as Julia Fischer, Nicolas Altstaedt and Maximilian Hornung.
A notable fixture in Schuch's artistic calendar is his own concert series in Neubeuern, an enchanting village with views of the Bavarian Alps. Here he has created a platform for musical encounters, facilitating an intense dialogue between artists and audience – entirely in keeping with his credo of making music speak.
In addition to his concert activities, Herbert Schuch is passionately committed to introducing classical music to young people – for example, through the initiative "Rhapsody in School" which was founded by Lars Vogt. Schuch has also been teaching his own class at the Hanover University of Music since October 2025.
For Herbert Schuch, the meaning of his musical endeavours lies in reaching people emotionally: “If even a single listener comes to me after a concert and tells me that they had tears in their eyes, or that the music evoked a fond memory, then I know that my work as a musician is meaningful, because music helps us to touch that what makes us human.”
Status: December 2025
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Herbert Schuch Reflecting Beethoven EPK
Herbert Schuch plays Bach/Bauer Die Seele ruht in Gottes Händen, BWV 127
Herbert Schuch plays Liszt Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude
Herbert Schuch plays Liszt Funerailles
Herbert Schuch plays Bach/Busoni Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland BWV 659
Herbert Schuch plays Schubert Wanderer-Fantasie
Herbert Schuch plays Janacek Piano Sonata
Brahms – The Piano Concertos
Together with the Bochumer Symphoniker under the direction of Tung-Chieh Chuang, Herbert Schuch presents an extraordinary live recording of the two piano concertos by Johannes Brahms. He complements these concertos with songs, piano pieces, dances and waltzes by Brahms – some of them together with his duo partner Gülru Ensari.
Label: Naïve
EAN: 3700187684501
Release: 28/02/2025
Herbert Schuch & Gülru Ensari – Eternity
Ten years after his captivating recording "Invocation" from 2014, the excellent pianist Herbert Schuch, born in 1979, returns to the naïve label and presents the new album "Eternity" together with his duo partner and wife Gülru Ensari.
As in their previous collaborations with SWR, they present works for four hands and two pianos in their program. One of Schubert's late masterpieces, the Fantasia in F minor, is paired here with the variations that Brahms composed on a theme by Schumann. Three excerpts from Messiaen's monumental cycle "Visions de l'Amen", composed in 1943 for two pianos, serve as grandiose and contemplative interludes, but also as an introduction to Beethoven's Great Fugue
Label: Naïve
EAN: 3700187683191
Release: 22/03/2024
Herbert Schuch - Berlin 1923
Ludwig van Beethoven: Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 C-Dur op. 15; 1. Satz aus Klavierkonzert Nr. 1 op. 15 (Kadenz: Erwin Schulhoff)
Erwin Schulhoff: Klavierkonzert Nr. 2 op. 43
Label: CAvi
EAN: 4260085535392
Release: 01/12/2023
SOULMATES - Schubert/Janáček
Herbert Schuch is known for building bridges between two composers. After his first project "Bagatelles" and the follow-up "Reflecting Beethoven," he presents piano music for discussion that bears a certain spiritual resemblance between Franz Schubert and Leoš Janáček.
Herbert Schuch is now considered one of Germany's leading pianists, who repeatedly presents his own concepts and projects in concert and in the studio.
"Actually, the idea for this album, namely to relate music by Franz Schubert and Leoš Janáček, came about in a kind of dream world between waking and sleeping. I had lain down - and thought of these two composers."
Label: CAvi
EAN: 4260085535156
Release: 21/10/2022
EDVARD GRIEG - Music for Cello
Edvard Grieg - to this day the best-known composer from the Scandinavian peninsula - contributed to the common chamber music canon more with his violin sonatas than with his works for cello: from his pen comes only one sonata for cello, in the instrumentation for cello and piano, Op. 36
Daniel Müller-Schott, who has already demonstrated his skill and flair for transcriptions in previous recordings, places this cello sonata alongside the transcription of the violin sonata No. 3 in C minor, Op. 45, on his 20th album for the Orfeo label. Accompanied on the piano by his longtime duo partner Herbert Schuch, the short Intermezzo in A minor (EG 115) leads into the second part of the album, in which the duo presents selected songs of various characters in transcription for cello and piano.
Label: ORFEO
EAN: 4011790240015
Release: 02/09/2022
Sebastian Manz & Herbert Schuch – Brahms, Schumann, Gade
On his latest album "Brahms, Schumann, Gade" clarinet virtuoso Sebastian Manz devotes himself to three absolute opera magna of the clarinet repertoire. The focus on the chamber music core repertoire makes this album project clearly stand out from the artist's previous discography Discography of the artist. Without distractions or programmatic embellishments, Sebastian Manz completely serves the artistic content of these timeless masterpieces in this album.
Label: Berlin Classics
Release: 13/05/2022
IN SEARCH OF
Johannes Brahms: Ungarische Tänze Nr. 1, 2, 4, 6, 11 für Klavier 4-händig
Antonin Dvorak: Slawische Tänze op. 72 Nr. 1, 2, 5, 7 für Klavier 4-händig
Peter Tschaikowsky / Nicolas Economou: Nussknacker-Suite op. 71a für 2 Klaviere
Oguzhan Balci: Sarmal für Klavier 4-händig
Label: CAvi
EAN: 4260085532148
Release: 18/02/2022