Sebastian Knauer: Leading new audiences to classical music

TEXT: CORNELIA BRELOWSKI

Hamburg-born pianist Sebastian Knauer continuously finds new ways to approach classical music and strives to present the result to untapped audiences – with verve and success.

Parallel to being a classical solo artist, Sebastian Knauer has long set out to be an ensemble player too, forming multiple collaborations with prominent artists from other genres resulting in formats like Klassik Meets Pop, Words and Music events with stage icons such as Hannelore Elsner and Martina Gedeck, as well as the 4 Pianists, currently celebrating their 10th jubilee tour. We want to know how it all started and what keeps the pianist on his toes, always with new ideas in the pipeline.

Photo: Gregor Hohenberg

At the age of 4, Sebastian Knauer announced that he wanted to be a pianist. While others dreamed of driving fire engines or becoming pilots, he had already glimpsed his north star and set out to reach it – with hours and hours of daily practice. We wonder, what does it take to become and stay recognised within the tough and small crowd of leading solo pianists?

“I’m by no means a Wunderkind,” he says. “I may have brought some talent into the game and we did have a piano in our family home – due to the fact that my mother was interested in music and gave piano lessons. I guess I merely decided to become a pianist, not knowing what it would entail, and simply started practising and attending competitions at an early stage. Nevertheless, I enjoyed a pretty normal childhood, played hockey with enthusiasm and had a healthy circle of friends. Yes, there may have been the odd teenage year when I practised less, but the competitions I took part in immediately showed the results of such lulls, leaving me even more determined to win next time around! Classical piano playing is like extreme sports: you need to stay on the ball and keep up the daily practice, no matter what.”

Photo: Kristian Sickinger

Given that Sebastian Knauer is just back from the Schleswig Holstein Music Festival where he performed together with Revolverheld lead singer Johannes Strate and will be on stage in Berlin within two days of this interview with the 4 Pianists jubilee tour – we are wondering what it takes to reboot inbetween engagements? “Right now I have a few days in Hamburg, the place where I was born, grew up in and where my family lives. I recharge through spending time at my studio during the day – practising and organising – and going home for a family dinner at night. It really is as simple as that.”

Martina Gedeck, Sebastian Knauer and Hannelore Elsner. Photo: Bernd Schröder

The studio is also the place where Sebastian Knauer plans his multiple collaborations with fellow artists. Though thriving as a solo pianist with renowned conductors and composers all through his career, he stays true to his early teacher’s advice to always collaborate and play in ensembles as well, to broaden both his perception of fellow artists and to gain experience: “I’ve worked alongside other artists from an early age, when I accompanied them on the piano during competition runs. But I’ve also always cherished my solo projects, especially those with (composer) Arash Safaian, who rethought both Bach and Beethoven with our ÜberBach and This is (not) Beethoven projects. Both reached huge audiences, especially the minimalist piece Adagietto from 2020, the Beethoven year that never got celebrated because of the pandemic.”

Sebastian Knauer and Johannes Strate. Photo: Gregor Hohenberg

Adagietto has indeed reaped close to 30 million clicks by now and quickly became a streaming hit of the neoclassic genre. Feeling at home alone on stage as well as with others has become a secret source for Sebastian Knauer. Today, he alternates between rewarding solo projects like his Hollywood album – a project with composers Thomas and David Newman, whose father Alfred was the famous music director of 20th Century Fox and together highest Oscar winners in Hollywood – to word and music-formats such as A Winter in Majorca with renowned actresses, through to the 4 Pianists and Klassik Meets Pop formats. The latter will go on tour again in January, and we want to know how the two unlikely comrades Sebastian Knauer and Johannes Strate initially met? “Oh, that’s a funny story,” Knauer explains. “We actually met as neighbours, literally while putting out the trash. His name rang a bell as I was familiar with quite a few Revolverheld songs – but we still have this bit going where Johannes claims that he had never heard of me before! We talked more, became friends and then, when the pandemic hit and made studio dwellers of all of us, we hashed out a format that would combine his solo songs and my music. We even had a small pandemic concert in Hamburg, where everyone had to stand at a distance of three feet. Times well remembered.”

Photo: David Newman

What makes the specific sound of Klassik Meets Pop, starting again with a new tour in January 2027? Knauer says: “While Johannes brings in the songs he would like to present, I work on the piano parts and especially the transitions to the classical pieces – in a way that you sometimes don’t know which genre you’re in at certain moments! And, truth be told, we had a lot of help from arranger Fabian Richter. There’s an EP available with slightly polished versions of our live gigs. However, since nowadays everyone either goes to live events or streams them, we prefer to keep this format live on stage.”

Sebastian Knauer and Katja Riemann. Photo: Bernd Schröder

Before the tour with Johannes Strate, the staged A Winter in Majorca Words and Music events will be rekindled in December, in collaboration with actress Martina Gedeck. The texts are based on George Sands’ autobiographical travelogue of the same name, published in 1842. What brought on this specific idea of a recitation and music format? “Sands was known to have already staged events combining recitations and Frédéric Chopin’s musical compositions already during her lifetime, in her famous salons,” explains Knauer. “After Chopin’s death, some of the content of the hugely successful book was somewhat rectified. Sands admitted that said winter, while inspiring Chopin to compose some of his best pieces, was also cold, damp and perpetually tainted by Chopin’s illness as well as the unfriendly demeanour by their Majorcan hosts. I have worked on this unique format of recitation and concert for decades, for example with Hannelore Elsner, who sadly passed so prematurely. She had been my first choice from the start, and I only won her over by asking, and asking again. We ended up working together for 20 years!”

Photo: Christian Stoll

And if he could choose, we wonder, between solo and ensemble or collaborative projects, what would it be? “That’s a tough one. If I had to choose, maybe for the sole reason of being of a more independent nature, I think it would be a solo project. However, I’m always striving to bring untapped audiences in touch with classical repertoires, and this is sometimes easier via involving other people and genres. And I simply love working and connecting with other artists.”