Dénes Várjon

Pianist Dénes Várjon has had an impressive career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teacher. A New York Times critic described him as "admired by musicians and industry professionals but... not well known among a broader audience in this country." Várjon has been a fixture at European summer festivals for some years. He has a substantial recording catalog that includes a complete set of Beethoven's violin sonatas, recorded in the early and middle 2020s with violinist <a href="spotify:artist:6ZDnLZicoCvV3R7Gj7SBxm">Antje Weithaas</a>.

Várjon was born in Budapest on February 23, 1968. He studied at Budapest's Franz Liszt Academy of Music, the flagship music school of Hungary, graduating in the tumultuous year of 1991. Among his teachers was composer <a href="spotify:artist:1ygboTdafDwlY7TUYEj37E">György Kurtág</a>; he also studied with Sándor Falvai and Ferenc Rados and was an ongoing participant in the master classes of pianist <a href="spotify:artist:24K6LTZFqBAvKsorwK0iXd">András Schiff</a>, both before and after Hungary's opening to the West. Várjon took home prizes, at first Hungarian (top prizes at the Leo Weiner Chamber Music Competition in Budapest and the Piano Competition of Hungarian Radio) and then abroad (the Geza Anda Competition in Zurich, Switzerland). He became a professor at his alma mater, winning several teaching prizes there. Unusually for international performing artists, Várjon has also been involved in music editorial work with the Urtext Editions project of Germany's G. Henle Verlag. He made his first recordings in the early '90s on several volumes of the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Naxos%22">Naxos</a> label's complete series of Mozart piano concertos.

Várjon is most commonly heard at summer festivals, appearing regularly at the Salzburger Festspiele in Austria, the Marlboro Music Festival in the U.S., the Ruhr Piano Festival in Germany, Scotland's Edinburgh Festival, annually at the Ittinger Konzerttage in Switzerland (organized by <a href="spotify:artist:24K6LTZFqBAvKsorwK0iXd">Schiff</a>), and more. He has appeared as a soloist with the <a href="spotify:artist:3LWi3bcHEo2dPoy0S79nIM">Vienna Chamber Orchestra</a>, the <a href="spotify:artist:77CaCn32H4mOMQA7UElzfF">Academy of St. Martin in the Fields</a>, the <a href="spotify:artist:3NWAQGxJunglZHmPy5Wzou">Camerata Salzburg</a>, and other groups, and one of his few American appearances was a recital at Carnegie Hall in New York. Perhaps most characteristic of his performing career are his chamber collaborations with, among others, his wife, Izabella Simon, with whom he has played four-hand piano music. His other chamber music partners have included cellist <a href="spotify:artist:3lqUltCfNNgeU38vDVBbI1">Steven Isserlis</a> (frequently), oboist <a href="spotify:artist:1td0Lqu4V2wiTnvmrHzDkW">Heinz Holliger</a>, and violinists <a href="spotify:artist:3Ka1nDpDzxDveEqUPzIeom">Joshua Bell</a> and <a href="spotify:artist:16XP6b4v1MdN8UYRBlgVKn">Leonidas Kavakos</a>. Várjon has recorded for the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Hungaroton%22">Hungaroton</a>, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Capriccio%22">Capriccio</a>, <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22ECM%22">ECM</a>, and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Naxos%22">Naxos</a> labels. In 2018, he joined <a href="spotify:artist:3lqUltCfNNgeU38vDVBbI1">Isserlis</a> for a recording of <a href="spotify:artist:7y97mc3bZRFXzT2szRM4L4">Chopin</a>'s Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65, and <a href="spotify:artist:2p0UyoPfYfI76PCStuXfOP">Schubert</a>'s Arpeggione Sonata, released on <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Hyperion%22">Hyperion</a>. He remained active during the COVID-19 pandemic, joining violinist <a href="spotify:artist:6ZDnLZicoCvV3R7Gj7SBxm">Weithass</a> for a complete series of Beethoven's violin sonatas; the final volume in that series appeared in 2024. By that time, his recording catalog comprised some 40 albums. ~ James Manheim, Rovi