Julius Asal
Biography Julius Asal
Julius Asal
"Julius Asal's piano playing immediately amazed me. It is a mystery to me how he was able to find his uniquely sonorous sound. The instrument seemed to tell him a secret."
MENAHEM PRESSLER
The German pianist Julius Asal grew up as the eldest son of a family of musicians in the Taunus near Frankfurt am Main. He first came into contact with the piano before he could even speak. As a small child he improvised freely and played what he heard on the instrument autodidactically. It was only years later that he received his first lessons and later studied at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin and the Kronberg Academy.
Today the prizewinner of numerous competitions is a regular guest at international festivals and renowned concert halls, which has taken him to the Wigmore Hall in London, the Vienna Musikverein, the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg and the Suntory Hall in Tokyo. In recent years, Asal has been particularly influenced by his collaboration with his mentors Eldar Nebolsin and Sir András Schiff. He has also received artistic inspiration from musicians such as Alfred Brendel, Gidon Kremer and Menahem Pressler.
In spring 2022, Julius Asal's debut album was released on the Spanish label IBS Classical with works by Sergei Prokofiev and his own arrangements from the ballet Romeo and Juliet, which received international recognition. In 2023, Asal signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. His debut with DG, Scriabin - Scarlatti, will be released on May 3, 2024. The album interweaves Scriabin's Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, op. 6, his early preludes and one of his etudes from op. 8 with six sonatas by Scarlatti, including the melancholic Piano Sonata in F minor, K 466, and the yearning Piano Sonata in B flat major, K 544.
Improvisation and the resulting almost native approach to the piano have remained with him to this day and are sometimes evident in his concerts; for example in October 2023 at Deutsche Grammophon's Yellow Lounge, where the pianist stepped in within a few hours with an innovative concept that combined classical works with improvisations. The French newspaper Le Monde described his interpretations and the compilation of his programs as "captivating strangeness" and titled "The secret and subtle alliances of Julius Asal".
