“Julius Asal’s piano playing immediately astonished me. I don’t know how he found his uniquely sonorous sound. The instrument seemed to tell him a secret.”
MENAHEM PRESSLER
German pianist Julius Asal grew up as the eldest son in a family of musicians in the Taunus mountains near Frankfurt. His first encounters with the piano happened before he began to speak, and even as a toddler he improvised fluently and taught himself to play by ear. Only years later did he receive formal lessons, studying at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin and the Kronberg Academy. Today, a laureate of numerous competitions, Asal is a regular guest at international festivals and prestigious concert halls, performing at venues such as London’s Wigmore Hall, the Vienna Musikverein, Laeiszhalle Hamburg and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. In recent years, his artistry has been significantly influenced by his mentors Eldar Nebolsin and Sir András Schiff, and he has also drawn inspiration from such musicians as Alfred Brendel, Gidon Kremer and Menahem Pressler.
In spring 2022, Julius Asal’s debut album, featuring works by Prokofiev and the pianist’s own arrangements from the ballet Romeo and Juliet, was released to international acclaim by the Spanish label IBS Classical. In 2023, Asal signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. His debut DG album, Scriabin – Scarlatti, is released in all formats on 3 May 2024. The recording presents Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, Op. 6, a selection of the same composer’s early preludes and one of his Etudes, Op. 8, as well as six works by Domenico Scarlatti, including the Sonata in F minor, K.466 and the Sonata in B flat major, K.544.
His gift for improvisation, based on the fact that the language of the piano was the first he learned to speak, remains with him to this day, sometimes surfacing in his live performances. In October 2023, for example, he stepped in at a few hours’ notice to appear at a DG Yellow Lounge event, presenting an innovative set that wove together classical pieces and improvisations. After his French debut, in Toulouse, Le Monde hailed the “captivating strangeness” of his playing and programme selection in a review headed “The hidden and beautiful alliances of Julius Asal.”
4/2024