Over the years, and in many corners of the world, Pierre Réach has acquired a reputation of an outstanding pianist who performs such spectacular works as Bach's ‘Goldberg Variations’, Liszt’s transcription of Berlioz's ‘Symphonie Fantastique’, Beethoven's ‘Hammerklavier’ sonata, and Charles-Valentin Alkan's sonata ‘Les quatre âges de la vie’. He is also recognised as a great pedagogue who has mastered the art of transmitting his knowledge and quest for emotion in music with his unique and characteristic enthusiasm.
In addition, he has also been an unflagging creator and organiser of artistic events for more than twenty years.
His first prize at the Olivier Messiaen international competition announced him to the public. Mr. Réach was also a prize winner of the Pozzoli competition in Italy, Maria Canals, and Jaen in Spain, and was awarded a medal at the Arthur Rubinstein competition in Israel. After many years as
student of Yvonne Lefébure and Yvonne Loriod at the Paris Conservatory, Pierre Réach perfected his interpretation skills from 1975 to 1982 with Maria Curcio in London, and he received regular advice from Arthur Rubinstein, Alexis Weissenberg, and Paul Badura-Skoda, for several years.
In his vast repertoire, which ranges from Bach to Olivier Messiaen, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Chopin, the works of Beethoven have always occupied a special place. For him nowadays, being able to play the 32 sonatas of this composer, with whom he has never ceased to engage with passion, represents a real achievement and a synthesis in a life of tenacious will, hard work, and ever higher demands for perfection.
Pierre Réach has given recitals and concerts with orchestra all over Europe, as well as in Japan (Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto), the United States, Israel, Russia (Moscow, Rostov, St-Petersburg), China (which he visits four times a year), and South Korea, with orchestras such as Orchestre Philharmonique and Orchestre national de Radio France, the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra, the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Seoul, the Hallé Orchestra in Manchester, the Richmond Symphony in Virginia, I Pomeriggi Musicali in Milan, Orquestra Simfònica de les Illes Balears, Banda Municipal de Barcelona, etc.
He has recorded several CDs, featuring works by Charles-Valentin Alkan, Bach, Mozart, Schubert , Beethoven , Olivier Messiaen, Jean Cras, Stravinsky, Mendelssohn, and Moussorgsky, among others.
Today, Pierre Réach is considered one of the finest interpreters of Bach's Goldberg Variations. He has an intimate relationship with this work and plays it regularly in concert. In January 2005, he was appointed Professor Honoris Causa of the Shanghai Conservatory.
His masterclasses in Europe, America and Asia are renowned.
He currently teaches piano and chamber music at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC).
One of his most memorable concerts, still remembered by most music lovers in France, was a recital that Pierre Réach gave on the terrace of the “Pic du Midi” observatory, at an altitude of 2,800 metres, for which the concert piano had to be delivered by helicopter. The recital was broadcast by the French television channel TF1. This established the Festival Piano aux Pyrénées which, a few years later, would become the Piano-Pic Festival (www.piano-pic.fr) in Bagnères deBigorre (Hautes-Pyrénées). Mr. Réach has also founded the Printemps Musical de Provins, the Piano Festival in Castelnaudary (France) and the Vila-Seca Music Festival in Spain. Pierre Réach is a Steinway Artist since 1982.
In March 2015, Pierre Réach was appointed ‘Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ by the French Ministry of Culture.