Christian Poltéra was born in Zürich. After receiving tuition from Nancy Chumachenco and Boris Pergamenschikow, he studied with Heinrich Schiff in Salzburg and Vienna.
As a soloist he works with eminent orchestras including the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, Orchestre de Paris, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and Chamber Orchestra of Europe under such conductors as Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Chailly, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Andris Nelsons and Sir John Eliot Gardiner.
He also devotes himself intensively to chamber music together with such musicians as Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, Leif Ove Andsnes, Mitsuko Uchida, Lars Vogt, Kathryn Stott, Esther Hoppe and Ronald Brautigam, and with the Auryn and Zehetmair Quartets. Together with Frank Peter Zimmermann and Antoine Tamestit, Christian Poltéra has formed a string trio, the Trio Zimmermann, which performs at most prestigious concert venues and festivals all over Europe.
In 2004 he received the Borletti-Buitoni Award and was selected as a BBC New Generation Artist.
He is a regular guest at renowned festivals (such as Salzburg, Lucerne, Berlin, Edinburgh and Vienna) and made his BBC Proms début in 2007. Christian Poltéra’s discography, which has won acclaim from the international press, reflects his varied repertoire that includes the concertos by Dvorak, Dutilleux, Lutoslawski, Walton, Hindemith and Barber as well as chamber music by Prokofiev, Fauré, Beethoven and Schubert.
Christian Poltéra teaches at the Lucerne University. He plays a Antonio Casini cello built in 1675 and the famous "Mara" Stradivari from 1711.

Neue CD
SACD
BIS BIS-2347
Stereo/Multichannel Hybrid
Classical - Chamber
Bach: Goldberg Variations
Trio Zimmermann:
Frank Peter Zimmermann (violin)
Antoine Tamestit (viola)
Christian Poltéra (cello)
Violin: A. Stradivarius, Cremona 1711, ‘Lady Inchiquin’; Viola: A. Stradivarius, 1672, ‘Mahler’; Cello: A. Stradivarius, 1711, 'Mara'
For close to 300 years Bach’s Goldberg Variations have awed performers as well as listeners, through an unparalleled combination of a dazzling variety of expression and breath-taking virtuosity with stupendous polyphonic mastery. No wonder then that other musicians than harpsichordists have wanted to make it their own – pianists, first and foremost, but also accordion players and guitarists, flautists and harpists.
Having performed and recorded much of the classical as well as the modern string trio repertoire, Trio Zimmermann began working on the Goldberg Variations several years ago, playing an existing arrangement. But in their own words, the three members – among the leading string players of our time – ‘soon became captivated by the original score and its innumerable beauties and details’. As a result they have jointly prepared a performing version which here receives its first recording. Playing an important part on this disc are also the Trio’s instruments – all by Antonio Stradivarius, and featured in close-up on the cover.

Schumann / Brahms
sonatas and songs
Christian Poltéra, cello
Kathryn Stott, piano
BIS Records
-
Clarinet sonatas & Trio
Pascal Moraguès, clarinet
Frank Braley, piano
Christian Poltéra, cello
IndéSENS 111
-
Works for Cello & Piano
Christian Poltéra, cello
Ronald Brautigam, piano
BIS -
Cello concerto, Piano concerto, Chamber concerto, Melodien
Christian Poltéra, cello
Joonas Ahonen, piano
BIT20 Ensemble
Baldur Brönnimann, conductor
BIS -
Goldberg Variations
Trio Zimmermann
Frank Peter Zimmermann
Antoine Tamestit
Christian Poltéra
BIS -
Lutoslawski Cellokonzert
Christian Poltéra, Violoncello
SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Heinrich Schiff, Dirigent
Live recording: SWR 2004
NEOS -
Shostakovich concerto No. 2
Martinů concerto No. 2
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Gilbert Varga
BIS -
Hindemith: Trios 1&2, Schoenberg: String Trio
Trio Zimmermann
Frank Peter Zimmermann
Antoine Tamestit
Christian Poltéra
BIS -
COMING SOON
Sonatas and Songs
Christian Poltéra
Kathryn Stott
BIS -
Dvořák concerto op.104
Martinů concerto no.1
Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin
Thomas Dausgaard
BIS -
William Walton concerto
Paul Hindemith concerto (1940)
São Paolo Symphony Orchestra
Frank Shipway
BIS -
Cello Concerto Op.22
Cello Sonata Op.6
Adagio for strings Op.11
Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra
Andrew Litton
Kathryn Stott, piano
BIS -
Dutilleux: Tout un monde lointain..
3 strophes sur le nom de SACHER
Lutoslawski: Cello Concerto
SACHER Variation
ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra
Jac van Steen
BIS -
Cello Concerto, Ballade, 8 Preludes
K.Stott, piano
Malmö Symphony Orchestra
T.Ollila-Hannikainen
BIS -
Cello Concerto u.a.
Christian Tetzlaff, violin
Kathryn Stott, piano
Malmö Symphony Orchestra
T.Ollila-Hannikainen
BIS
-
Cello Concerto op.61
Cello Sonata
Six Song transcriptions
Julius Drake, piano
Malmö Symphony Orchestra
T.Ollila
BIS -
Mozart: Divertimento Es-Dur
Schubert: Trio B-Dur
Trio Zimmermann
Frank Peter Zimmermann
Antoine Tamestit
Christian Poltéra
BIS -
String Trios op.9
Trio Zimmermann
Frank Peter Zimmermann
Antoine Tamestit
Christian Poltéra
BIS -
Streichtrios op.3, Serenade op.8
Trio Zimmermann
Frank Peter Zimmermann
Antoine Tamestit
Christian Poltéra
BIS -
Music for Cello & Piano
Christian Poltéra, cello
Kathryn Stott, piano
BIS -
String Quintets
Gringolts Quartet
Christian Poltéra, cello
BIS -
CHRISTIAN POLTERA plays
MARTIN-HONEGGER-SCHOECK
CELLO CONCERTOS
MALMÖ SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
TUOMAS HANNIKAINEN
BIS -
Cello Sonatas Nos 1 and 2, Piano Trio, Nocturne No.13
K.Stott, P.Mitchell
CHANDOS -
Cello Sonatas Nos. 1&2
Romance, The Swan, Prière
Kathryn Stott, piano
CHANDOS -
Triple Concerto
D. Hope, P. Dukes, Ch. Poltéra
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Sir Andrew Davis
Deutsche Grammophon -
Polina Leschenko-Martha Argerich
Christian Poltéra-Roby Lakatos
avanticlassic -
Cello Concerto op.35
Spectrum Concerts Berlin
NAXOS -
Saint-Saëns: Le Carnaval des Animaux mit Lars Vogt etc.
Live recording from Heimbach Chamber Music Festival
EMI CLASSICS -
Schubert: String quintet
Auryn Quartet
TACET -
Ernst Toch: Konzert für Violoncello und Kammerorchester Op. 35
Radio-Philharmonie Hannover des NDR
Heinrich Schiff
pan classics
- Bruch: Kol Nidrei op.47
Urtext Edition, paperbound
show less more
with marked and unmarked string part
Aside from his popular Violin Concerto no. 1, “Kol Nidrei” numbers among Max Bruch’s most famous compositions. The melancholy “Adagio after Hebrew melodies” was written in 1880 for the cellist Robert Hausmann. It treats two old Jewish songs whose extraordinary beauty proved deeply moving to the Protestant Bruch, by his own admission. The tenor cello sound is the ideal medium for the voice of a Jewish cantor, and thus to this day “Kol Nidrei” offers every cellist a wonderful opportunity to make the instrument “sing”. In this text, based on the first edition of 1881, “Kol Nidrei” appears for the first time in an Urtext edition substantiated by scholarly research, for which not just the musical sources, but also numerous letters and documents from the Max Bruch Archive were consulted. Christian Poltéra was able to be procured for the markings in the solo part.
10.00 €
incl. VAT, plus shipping costs
availableAmountAdd to basket
- Violin Sonata in A major Urtextausgabe, Fassung für Violoncello, broschiert mit bezeichneter und unbezeichneter Streich
Im Gegensatz zu anderen seiner Spätwerke wurde Francks 1886 komponierte Violinsonate (HN 293) von Anfang an bei Publikum und Kritik freundlich aufgenommen. Unter den zahlreichen Bearbeitungen hebt sich die im Januar 1888 erschienene klangschöne Fassung für Violoncello insofern hervor, als sie ausdrücklich von Franck autorisiert wurde. Der Cellist Jules Delsart, der im Dezember 1887 in Paris eine Aufführung der Sonate erlebt hatte, war so begeistert, dass er Franck um die Erlaubnis zur Transkription der Violinstimme für sein Instrument bat. Delsart hielt sich eng an das Original, ließ den Klavierpart unverändert und transponierte den Violinpart nur wo nötig und passend in die tiefere Lage.
show less more - Ravel: Sonate für Violine und Violoncello Urtextausgabe, broschiert mit einer bezeichneten und einer unbezeich
At the first performances of this sonata, composed between 1920 and 1922, even close friends of the composer were perturbed: Following the intoxicating sounds of La Valse, the smaller scoring and modern musical language of the sonata were a shock. Yet this pioneering work has now become a permanent fixture on the concert stage. To help the players, we are now presenting two performance scores in which the other instrument’s part is also given. Both parts are included in a marked and an unmarked version. The world-renowned musicians Christian Poltéra and Frank Peter Zimmermann provided the fingerings.
show less more
website
Eva Wagner, Managing Director
Telefon: +49(0)511 26 09 07 54
Mobil: +49(0)172 821 32 58
website
Luc Van Loocke
Populierenlaan 3/26
B-2020 Antwerp
Belgium
website
Jeroen Tersteeg
Avenue du Beau Séjour 34
B-1180 Brussels
T +32 2 372 3005