michael wollny brings jazzambach 2027 to a special close: as part of his solo tour winterreise, germany’s most internationally successful jazz pianist stops in götzis for what is currently his only austrian date. for wollny, whose musical projects usually grow out of playing with other musicians, the solo format offers a rare look inward. we are all the more delighted that winterreise is coming to jazzambach.

mondenkind, nachtfahrten, ghosts – michael wollny’s albums and programmes repeatedly open up atmospheric, almost cinematic spaces. his new solo programme winterreise draws on moods and motifs from franz schubert’s song cycle of the same name, centred on a first-person narrator wandering through solitude. as so often with wollny, however, the musical source is the starting point for stories of his own, whose turns are decided only in the act of playing.

schubert meets the seemingly inexhaustible store of ideas and inspirations on which michael wollny has always drawn. these include romantic classical music, jazz and contemporary music, as well as influences from far beyond. in winterreise, schubert’s motifs and moods become the starting point for musical narratives that find their direction as they are played. the result is a personal, darkly romantic journey full of surprising and moving moments: a journey into the soul at the piano.

this boundless curiosity shapes all of michael wollny’s artistic work. from an early age, he explored classical music and improvisation with equal interest. his musical path later led to formative encounters with artists including heinz sauer, joachim kühn, nils landgren, vincent peirani, gary peacock and many others. his trio and the 2014 album weltentraum attracted attention far beyond the jazz scene; today, he performs regularly on major international festival and concert stages.

at the same time, michael wollny remains reluctant to confine himself to any one musical field. he finds inspiration in schubert and mahler as readily as in björk and kraftwerk, japanese horror films, literature and natural phenomena. from these influences, he creates music that takes up the familiar and continually shapes it into something of his own.

at the end of five festival days, the stage belongs to michael wollny alone. one grand piano, an extraordinary improviser and winterreise as the starting point for an evening whose musical course emerges in the moment – a special finale to jazzambach 2027.

http://michaelwollny.com/