Ronald Brautigam secured an international reputation through performances on both the modern piano and the fortepiano, earning particular praise for his historically informed accounts of Mozart and Beethoven. He has appeared with leading orchestras on both modern and period instruments across the globe and maintains an extensive discography that has received numerous awards. In 2024 he accompanied cellist Christian Poltéra in a recording of works by Brahms and Schumann.
Born in Amsterdam on October 1, 1954, Brautigam first trained with pianist Jan Wijn, then continued his studies in the United Kingdom and the United States under Rudolf Serkin. His breakthrough arrived in 1984 with the Netherlands Music Prize, the country’s highest musical distinction, after which he performed widely as recitalist and concerto soloist throughout Europe as well as in the United States, Hong Kong, and Australia. Among the orchestras with which he has appeared are the Royal Concertgebouw, the BBC Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic, and the Sydney Symphony. Conductors he has worked with include Simon Rattle, Christopher Hogwood, and Riccardo Chailly. On the fortepiano he has collaborated with such period-instrument ensembles as Tafelmusik, the Freiburger Barockorchester, and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. An active chamber musician, he has performed four-hand repertoire with Melvyn Tan and has partnered with Isabelle van Keulen, Nobuko Imai, and Sharon Bezaly.
Brautigam began making records in the 1980s after signing with Decca. His move to BIS in 1995 brought a marked increase in activity and a growing list of honors. He has issued the complete keyboard works of Mozart and the complete solo keyboard output of Haydn, Joseph Martin Kraus, and Beethoven, all performed on the fortepiano. In 2005 he gave the world premiere of an Adagio from a piano-and-orchestra concerto that Beethoven composed in 1789, appearing with the Rotterdam Chamber Orchestra conducted by Conrad van Alphen; he has also prepared an edition of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto in F flat major, WoO 4.
A partnership with Michael Alexander Willens and the Kölner Akademie began in 2009 and produced the complete Beethoven concertos on fortepiano. The same forces returned in 2019 to record Mendelssohn’s piano concertos. Brautigam has remained active through the 2020s, frequently releasing multiple albums each year; among these were two volumes devoted to the piano concertos of Johann Wilhelm Wilms in 2022. In 2024 he again joined Christian Poltéra for the album Brahms: Cello Sonatas; Schumann: Fünf Stücke im Volkston and also recorded Schubert’s sonatas D 959 and 960. His recordings have received several Edison Awards, a Diapason d’Or de l’année, two MIDEM Classical Awards, and the Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Brautigam holds a professorship at the Musikhochschule Basel.
