Christian Münch

Klaviervariationen

Christian Münch (b. 1951) learnt to play the trumpet, organ, piano and clarinet as a child, before taking up composition studies at the University of Music in Dresden in 1971. From 1983 until 1985 he was a masterclass student with Georg Katzer at the Berlin Academy of Arts, focussing on electroacoustic music. As a conductor he worked with many leading contemporary music ensembles in East Germany, as well as at the Dresden Semperoper and the Berlin State Opera. He taught in Dresden from 1976, becoming an honorary professor in 2002. His Piano Variations were written in 1980. Throughout its long and eventful history, Edition Peters has consistently sought to support contemporary music, making it accessible in high-quality scores. The years in which Germany, and the publishing house itself, were divided between East and West form an important chapter in the company's story. The output of composers from the East German firm - then known as VEB Edition Peters, Leipzig - forms a unique and valuable part of the company's identity and, more widely, of European cultural history. Their works are compositionally and aesthetically diverse, while sharing a communicative creative drive. The artistic independence of the music created in East Germany between 1949 and 1990 makes this repertoire well worth rediscovering.