Hansheinz Schneeberger

Swiss violinist Hansheinz Schneeberger was born on 16 October 1926 in Bern. He studied in Bern with Walter Kägi, in Lucerne with Carl Flesch and in Paris with Boris Kamensky. From 1959 he played a 1731 Stradivari violin.

Schneeberger was concertmaster of the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg. He also gave concerts as a soloist and with his own string quartet. Notably, he gave the first performances of Frank Martin's Violin Concerto (1952),  Béla Bartók's Violin Concerto No 1 (1958) and Klaus Huber's Tempora (1970).

With guitarist Rudolf Wangler he founded, toured the former Soviet Union and recorded with Duo Paganini, to great success. He also performed in Austria, Canada, Poland and the USA. In 1987 he made stylistically and expressively distinguished recordings of the six J S Bach unaccompanied violin sonatas and partitas.

He also taught at the conservatories in Biel and Bern, at the Basel Academy of Music and gave masterclasses in Japan.

Hansheinz Schneeberger died on 23 October 2019, aged ninety-three.