Daniel Hope at Savannah Music Festival, March 22-April 7
For his ninth season as a performer and his eighth as Associate Artistic Director at the Savannah Music Festival (March 22-April 7), Daniel Hope has curated an extraordinary array of concerts that make up the classical portion of Georgia’s largest cross-genre musical arts festival. As a violinist, Hope will make nine appearances during the 2012 Savannah Music Festival (SMF), primarily as part of the Daniel Hope & Friends series, presented in the dramatic Rotunda of Savannah’s Telfair Academy. Highlights include Hope’s recital of the complete Brahms violin sonatas with Sebastian Knauer; an evening with old friend and Beaux Arts Trio colleague Menahem Pressler; three performances with keyboard star Kristian Bezuidenhout and the period chamber orchestra l’arte del mondo (which makes its U.S. premiere at SMF 2012); and two ensemble evenings with violinist Lorenza Borrani (concertmaster of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe) and others. When he’s not performing, Hope will oversee the balance of the festival’s classical programming. This year’s classical lineup welcomes, among others, the Takács Quartet, the Emerson Quartet, pianist Yefim Bronfman with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and the trio of David Finckel, Wu Han, and Philip Setzer. After a recent contract renewal with the festival, Hope’s work as Associate Artistic Director will continue at least until 2015, marking his tenth year in the position. Other artists performing at this year’s SMF include Chris Thile, Edgar Meyer, Pace de Lucia, Marcus Roberts, Zakir Hussain and Lyle Lovett.
For two weeks each spring, the Savannah Music Festival fills Georgia’s most beautiful city with a celebration of the musical arts. Its programs explore a range of styles: From jazz to world, classical to Americana, the festival reflects this vibrant southern city and the myriad of people who make up its diverse, colorful culture. In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, Hope remarked, “Savannah’s hallmark is its cultural diversity, and on any given day our programs range from, say, the Baroque to Brahms to Edgar Meyer, from Fauré to Portuguese Fado, from Béla Fleck to Chris Thile. It’s a celebration of music in all its many forms.”
Hope makes his first SMF 2012 appearance on March 24 in Daniel Hope & Friends: Menahem & Dvořák, which reunites Hope with one of his most beloved musical partners, pianist Menahem Pressler, founder of one of the chamber music world’s most legendary groups, the Beaux Arts Trio (with which Hope played for the ensemble’s final six years). Other SMF veteran players round out the roster for this all-Dvorák program.
One of SMF’s 2012 undeniable highlights will be Hope’s March 25 program, The Brahms Violin Sonatas: Daniel Hope & Sebastian Knauer. Musical colleagues who have regularly worked together for almost 20 years, the violinist and pianist tackle all three Brahms violin sonatas in a concert marking Hope’s first SMF recital in a number of years.
A few days later, on March 28, Hope joins violinist Benny Kim, violists Philip Dukes and Carla Maria Rodrigues, and cellists Josephine Knight and Keith Robinson for Daniel Hope & Friends: From Russia with Love. The evening offers a taste of 19th-century Russian music — one of the nation’s most glorious eras — through fascinating works by three master Russian composers: Tchaikovsky, Arensky and Borodin. Chamber Orchestra of Europe concertmaster Lorenza Borrani returns to SMF for the fourth consecutive year to join Hope and others for the series’ next two concerts. German String Masterpieces on March 31 begins with a pair of string quintets — by Mendelssohn and Beethoven respectively – and finishes with Richard Strauss’s Sextet for Strings. The April 1 program, Lorenza Borrani, Simon Crawford-Phillips & Carla Marla Rodrigues, offers works by Schumann and Brahms. Hope presides over French Soirée on April 3, an evening illustrating how masterfully constructed, complex, and expressive works by composers such as Ravel, Fauré, and Franck helped restore France’s high standing in the European instrumental music world.
Hope makes his final SMF 2012 appearances during three concerts with the German period-instrument chamber orchestra l’arte del mondo, which will be making its U.S. debut at the festival. Founded in 2004 by conductor/violinist Werner Ehrhardt, the ensemble specializes primarily in early, Baroque, and classical repertoire, and is dedicated to “the creation, development, and execution of music projects that bring cultures, artistic forms of expression, and eras together.” Program I, on April 4, features works by Mozart, Telemann, Bach and Vivaldi. The next day, Program II explores two more works by Vivaldi and concertos by Telemann, Durante and Bach. For Program III on April 6, Hope performs Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins and Strings in D minor with l’arte del mondo’s Andrea Keller. The evening also presents two works by Mozart, as well as a movement from a rarely heard work by Prussian King Frederick the Great, about whom Hope recently made a film for the ARTE TV Channel, featuring German conductor Christian Thielemann and l’arte del mondo fortepianist Kristian Bezuidenhout (who makes three appearances during the SMF).
Daniel Hope in performance at the Savannah Music Festival
March 24: Daniel Hope and Friends: Menahem & Dvořák
Telfair Academy
Dvořák: Piano Quintet A Major, Op. 81
Dvořák: Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor, Op. 90, “Dumky”
Dvořák: Terzetto for Two Violins and Viola in C major, Op. 74
Daniel Hope, violin
Benny Kim, violin
Josephine Knight, cello
Menahem Pressler, piano
Carla Maria Rodrigues, viola
March 25: The Brahms Violin Sonatas: Daniel Hope & Sebastian Kanuer
Telfair Academy
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 100
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108
Brahms: Scherzo in C minor from the FAE Sonata
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78
Daniel Hope, violin
Sebastian Knauer, piano
March 28: Daniel Hope & Friends: From Russia with Love
Telfair Academy
Tchaikovsky: String Sextet in D minor, Op. 70, “Souvenir de Florence”
Arensky: String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, Op. 35
Borodin: String Sextet in D minor, Op. Posthumous
Philip Dukes, viola
Daniel Hope, violin
Benny Kim, violin
Josephine Knight, cello
Keith Robinson, cello
Carla Maria Rodrigues, viola
March 31: Daniel Hope & Friends: German String Masterpieces
Telfair Academy
Mendelssohn String Quintet No. 2 in B-flat, Op. 87
Beethoven String Quintet in C Major, Op. 29
Richard Strauss Sextet from Capriccio
Lorenza Borrani, violin
Jonathan Cohen, cello
Philip Dukes, viola
Daniel Hope, violin
Benny Kim, violin
Keith Robinson, cello
Carla Maria Rodrigues, viola
April 1: Daniel Hope & Friends: Lorenza Borrani, Simon Crawford-Phillips, & CarlaMaria Rodrigues
Telfair Academy
Schumann Sonata No. 2 in D minor, Op. 121
Brahms Viola Sonata No. 2 in E-flat major, Op. 120
Schumann Märchenerzählungen Op. 132 for violin, viola and piano
Brahms Horn Trio in E-flat Major, Op. 40 for violin, viola and piano
Lorenza Borrani, violin
Daniel Hope, violin
Simon Crawford-Phillips, piano
Carla Maria Rodrigues, viola
April 3: Daniel Hope & Friends: French Soirée
Telfair Academy
Ravel Sonata No. 1 in A minor for Violin and Piano
Fauré Piano Quartet in C minor, Op.15
Fauré Élégie for Cello and Piano
Franck Piano Quintet in F minor
Simon Crawford-Phillips, piano
Daniel Hope, violin
Benny Kim, violin
Keith Robinson, cello
Carla Maria Rodrigues, viola
April 4: Daniel Hope and l’arte del mondo, Program I
Telfair Academy
Mozart Divertimento in D major, KV 136
Telemann Concerto for Two Violas in G major, TWV 52
Bach Concerto in D minor for Two Violins and Strings, BWV 1043
Mozart Diverimento in F Major, KV 138
Vivaldi Concerto in G minor, RV 315, “Summer,” from The Four Seasons
Vivaldi Concerto in F minor, RV 297, “Winter,” from The Four Seasons
Daniel Hope, violin
Andrea Keller, violin (BWV 1043)
Corina Golomoz, viola (Telemann)
Joseph McRae Ballantyne, viola (Telemann)
L’arte del mondo
Werner Ehrhardt, concertmaster & artistic director
April 5: Daniel Hope and l’arte del mondo, Program II
Telfair Academy
Vivaldi Overture to “L’Olimpiade” RV 725
Telemann Concerto in A minor for Violin and Strings
Vivaldi Concerto in A minor for two Violins and Strings RV 523
Durante Concerto a Quattro No. 1 in F minor
Bach Concerto for Violin and Strings in A minor, BWV 1041
Daniel Hope, violin
Andrea Keller, violin (BWV 1043)
L’arte del mondo
Werner Ehrhardt, concertmaster & artistic director
April 6: Music at 11: Daniel Hope and l’arte del mondo, Program III
Telfair Academy
Mozart Divertimento in D Major, KV 136
Bach Concerto for two Violins and Strings in D minor, BWV 1043
Frederick the Great: from Concerto No. 1 in G major: Allegro
Mozart Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 12 in A major, KV 414
Daniel Hope, violin
Kristian Bezuidenhout, pianoforte
Andrea Keller, violin (BWV 1043)
L’arte del mondo
Werner Ehrhardt, concertmaster & artistic Director
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