Daniel Hope performs “Air” at the Highline Ballroom on Monday
Intrepid violinist Daniel Hope continues to forge new ground, challenging audiences to take a fresh look at standard concert repertoire while also opening their eyes to less performed but equally exciting works. His last album – featuring Vivaldi concertos, a sonata, and an aria with Anne Sofie von Otter – was nominated for a 2010 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance. Now the new fruit of Hope’s exclusive relationship with Deutsche Grammophon, released in the U.S. on March 16, is a return to the Baroque alongside soloists from the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Hope’s Air. a baroque journey is a pan-European exploration of an adventurous era, taking in works by the rarely-heard Falconieri and Valente, dramatic gems by Westhoff and Marini, folk-accented dances from Matteis, Leclair, and Ortiz, full concertos by Telemann and Geminiani, and individual takes on such evergreens as Pachelbel’s Canon, the folk tune “Greensleeves”, and Bach’s sublime Air. To celebrate the release of Air, Hope will perform selections from the CD at New York’s Highline Ballroom on April 5.
The concert at the Highline Ballroom will mark the first time the program will be presented in the US; earlier in the year, Hope played his Air program in London, inaugurating the Elgar Room, the Royal Albert Hall’s new performance venue. The Guardian was on hand and described Hope’s “artistry of breathtaking vitality” and the way “a tenderness of extraordinary richness took hold of the room,” concluding that “this was a memorable evening’s music-making.”
Air. a baroque journey, released earlier this season in Europe, has already won over critics. BBC Music called the recording “a striking demonstration of the sheer variety and invention of Baroque violin composers.” And Gramophone was even more lavish in its praise, exclaiming:
“This is an exciting disc, with a heady, pied-piper power over the listener that comes from realizing that the bright sense of discovery once felt by these composers is being experienced just as much by their modern-day interpreters. You can’t ask for much more than that.”
The violinist has a dedicated web site for the album: www.hope-air.com.
Before his New York concert, Daniel Hope will be a guest on Performance Today, on Thursday, April 1*. Performance Today is American Public Media’s daily classical music program that is broadcast on public radio stations across the country. Hope will talk to Performance Today about an unusual and exciting new project coming up in the near future. The program will also be available for streaming on the show’s web site at http://performancetoday.publicradio.org/
*check program web site for broadcasting stations and times
April 5, 2010
New York, NY
The Highline Ballroom
431 West 16th Street
8pm (doors open at 6pm)
Selections from Air. a baroque journey
© 21C Media Group, March 2010