Daniel Hope Returns to U.S. for Feb 27 Concert at NYC’s Alice Tully Hall
Daniel Hope’s three-concert residency this season with the Chamber
Music Society of Lincoln Center (CMSLC) culminates on February 27 at the newly-reopened Alice
Tully Hall, with
the U.S. premiere
of a special project that he himself conceived. The
program,“War
and Pieces”,is a concert blendingmilitary-themed music with poetry
and texts about war and peace, including Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale in a new translation by Paul
Griffiths. Hope commissioned the
young German composer Jan Müller-Wieland to transcribe Beethoven’s Egmont Overture for the same jazz/cabaret-style
instrumentation as the Stravinsky work.
Beethoven’s overture is linked to a recitation of “Long Live War!”, a
monologue from Goethe’s Egmont, to be performed by Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer
(Mephisto, Out of Africa) who will also feature as narrator
of The Soldier’s Tale. Hope has worked with
Brandauer and other acclaimed actors – including Mia Farrow – on a number of
conceptual projects (“An Audience with Beethoven” and “Dietrich Bonhoeffer –
someone had to do something” among them), with the violinist placing live music
performance in the context of semi-staged, theatrical readings.
Following a performance of “War and Pieces” in Germany last
spring, the Wolfsburger Nachrichten reported:
“Armed with reason and emotion in
equal measure, they used music and text to create deep understanding while they
explored the limits and plumbed the depths of art. Brandauer and Hope demanded a lot from the audience in their
version of Stravinsky’s Histore du Soldat – and they earned it. They forged every bit of their commitment and talent into a
compelling weapon. There’s
nothing new to the idea that Daniel Hope is a great violinist, nor that he was
born to exemplify Stravinsky’s inspirational concept: during the introduction
he and his instrument move about as one – visibly, audibly, consummately. … Brandauer is such a powerful
actor that he matched all seven musicians eye for eye. He stared blankly into the audience,
gave a quick snap of his fingers, a blink, and one quiet word before he took on
the roles of Speaker, Soldier, and Devil – by the end the audience was
apparently so shocked by the stillness after the storm that it paused for a few
seconds that felt like minutes before the concentrated power of the evening
exploded into a storm of applause and a standing ovation.”
Hope’s previous work with the CMSLC this season included a
master class at the Rose Theater and a performance of an all-French program
that included Messiaen’s transcendent Quartet for the End of Time and music by Boulez, Milhaud, and
Ravel. The New York Times praised Hope’s “impassioned and
virtuosic performance
of Ravel’s Tzigane,
his gypsy rhapsodizing spiraling into a frenzied whirl at the work’s
conclusion.” The New York Times also selected the Messiaen
performance as one of the most impressive of 2008.
Earlier
this month (Feb 3), Hope’s new recording of Violin Concertos by Antonio Vivaldi was released in the U.S. on the
Deutsche Grammophon label –for which he records exclusively – after receiving
superb reviews across the Atlantic, including a Gramophone“Editor’s Choice” citation. The new album, described by Gramophone as“Out-of-Season Vivaldi delivered
with a winning blend of love and intelligence,”also features an exquisite aria from the opera Andromeda
liberata, sung by
Anne Sofie von Otter. Hope
considers all of the concertos on the recording to be “as good as any in The
Four Seasons.” His energetic back-up band on the new
release is once again the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, with which Hope began his
exclusive relationship with DG last season in the world-premiere recording of
the original version of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and a revised version of the
composer’s irresistible Octet for Strings. In
celebration of the bicentennial of the composer’s birth, the New York Times recently included the album in a
round-up of top Mendelssohn recordings. Alex Ross also praised the album in his
recent Mendelssohn feature for the New Yorker: “Mendelssohn is thriving in other hands. The violinist
Daniel Hope and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe recently made a bold, stylish
recording of the Violin Concerto, alongside one of the finest modern accounts
of the Octet.”
Hope will return to the U.S. again early in the spring for
another season as Associate Artistic Director atthe Savannah Music Festival in Georgia (March 19 – April 4). Hope began his relationship with the
Festival in January 2004, when he served as Artist in Residence before being
appointed Associate Artistic Director in October of that year. Reviewing a number of last season’s
offerings, a reporter for the Financial Times praised the “staggering breadth” of
the programming, noting, “What other festival allows you to start the evening
with a string quartet and finish it by listening to bluegrass over a
beer?” Hope’s comments on some of
the festival highlights echo this enthusiasm for the eclectic nature of its
offerings:
“We have some really
stunning artists and some very unique collaborations this season: Chick Corea
for the first time, John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, Ian Bostridge, Béla Fleck,
David Finckel and Wu Han, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Academy of
Ancient Music. It’s such an
amazing mixture of styles and quality – a real melting pot of music and
musicians – and wandering from one genre to the next offers a special
thrill. One of the biggest
initiatives this season will be with our children’s concerts, which we expect
to draw 20,000 kids! We’ve also
commissioned a new work for two violins from the young New York composer
Alexandra du Bois, who has written a piece for Kronos in the past, which I’ll
play with Lorenza Borrani.”
March 12, 2009 marks the tenth anniversary of Yehudi
Menuhin’s death. Hope was closely
associated with the great violinist and humanist Menuhin, performing with him
more than 60 times, including at Menuhin’s final concert. After the worldwide success of Hope’s
“Tu Was” (Do Something) project, which commemorated the 70th
anniversary of the Nazis’ reign of terror on “Kristallnacht”, Hope returns to Berlin. There he has persuaded the Mayor’s
Office to present a concert at the Rotes Rathaus (Berlin’s Town Hall) on March
12. Some of Europe’s leading
political and cultural figures will be present to hear Hope perform a number of
works with orchestra, in memory of Menuhin. Hope has also commissioned the French-Lebanese composer,
Bechara El-Khoury, himself a protégé of Kurt Masur, to write a piece for violin
and strings entitled Unfinished Journey, after Menuhin’s autobiography of the same
name. The piece will receive its
world premiere in Berlin on March 12.
All money raised that evening will be donated to “Live Music Now”, the
charity founded by Menuhin that gives young performers the chance to gain
experience by performing for the underprivileged, in hospitals, prisons, and
retirement homes.
Following performances in other U.S. cities, Hope returns to
New York in the spring for a performance on May 2 at Carnegie’s Zankel
Hall. The program, “Terezín/Theresienstadt”, teams Hope with mezzo-soprano Anne
Sofie von Otter,
pianist Bengt Forsberg, and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott for an unforgettable exploration of vocal and
chamber works by composers interned during World War II in the notorious
Theresienstadt concentration camp.
Hope will perform ErwinSchulhoff’s Sonata for violin and piano and Duo for violin
and cello as well as Robert Dauber’s Serenade for violin and piano. Hope has long championed the works of
composers whose lives were destroyed by the Nazis. Last year, his Deutsche Grammophon recording of music from
Theresienstadtwas
received with great acclaim. The
album, which featured liner notes by Hope and performances by von Otter,
Forsberg, and baritone Christian Gerhaher, was a Gramophone“Editor’s Choice” selection. Britain’s Guardian called the recording “an eloquent
act of homage which cannot fail to move,” and the disc also won France’s
coveted Diapason d’Or prize.
A list of Daniel Hope’s upcoming engagements follows. For additional information, visit www.danielhope.com.
# # #
Daniel
Hope – winter/spring 2009 engagements
February 27
New York, NY
(Alice Tully Hall)
“War and Pieces”
Program
includes Beethoven’s Overture to Egmont (Op. 84), arranged by Jan Müller-Wieland, and
Stravinsky’s Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale), narrated by actor Klaus Maria
Brandauer
March 12
Berlin, Germany (Berlin Town Hall)
Bechara El-Khoury’s Unfinished Journey (world premiere)
March 13
Munich, Germany (Prinzregententheater)
Charity concert for the German AIDS Foundation, with the
Munich Chamber Orchestra Bernstein’s Serenade
March 19 – April 4
Savannah Music Festival (Savannah, GA)
April
11-13
Cologne,
Germany
Daniel
Hope mini-festival at the Cologne Philharmonic, dedicated to the tenth
anniversary of Menuhin’s death, with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe
April
24 – May 2
Various
U.S. cities including New York’s Carnegie Hall on May 2
“Terezín/Theresienstadt”
U.S. tour with Anne Sofie von Otter
May 4 – May 30
Brussels,
Belgium
Queen Elisabeth
Violin Competition: serving on jury and teaching master class
June 12
The Hague, Holland
Artist in Residence of the Classic Festival, featuring a
special concert to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Anne Frank’s
birth
June 18
Barcelona,
Spain
“East Meets West”
concer
– February 20, 2009