Daniel Hope’s intrepid 2011-12 season
British violinist Daniel Hope opens the U.S. portion of his 2011-2012 season at New York’s 92nd Street Y (October 27) and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. (October 28), performing an “East Meets West” program drawn from his Grammy-nominated, Menuhin/Shankar-inspired album of the same title. Hope will also tour on both sides of the Atlantic with a program that mirrors his most recent Deutsche Grammophon release, The Romantic Violinist: A Celebration of Joseph Joachim. These recitals – including one with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center on February 12, 2012 – will present both rare and familiar works associated with Joachim, the great 19th-century virtuoso violinist-composer who was a friend and collaborator of Brahms (among others). Hope’s intrepid season will also find him performing concertos by Bruch, Berg, Britten, Shostakovich, Peter Maxwell Davies, and Bechara El-Khoury, as well as recitals with mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter.
The “East Meets West” program is dear to Hope’s heart: his mother was Yehudi Menuhin’s personal secretary, and the iconic musician mentored the young violinist – indeed, Hope was the soloist at Menuhin’s final concert. Menuhin’s venturesome sensibility was a keen influence: his pioneering West Meets East LPs, made in collaboration with the first ambassador of Indian classical music, sitarist Ravi Shankar, provided the inspiration for Hope’s 2004 Warner Classics recording,East Meets West. That album earned wide acclaim, not only for its insight into the relationship between far-flung traditions but also for its sheer musicality.Gramophone magazine praised the “technically brilliant, highly engaging performances,” while the U.K.’sObserver pointed out that “there is fire here as well as intelligence.” The New York and D.C. concerts in October will see Hope reuniting with sitarist and Shankar disciple Gaurav Mazumdar, a collaborator on the album; the live program embraces Eastern-themed pieces by Ravel and Bartók, as well as hommages to Menuhin and Shankar penned by Mazumdar.
Hope will perform his “Celebration of Joseph Joachim” program this season with piano partner Sebastian Knauer in concerts across Europe, from London’s Wigmore Hall to Berlin’s Philharmonie. The Joachim program at Lincoln Center in February will present works by Brahms, Schumann, Dvořák, and Joachim himself. Hope performed a similar program at the Music@Menlo festival in California this past summer, alongside pianist and festival co-director Wu Han. The reviewer from theSan Jose Mercury News was over the moon about the performance, describing what he called an “electrifying” recital:
“Daniel Hope is one of those infallible violinists. Every note is speared through the heart, purified. But somehow, along with the perfection, comes rich expression. … The ecstasy began with Brahms’ Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78, a work dedicated to Joachim. You can hear this piece countless times and still be stunned by its depths … Hope grew up in England and lives in Hamburg, Germany – Brahms’ hometown. And he has access to a certain brand of Romantic feeling; there’s unbridled passion in his playing, balanced by old-fashioned dignity and even reserve. In the final movement, he and Wu Han played with an airy, rippling delicacy.”
Hope’s close, ongoing collaboration with Wu Han and her husband, cellist David Finckel, ranges from Music@Menlo and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (which the couple also co-directs) to Germany’s Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where Hope is Artistic Director. Hope brought Wu Han, Finckel, and other CMS musicians to “Meck-Pomm” last summer for the second consecutive year, together with young musicians from Carnegie Hall’s “Academy” program. After the visit, David Finckel wrote a blog post about their experience at “Meck-Pomm”, and had kind words for Hope:
“Daniel, with a barrage of new recordings from Deutsche Grammophon, his third book just published (Toi Toi Toi, a collection of stories of concert disasters to which I contributed a dubious story as well), with his fluent German, winning personality and stunning violin playing, is riding the crest of one of most exciting – and meaningful – career waves I have ever seen. Music directorships in Mecklenburg, and at the Savannah Music Festival, give him the opportunity to assume, what is for him, natural leadership roles. He speaks beautifully to the audiences before every concert, and the people love him (he is truly the Wu Han of his own festivals). He deserves every bit of his success and we are very proud to be a little part of his enormously exciting artistic life.”
In addition to his role as Artistic Director – programming over 120 concerts in 80 venues for over 70,000 visitors – Hope performs a vast array of music at Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. His music-making there last summer involved concerti by Bach and Mozart; chamber music from Schumann to Schnittke; the European premiere of Marc Neikrug’s “’Confessions of a Death Row Alien – A Comedy’” for actor and piano trio; and the world premiere of Bechara El-Khoury’s Violin Concerto No. 2, “War Concerto” (a piece that he will perform again in June 2012 in Berlin and in September 2012 with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra).
Characteristically, Hope’s concerto repertoire in 2011-2012 traverses far and wide. He performs the revised version of Berg’s Violin Concerto with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic on September 28-29. On November 8 at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Hope performs Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Violin Concerto No. 2, “Fiddler on the Shore”, a work written specially for him and which he premiered in 2009 with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. His schedule also includes several European performances of Bruch’s much-loved Violin Concerto No. 1, which he recorded for The Romantic Violinist: A Celebration of Joseph Joachim.The Times of London described the disc as “burning with passion”, while the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitungraved: “How fast one’s heart warms when you hear a violin sound like this – pierced with a lavish enthusiasm not heard since the golden days of Fritz Kreisler and Jascha Heifetz.”
Back in the U.S. next summer, Hope will return for his eighth season as Associate Artistic Director of the Savannah Music Festival in Georgia. The complete program for the 2012 festival, which takes place March 22 through April 7, will be announced in early November. And following his very successful debut at this year’s Aspen Music Festival, Hope will return there in the summer of 2012.
Performer, Writer, Broadcaster . . .
Born in South Africa, raised in Britain and now residing in Germany, violinist Daniel Hope has followed his muse from Bach to Berg and from Mendelssohn to Messiaen – not to mention his collaborations with the likes of Sting and Zakir Hussain. Recognizing Hope’s intrepid talents, The U.K.’s Observer called Hope “a natural heir” to Yehudi Menuhin.
Hope’s 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. The New York Times has called Hope “a violinist of probing intellect and commanding style… In a business that likes tidy boxes drawn around its commodities, Daniel Hope resists categorization.”
When not making music, Hope is an enthusiastic writer and broadcaster, and he keeps a wide-ranging video blog on his website: www.danielhope.com. Hope’s v-blog has presented his discussions with the rock icon Sting (on the nexus of popular and classical music), mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter (on music composed in the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt), veteran conductor-scholar Christopher Hogwood (on Mendelssohn), and his “Tu Was!” (Do Something!) series of benefit concerts to help raise awareness for climate protection and ending rainforest destruction.
In October 2011, Hope will complete work for the German/French ARTE channel on a television documentary – in which he will present and perform – marking the 300th anniversary of the birth of Frederick the Great.
Equally adept with old media as with new, Hope has written three German-language books: the acclaimed family memoir-investigation Familienstücke (Family Album), a best-seller in Germany; Wann darf ich klatschen? (When Do I Applaud?); and his latest, Toi Toi Toi: Pannen & Katastrophen in der Musik (Break a Leg: Mishaps and Disasters in the World of Music).
This season Hope will perform on his new violin, the 1742 “ex-Lipiński” Guarneri del Gesù. The instrument was once owned by and is named after Polish virtuoso Karol Lipiński (1790-1861), a friend and contemporary of Paganini and collaborator of Liszt, Chopin and Schumann.
Daniel Hope – 2011-12 engagements
September 26: London, UK
Wigmore Hall
Grieg: Violin Sonata No. 3 in C minor, Op. 45
Joachim: Hebrew Melody No. 1, Op. 9 (arr. violin and piano)
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 2 in A, Op. 100
Sebastian Knauer, piano
September 28, 29: Stockholm, Sweden
Konserthuset Stockholm
Berg: Violin Concerto “To the Memory of an Angel” (1996 – revised version)
Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/ John Storgårds
October 4: Luxembourg
Philharmonie Luxembourg
“Terezín” program
Anne Sofie von Otter, Bengt Forsberg, Bo Nordenfelt
October 5: Ghent, Belgium
De Vlaamse Opera
“Terezín” program
Anne Sofie von Otter, Bengt Forsberg, Bo Nordenfelt
October 10: Coburg, Germany
Landstheater Coburg
“Terezín” program
Anne Sofie von Otter, Bengt Forsberg, Bo Nordenfelt
October 16: Vienna, Austria
Wiener Konzerthaus
Lecture & Music: “Toi, toi, toi”
Sebastian Knauer, piano
October 27: New York, NY
92nd St Y
“East Meets West”
Falla: Popular Spanish Songs (arr. Paul Kochanski for violin and piano)
Takemitsu: Distance de Fée
Ravel: Tzigane
Mazumdar: “Hommage to Ravi Shankar”
Zwilich: Romance for Violin and Piano
Bartók: Roumanian Folk Dances (arr. Zoltán Székely for violin and piano)
Ravel: Kaddish (arr. Daniel Hope for solo violin)
Mazumdar: “Hommage to Yehudi Menuhin”
Simon Crawford-Phillips, piano; Gaurav Mazumdar, sitar
October 28: Washington, D.C
Library of Congress
“East Meets West”
Falla: Popular Spanish Songs (arr. Paul Kochanski for violin and piano)
Takemitsu: Distance de Fée
Ravel: Tzigane
Mazumdar: “Hommage to Ravi Shankar”
Zwilich: Romance for Violin and Piano
Bartók: Roumanian Folk Dances (arr. Zoltán Székely for violin and piano)
Ravel: Kaddish (arr. Daniel Hope for solo violin)
Mazumdar: “Hommage to Yehudi Menuhin”
Simon Crawford-Phillips, piano; Gaurav Mazumdar, sitar
November 8: Vienna, Austria
Wiener Konzerthaus
Davies: Violin Concerto No. 2, “Fiddler on the Shore”
Tonkünstler Orchester/ Andrés Orozco-Estrada
November 12: Bath, UK
Assembly Rooms, Bath MozartFest
“A Celebration of Joseph Joachim”
Brahms: Scherzo from the “F-A-E” Sonata
C. Schumann: Romanze No. 1, Op. 22
Beethoven: “Kreutzer” Sonata, Op. 47
Mendelssohn: Two Lieder (“Auf Flugeln des Gesanges,” “Hexenlied”)
Joachim: Romanze No. 1, Op. 2
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
Brahms: Hungarian Dances (selection)
Sebastian Knauer, piano
November 23: Göppingen, Germany
Stadthalle
“A Celebration of Joseph Joachim”
Brahms: Scherzo from the “F-A-E” Sonata
C. Schumann: Romanze No. 1, Op. 22
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
Mendelssohn: Two Lieder (“Auf Flugeln des Gesanges,” “Hexenlied”)
Joachim: Romanze No. 1, Op. 2
Grieg: Sonata No. 3 in C minor
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5
Sebastian Knauer, piano
November 24: Wiesloch, Germany
Palatin
“A Celebration of Joseph Joachim”
Brahms: Scherzo from the “F-A-E” Sonata
C. Schumann: Romanze No. 1, Op. 22
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
Mendelssohn: Two Lieder (“Auf Flugeln des Gesanges,” “Hexenlied”)
Joachim: Romanze No. 1, Op. 2
Grieg: Sonata No. 3 in C minor
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5
Sebastian Knauer, piano
November 26: Munich, Germany
Prinzregententheater
“A Celebration of Joseph Joachim”
Brahms: Scherzo from the “F-A-E” Sonata
C. Schumann: Romanze No. 1, Op. 22
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
Mendelssohn: Two Lieder (“Auf Flugeln des Gesanges,” “Hexenlied”)
Joachim: Romanze No. 1, Op. 2
Grieg: Sonata No. 3 in C minor
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5
Sebastian Knauer, piano
November 28: Innsbruck, Austria
“A Celebration of Joseph Joachim”
Brahms: Scherzo from the “F-A-E” Sonata
C. Schumann: Romanze No. 1, Op. 22
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
Mendelssohn: Two Lieder (“Auf Flugeln des Gesanges,” “Hexenlied”)
Joachim: Romanze No. 1, Op. 2
Grieg: Sonata No. 3 in C minor
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5
Sebastian Knauer, piano
November 29: Wolfsburg, Germany
“A Celebration of Joseph Joachim”
Brahms: Scherzo from the “F-A-E” Sonata
C. Schumann: Romanze No. 1, Op. 22
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
Mendelssohn: Two Lieder (“Auf Flugeln des Gesanges,” “Hexenlied”)
Joachim: Romanze No. 1, Op. 2
Grieg: Sonata No. 3 in C minor
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5
Sebastian Knauer, piano
December 8: Blelefeld, Germany
“A Celebration of Joseph Joachim”
Brahms: Scherzo from the “F-A-E” Sonata
C. Schumann: Romanze No. 1, Op. 22
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
Mendelssohn: Two Lieder (“Auf Flugeln des Gesanges,” “Hexenlied”)
Joachim: Romanze No. 1, Op. 2
Grieg: Sonata No. 3 in C minor
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5
Sebastian Knauer, piano
December 11: Vienna, Austria
Wiener Konzerthaus
Lecture & Music: “Toi, toi, toi”
Sebastian Knauer, piano
December 18: Berlin, Germany
Philharmonie
Berlin Baroque Soloists
January 15: Marlborough, UK
Marlborough College
“East Meets West”
Sebastian Knauer, Gaurav Mazumdar
January 19: London, U.K.
Barbican Centre
Britten: Violin Concerto
BBC Symphony Orchestra/ Thomas Dausgaard
January 26, 27: Bergen, Norway
Grieghallen
Britten: Violin Concerto
Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester/ Hugh Wolff
February 1-4: Nantes, France
La Folle Journée
Program TBA
February 5, 9: Angers, France
Centre des Congrès
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2
Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire / John Axelrod
February 7, 8: Nantes, France
Cité des Congrès
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2
Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire/ John Axelrod
February 12: New York, NY
Alice Tully Hall
“A Celebration of Joseph Joachim”
Brahms: Scherzo from the “F-A-E “Sonata
Joachim: Romanze, Op. 2
Joachim: Sostenuto and Andante Cantabile from Hebrew Melodies, Op. 9
Dvořák: Selections from “Echo of Songs” for String Quartet, B. 152
Schumann: Finale from the “F-A-E” Sonata
Brahms: Selected Hungarian Dances (arr. Joachim)
Brahms: Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, Op. 25
Wu Han, Paul Neubauer, David Finckel, Erin Keefe
February 26: Vienna, Austria
Wiener Konzerthaus
Lecture & Music: “Toi, toi, toi”
Sebastian Knauer, piano
March 14: Berlin, Germany
Kammermusiksaal Philharmonie
“A Celebration of Joseph Joachim”
Brahms: Scherzo from the “F-A-E” Sonata
C. Schumann: Romanze No. 1, Op. 22
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
Mendelssohn: Two Lieder (“Auf Flugeln des Gesanges,” “Hexenlied”)
Joachim: Romanze No. 1, Op. 2
Grieg: Sonata No. 3 in C minor
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5
Sebastian Knauer, piano
April 15: Münster, Germany
Großer Hörsaal Münster
“A Celebration of Joseph Joachim”
Brahms: Scherzo from the “F-A-E” Sonata
C. Schumann: Romanze No. 1, Op. 22
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
Mendelssohn: Two Lieder (“Auf Flugeln des Gesanges,” “Hexenlied”)
Joachim: Romanze No. 1, Op. 2
Grieg: Sonata No. 3 in C minor
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5
Sebastian Knauer, piano
April 17: Warsaw, Poland
Warsaw Philharmonic Hall
“A Celebration of Joseph Joachim”
Brahms: Scherzo from the “F-A-E” Sonata
C. Schumann: Romanze No. 1, Op. 22
Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G major, Op. 78
Mendelssohn: Two Lieder (“Auf Flugeln des Gesanges,” “Hexenlied”)
Joachim: Romanze No. 1, Op. 2
Grieg: Sonata No. 3 in C minor
Brahms: Hungarian Dance No. 5
Sebastian Knauer, piano
April 19: Sylt, Germany
Alter Kursaal am Rathausplatz, Westerland
Sylt Art Festival
Sebastian Knauer, piano
April 22: Vienna, Austria
Wiener Konzerthaus
Lecture & Music: “Toi, toi, toi”
Sebastian Knauer, piano
May 19: Grafenegg, Austria
Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor
Tonkünstler Orchester/ Andrés Orozco-Estrada
May 20, 22: Vienna, Austria
Musikverein
Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor
Tonkünstler Orchester/ Andrés Orozco-Estrada
May 21: St. Pölten, Austria
Festspielhaus
Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor
Tonkünstler Orchester/ Andrés Orozco-Estrada
May 25: Cardiff, UK
St. David’s Hall
Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1
BBC National Orchestra of Wales/ François-Xavier Roth
May 26: Swansea, UK
Brangwyn Hall
Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1
BBC National Orchestra of Wales/ François-Xavier Roth
June 1, 2: Berlin, Germany
Konzerthaus Berlin
El Khoury: War Concerto
Konzerthausorchester Berlin/ Cornelius Meister
June 5: Lugano, Switzerland
Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana/ Juraj Valcuha
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