Deutsche Grammophon Releases Best of Hope@Home – Daniel Hope’s Hit Livestreamed TV Series – on August 14
“There are few figures in today’s classical music who so perfectly embody the role of ambassador for music as Daniel Hope.” – Gramophone, 2020
August 14 brings the release of Hope@Home, the newest recording from British violinist and exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist Daniel Hope. Presenting the violinist with pianist-arranger Christoph Israel and a host of guest stars in radio-friendly selections by composers from Brahms to Nino Rota, the recording captures 21 highlights from Hope’s hit TV series of the same name. Hailed as “a hugely successful show … that has resurrected the art of the house concert” (The Guardian), Hope@Home was professionally produced from Hope’s Berlin living room – live from the lockdown – for the German/French ARTE TV network. Combining high-quality audio with the intimacy and immediacy of live, world-class home music-making, the daily series allowed the violinist and his guests to stay connected with their audiences from the earliest days of the pandemic. Together with its sequel, Hope@Home on Tour!, the show ran to almost 70 episodes, was streamed more than six million times, and raised tens of thousands of Euros for artists in need. Click here to pre-order Hope@Home and here to watch the album’s video trailer.
Hope conceived of the record to meet popular demand. Ever since early May, which marked the end of his TV show’s first iteration, the public response has been overwhelming. He says:
“Even now I’m receiving somewhere in the region of 200 private messages daily from people commenting how sad they are that the show’s over or reliving their favorite episodes from the ARTE Media Library. There’s been an outpouring of support that’s incredibly heartwarming.”
This steady stream of enthusiasm inspired Hope to go back to the 300-plus televised performances and choose 21 of his favorites for an album release. The resulting Hope@Home recording offers an eclectic and accessible mix, including numerous original arrangements by Christoph Israel. Featuring guest appearances from a diverse array of Berlin-based artists, including actress Iris Berben, jazz trumpeter Till Brönner, baritone Matthias Goerne, rapper Max Herre, cabaret singer Max Raabe, and pianist Tamara Stefanovich, repertoire ranges from beloved classics like Schubert’s An die Musik and Rachmaninov’s Vocalise to favorite songs like America the Beautiful and La vie en rose and such Hollywood hits as Moon River and Lost in the Stars. Hope’s collaboration with celebrated German soul singer Joy Denalane on This Bitter Earth / On the Nature of Daylight – the Clyde Otis / Max Richter mash-up made famous by Scorsese’s film Shutter Island – not only represents the work’s first live recording, but also, as the violinist puts it, the album’s “most emotional track.” Click here to hear an excerpt from the first live recording of This Bitter Earth / On the Nature of Daylight.
It’s rare to find music from such different genres combined within a single project. As Hope explains, this derives from the unusual nature of the original television series. He says:
“Broadcasting live shows night after night, with a different program and different collaborators each time, is unlike anything I’ve done before. We found ourselves blending different genres within a single show. In one episode in Lübeck we literally went from Sabine Meyer and Xavier de Maistre playing Max Bruch to 2020 indie-electro funk! We had the freedom to do things you’d never be allowed to do normally. Artistically, it’s one of the most intense and exciting experiences I’ve ever had.”
The new release captures this extraordinary experience with faithful authenticity. Although the recordings have been remastered, they are completely unedited. In his accompanying liner note, Hope writes:
“This album is a document of those extraordinary weeks. Everything you hear is live, one take only. Some pieces were rehearsed, others were not. In some cases Christoph Israel finished the arrangements literally minutes before we went live. You will hear the frequent squeak of my living room floor, as well as other spontaneous bumps and bangs. There were no patches or editing, no second takes. Sometimes life doesn’t allow for second takes. This was my world for six magical and highly unusual weeks. I hope you enjoy listening.”
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Expressly conceived by the violinist as “DIY TV” for our socially distanced times, the original Hope@Home series exceeded all expectations. Filmed from his Berlin living room, where guests ranged from directors Robert Wilson and Barrie Kosky to conductors Sir Simon Rattle and Christian Thielemann, the daily series was extended from two weeks to six, running to a total of 34 episodes, five “best of” compilations, and a TV special. Then in mid-May, when Germany first began lifting its lockdown restrictions, Hope headed out on the road with Hope@Home on Tour!. Still offering half-hour episodes of live performance and conversation, all professionally produced for ARTE TV, this new iteration streamed live two or three times a week from a succession of visually compelling locations, many of which were not open to the public. These included Berlin’s Clärchens Ballhaus, a historic Belle Époque dance hall; the Bavarian villa where Richard Strauss composed Elektra and Der Rosenkavalier; the “Muschelgrotte,” an 18th-century marble palace grotto in Potsdam; and the Beethovenhaus Bonn, the museum housed in the composer’s birthplace, of which Hope is President. Guests included flutist Sir James Galway, pianist Kirill Gerstein, baritone Thomas Hampson and the entire Zurich Chamber Orchestra, one of the two ensembles of which Hope is Music Director. Looking back at the experience, he says:
“If it showed me anything, it was that you can produce visually compelling live concerts with professional sound and reach a global audience. I loved doing them and presenting them. In a sense I fell into them and discovered a new way of communicating with an audience at a time when none of us knows how things will turn out – and I definitely want to continue.
“Perhaps the most emotional of all the episodes was July 4 when I was finally reunited with our Zurich Chamber Orchestra after months of being apart. It was also the first time I crossed the [German] border since the lockdown. The episode was dedicated to America and to my friends there.”
Still receiving requests to continue Hope@Home on Tour!, Hope is currently exploring ways of taking the show to other countries hit hard by the pandemic. Meanwhile all 27 episodes have been archived in the ARTE Media Library, where they are still available for on-demand streaming. Click here to see the July 4 episode of Hope@Home on Tour!.
Vivaldi Recomposed live in Prague
Hope also looks forward to revisiting one of his previous albums this fall. When it was released in 2012, his Deutsche Grammophon recording of Vivaldi Recomposed – Max Richter’s iconic re-imagining of The Four Seasons – topped the charts in no fewer than 22 countries, and it remains one of the bestselling classical releases of recent times. Hope will reprise his interpretation of the work at “Prague Sounds Again,” this year’s edition of the multi-genre Strings of Autumn festival, which celebrates the return to the Czech capital of live, shared, in-person musical experiences. In a spectacular once-in-a-lifetime event on September 19, he will perform Vivaldi Recomposed on a floating stage on the Vltava River against the stunning panoramic backdrop of Prague Castle. With audience members watching from a 1,000-seat open-air amphitheater and a fleet of small boats, the concert will be filmed for broadcast on Czech television and streaming on the ARTE TV network. For more information, click here.
To download high-resolution photos, click here.
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Hope@Home
Daniel Hope, violin
With Christoph Israel, piano; and guests
Live recordings from the ARTE TV streaming series
Deutsche Grammophon
Release date: August 14
- Joseph Kosma, arr.: C. Israel: Les feuilles mortes (“Autumn Leaves”)
With Till Brönner, trumpet; Christoph Israel, piano
- Louiguy, aka Louis Guglielmi: La vie en rose
With Christoph Israel, piano
- Max Richter: On the Nature of Daylight / Clyde Otis: This Bitter Earth, arr. C. Israel (from the film Shutter Island)
With Joy Denalane, vocals; Christoph Israel, piano
- Werner Richard Heymann / Robert Gilbert, arr. C. Israel: Irgendwo auf der welt
With Max Raabe, vocals; Christoph Israel, piano
- Schubert: An die Musik
With Christoph Israel, piano
- Weber, arr. Kreisler: Larghetto
With Jacques Ammon, piano
- Weill, arr. C. Israel: Youkali
With Christoph Israel, piano
- Nino Rota: Godfather Waltz (from the film The Godfather)
With Christoph Israel, piano
- Satie: Gnossienne No. 1
With Christoph Israel, piano
- Samuel A. Ward, arr. Paul Bateman: America the Beautiful
With Christoph Israel, piano
- Henry Mancini: Moon River (from the film Breakfast at Tiffany’s)
With Christoph Israel, piano
- José María Cano: Hijo de la Luna
With Michael Metzler, percussion; Christoph Israel, piano
- Harold Arlen, arr. C. Israel: Over the Rainbow (from the film The Wizard of Oz)
With Christoph Israel, piano
- Fauré: Après un rêve
With Christoph Israel, piano
- Samon Kawamura, Max Herre, Sophie Hunger and Roberto Di Gioia: Berlin – Tel Aviv
With Joy Denalane and Max Herre, vocals; Christoph Israel, piano
- Rachmaninov: Vocalise
With Christoph Israel, piano
- Gershwin: Summertime (from the opera Porgy and Bess)
With Sebastian Knauer, piano
- Brahms: Wie rafft ich mich auf in der Nacht
With Matthias Goerne, baritone; Tamara Stefanovich piano
- De Falla: Asturiana / Kipling: If
With Iris Berben, narration; Christoph Israel, piano
- Manos Hadjidakis: Ta Pediá tou Pireá (“Never on Sunday”)
With Aliya Vodovozova, flute; Michael Metzler, percussion
- Weill: Lost in the Stars
With Jacques Ammon, piano
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© 21C Media Group, August 2020