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05/12/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 05/12/2021 16:43
British Violinist Daniel Hope Gives Live and Radio Concerts in Europe, Following Success of His Hit TV Show Europe@Home
May 12, 2021
Daniel Hope (photo: Nicolas Zonvi)
'There are few figures in today's classical music who so perfectly embody the role of ambassador for music as Daniel Hope.' - Gramophone, 2020
British violinist Daniel Hope looks forward to a number of live and radio concerts in the weeks ahead. As President of the Beethoven House Bonn, the museum and cultural center at the composer's birthplace, he has produced BTHVN WEEK: Homage to Joseph Joachim (June 2-14), a series of German public radio programs inspired by the legendary Hungarian violinist who served as the center's first president. After recording the broadcasts, Hope heads to Munich for 'Family Pieces: A Musical and Literary evening with Daniel Hope' (May 31), a live multimedia tribute to his own Jewish ancestors in Berlin, whose history he traces back to the time of Frederick the Great. Then, as Music Director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, he joins the ensemble in Switzerland (June 6 & 8) and for a three-concert residency at Ukraine's Odessa Classics Festival (June 9-11). These concerts follow the final episodes of [email protected], the fourth and most recent iteration of Hope's hit live television series, [email protected]. Hailed as 'a hugely successful show … that has resurrected the art of the house concert' (The Guardian), [email protected] was recently recognized with the 2020 Czech Crystal Prize.
Conceiving it as 'DIY TV' for our socially distanced times, Hope created [email protected] in March 2020, during the first European lockdown. Combining high-quality audio with the intimacy and immediacy of live, world-class home music-making, the daily TV and streaming series allowed the violinist and his numerous guests - Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann and Robert Wilson among them - to stay connected with their audiences from the safety of his Berlin living room. Together with its sequels, [email protected] on Tour!, [email protected] - Next Generation and [email protected], the show featured more than 400 musicians in 150 episodes on Europe's Arte TV, which were streamed almost eleven million times, raising several thousand Euros for artists in need.
Comprising radio performances by Hope and a host of other leading chamber musicians, BTHVN WEEK: Homage to Joseph Joachim features an all-Beethoven recreation of Joachim's first concert in Bonn on May 11, 1890. Hope explains:
'As the new President of the Beethoven House in Bonn, it was important to me to honor the first President Joseph Joachim. Ultimately, it is one of the main reasons why our house still exists today. When I started investigating the origins of the house, I came across Joachim's first chamber music festival and its exciting programs. I find his career and that of his family extremely interesting. His importance as an artist and personality as well as his role in the presentation of music was unique. His grave in Berlin is in the same cemetery as my family's. So I feel that we are connected to one another on several levels.'
Next, Hope's Berlin family comes into focus on May 31 at 'Family Pieces: A Musical and Literary evening with Daniel Hope,' when he joins frequent piano partner Jacques Ammon for music by Bach, Mendelssohn, Ravel, Erwin Schulhoff, Robert Dauber, Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler, together with projections, readings and reminiscences about his own origins. These trace his family history from the time of his ancestor Jechiel Michel, the first rabbi of Potsdam, to the takeover of the family home by Third Reich Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop, in one of the last century's darkest chapters.
Finally, Hope reunites with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, where he succeeded Roger Norrington as Music Director in 2016. At concerts in Brugg (June 6) and Zurich (June 8), they give the Swiss premiere of Silent Music by Valentin Silvestrov alongside an orchestral arrangement of Grieg's G-minor String Quartet and the First Concerto Grosso by Schnittke, whose music they revisit in first of three upcoming concerts as Artists-in-Residence of Ukraine's Odessa Classics Festival (June 9-11). The residency also features their European premiere performance of Tan Dun's Double Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra with Ukrainian pianist Alexey Botvinov. The concerto was commissioned by the festival in collaboration with San Francisco's New Century Chamber Orchestra (NCCO), the other ensemble of of which Hope is Music Director. He and Botvinov recently gave the work's world premiere performance with the NCCO for Stanford Live; captured on film, this will be available for online streaming from May 13 until August 31.
The Ukrainian pianist also partners Hope on his most recent Deutsche Grammophon release, Schnittke - Works for Violin and Piano. Seeing the violinist 'explore elliptical, poetic and intensely unsettling realms' (Strad magazine), the album has been welcomed as 'a major addition to the Schnittke discography' (Classical CD Reviews).
To download high-resolution photos, click here.
Daniel Hope: upcoming engagements
May 31
Munich, Germany
'Family Pieces: A Musical and Literary evening with Daniel Hope'
Performing and reading
With Jacques Ammon, piano
Works by Bach, Mendelssohn, Ravel, Schulhoff, Dauber, Weill and Eisler
June 2-14
WDR3 Konzert radio broadcasts
Recorded without audience at Beethoven House in Bonn, Germany
BTHVN WEEK: Homage to Joseph Joachim
Performing and curating, as President of the Beethoven House
With Tanja Sonc & Daria Zappa, violins; Ryszard Groblewski & Adrien La Marca, violas; Nicola Mosca & Josephine Knight, cellos; Simon Crawford-Phillips, piano; ZKO Quartet
June 2 at 8:04pm: radio broadcast (recorded May 12)
'Joachim's first concert in Bonn on May 11, 1890'
Beethoven: String Quintet in C, Op. 29
Beethoven: Violin Sonata in G, Op. 96
Beethoven: String Quartet in E-flat, Op. 74 ('Harp Quartet')
Beethoven: Piano Trio in B-flat, Op. 97 ('Archduke Trio')
June 10 at 8:04pm: radio broadcast (recorded May 13)
'Brahms and Beethoven'
Beethoven: String Quartet in F minor, Op. 95
Brahms: 'Der Tod, das ist die kühle Nacht,' Op. 96, No. 1
Brahms: 'Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer,' Op. 105, No. 2
Brahms: 'Alte Liebe,' Op. 72, No. 1
Brahms: 'An die Nachtigall,' Op. 46, No. 4
Brahms: Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34
Brahms: 'Der Verrath,' Op. 105, No. 5
Brahms: 'Feldeinsamkeit,' Op. 86, No. 2
Brahms: 'Auf dem Kirchhofe,' Op. 105, No. 4
Beethoven: 'Die Himmel rühmen des Ewigen Ehre,' Op. 48, No. 4
Brahms: Clarinet Quintet, Op. 115
June 14 at 8:04pm: radio broadcast (recorded May 14)
'Franz Schubert'
Schubert: String Quartet in D minor ('Death and the Maiden'), D. 810
Schubert: 'Die Gestirne,' D. 444
Schubert: 'Dem Unendlichen,' D. 291
Schubert: 'Die Allmacht,' D. 852
Schubert: Impromptus, Op. 142, Nos. 1 & 2
Schubert: Moments musicaux, Op. 94, No. 2
Schubert: 'Selma und Selmar,' D. 286
Schubert: 'Hermann und Thusnelda,' D. 322
Schubert: String Quintet in C, D. 956
June 6 & 8
Brugg and Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich Chamber Orchestra
Conducting from the violin, as Music Director
Valentin Silvestrov: Silent Music for string orchestra (Swiss premiere)
Schnittke: Concerto Grosso No. 1 for two violins, cembalon, prepared piano & chamber orchestra (with Sebastian Bohren, violin)
Grieg: String Quartet in G minor, Op. 27 (arr. for string orchestra)
June 6: Brugg (Stadtkirche)
June 8: Zurich (Tonhalle Maag Hall)
June 9-11
Odessa, Ukraine
Odessa Classics Festival
Zurich Chamber Orchestra (Artist-in-Residence)
Conducting from the violin, as Music Director
June 9
Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings (conducting from the violin)
Schnittke: Suite in the Old Style (with Alexey Botvinov, piano)
Schnittke: Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano (with Alexey Botvinov, piano)
Schnittke: Tango in a Madhouse (with Alexey Botvinov, piano)
Schnittke: Polka (with Alexey Botvinov, piano)
June 10
Elgar: Serenade
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto in D minor
Valentin Silvestrov: Silent Music for string orchestra
Elgar: Introduction and Allegro, Op. 47
June 11
Dvořák: Serenade
Tan Dun: Double Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra (with Alexey Botvinov, piano)
(European premiere of festival co-commission)
Gershwin (arr. Paul Bateman): Song Suite
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© 21C Media Group, May 2021