
The
British violinist,
Daniel Hope, is renowned the
world over for his musical versatility and creativity. In January
2007 he signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon,
with whom he will now record a variety of projects. In 2004 Hope
won three major awards for his recording of Berg and Britten Concerti
- the Classical Brit Awards in England, and in Germany the Deutsche
Schallplattenpreis and the ECHO Klassik Prize. At the 2005 Grammy™
Awards he received two nominations; and in October 2006 he won
the ECHO Prize for the third year in succession.
The New York Times said of Hope, May 2004:
"You never know
what the brilliant young British violinist Daniel Hope, acclaimed
for his ventures into contemporary music, will do next. He has
collaborated with actors on works that combine music and words
and explored Indian music and jazz........he plays with the unsparing
intensity and gritty incisiveness of an unabashed champion of
contemporary music."
Among the conductors with whom Hope has worked are Kurt Masur,
Mstislav Rostropovich, Roger Norrington, Yehudi Menuhin, Michel
Plasson, Kent Nagano, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Sakari Oramo,
Andrew Litton, Jeffrey Tate, Eliahu Inbal, Vladimir Fedosseyev,
John Axelrod, Thomas Hengelbrock and Hans Graf. He appears regularly
with major orchestras including the Israel Philharmonic, Berlin
Radio Symphony, Orchestre National de France, Dresden Staatskapelle,
Royal Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Detroit Symphony,
Concerto Köln, Dallas Symphony, RSO-Vienna, Philharmonia, BBC
Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, RSO Moscow,
Orchestre de Toulouse, Wiener Kammerorchester, Royal Scottish
National, the Hallé, NDR-Hannover and many others. He has performed
in all the world's major halls, including the Berlin Philharmonie,
Leipzig Gewandhaus, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, Théatre des Champs-Elysées
Paris, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Barbican, the Wigmore, the
Queen Elizabeth and Royal Albert Halls.
Daniel Hope devotes a portion of his time to
conceptual projects. In addition he writes scripts and is in demand
as a presenter for radio and television. A close association with
the Oscar™ winning actor Klaus Maria Brandauer has led to a series
of highly successful projects such as "War and Pieces" and
"Mozart Unplugged!"; other evenings combining words and music
created by Hope include "An Audience with Beethoven" with Mia
Farrow; "Forbidden not forgotten" with chamber music and poetry
from the Theresienstadt Ghetto; and "Music to die for!", a play
written by the Whitbread-winner author Christopher Hope with music
performed by Hope and jazz-pianist Uri Caine, directed by Jonathan
Moore. Many of these projects receive their first performances
at the Savannah Music Festival in Georgia USA, where
Daniel
Hope is Associate Artistic Director.
Hope directs many chamber orchestras from the
violin, such as the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (in a recording
of Bach Violin Concerti), as well as the Camerata Salzburg and
the period-instrument ensemble Concerto Köln. He has collaborated
with musicians from a variety of genres, including vocalist Bobby
McFerrin, bassist Edgar Meyer and the former drummer of The Police,
Stewart Copeland. His Grammy™ nominated project "East meets West",
released on CD by Warner Classics, presents works for violin inspired
by Ravi Shankar.
A pupil at Highgate School in London, from 1992-98 he was a student
of the Russian pedagogue, Zakhar Bron, graduating from the Royal
Academy of Music in London, where he holds the DipRAM and ARAM.
At the age of ten
Daniel Hope appeared on British
television playing Shostakovich with the bassist, Gary Karr. The
following year he was invited by Yehudi Menuhin to perform Bartok
Duos for German television. This was the beginning of a long association,
culminating in over sixty concerts together, including Lord Menuhin's
final concert, on March 7th 1999 in Düsseldorf, where Hope performed
the Schnittke Violin Concerto.
Hope was voted „Classical Performer 2001" by
London's Evening Standard newspaper, and the Observer newspaper
in London since called him
"the most exciting British string
player since Jacqueline du Pré."
In April 2002
Daniel Hope became the youngest
ever member of the legendary Beaux Arts Trio, with whom he toured
all major venues in Europe and North America, and with whom he
celebrated the Ensemble's 50th anniversary in 2005. The Boston
Globe recently wrote of the new formation:
"the current lineup
of players may be the strongest in its history". The Trio
received a Grammy™ nomination in 2007. Hope will continue in this
position until the end of the 2007/8 season.
Hope has appeared at major festivals including
the Salzburger Festspiele, BBC Proms, Lucerne, Tanglewood, Ravinia,
Colmar, Schleswig-Holstein, Schubertiade Schwarzenberg, Vail USA,
Feldkirch, Klangbogen Vienna, Gstaad, Bath, Spannungen, San Sebastian,
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Carinthian Summer. His chamber music
partners have included Menahem Pressler, Yuri Bashmet, Sebastian
Knauer, Thomas Adès, Lynn Harrell, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Katja
and Marielle Labèque, Tabea Zimmermann, Arianna Zukerman, Mark
Padmore, Pieter Wispelwey and Philippe Entremont.
Daniel Hope's dedication to contemporary music
is highlighted through close contacts with several eminent composers,
such as Alfred Schnittke, with whom he worked, planning the ‘Schnittke
at 60' Festival at the Royal Academy in London in March 1994.
In March 2003 Hope gave the world première of Schnittke's newly
discovered Sonata 1955 at London's South Bank, now released on
the Warner CD "East meets West". He has collaborated with composers
such as Kurtág, Gubaidulina, Penderecki, Turnage, Halffter and
HK Gruber. In April 1995 Hope worked with Toru Takemitsu, recording
his violin concerto "Nostalghia", which together with the concertos
by Kurt Weill and Schnittke, were released on CD (NI 5582) in
February 1999 by Nimbus Records. His second CD, with works by
Shostakovich, Schnittke, Pärt and Penderecki, was released by
Nimbus in March 2000. BBC Music magazine's Stephen Johnson said
of it:
".... I've never heard a more compelling account of
the Shostakovich Sonata – not even from David Oistrakh.. "
From 2004-2006
Hope made a total of eight award-winning
recordings for Warner Classics: these included the world première
recording of the critically-revised Alban Berg Violin Concerto
and Benjamin Britten's Concerto, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra
and Paul Watkins, which was released in Spring of 2004. This followed
Hope's world première performance of the revised Berg Concerto
in October 1996 in Vienna, after special permission was granted
to him by the Alban Berg Foundation. Michael Kennedy, in London's
Sunday Telegraph said of Hope's recording -
"these are magnificent
performances….I do not think I have ever heard a finer account
of the Berg than Daniel Hope gives here, not only played to technical
perfection but with its poignant emotional content - realised
to the full." Warner also released Hope's world première
recording of John Fould's "Apotheosis – in memoriam Joseph Joachim"
with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari
Oramo; a disc of Mozart with Sir Roger Norrington, the pianist
Sebastian Knauer and the Camerata Salzburg; the two Shostakovich
Violin Concerti with Maxim Shostakovich and the BBC Symphony Orchestra;
and the Bach Concerti with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, directed
by Hope from the violin.
Daniel Hope continues to actively commission
works by young composers. These have included a Violin Concerto
"Ballad of Ariel" by Jan Müller-Wieland, whose première was given
in Berlin in September 2002; and a work by British composer Huw
Watkins. Roxanna Panufnik composed a Violin Concerto called "Abraham"
for Hope which received its première at the Savannah Music Festival
in March 2005; and on behalf of the Beaux Arts Trio Hope has commissioned
works for Piano Trio by György Kurtág, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Uri
Caine, Jan Müller-Wieland, and Mauricio Kagel.
This season will see
Hope's debuts with the Boston
Symphony, Chicago Symphony and Toronto and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras,
recitals in London, New York, Paris and Barcelona, and his first
recordings as an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist – the Mendelssohn
Violin Concerto with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe; and a Theresienstadt
project with Anne Sofie von Otter and Christian Gerharer.