28/03/2019
PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE / Isabelle Faust
CONCERT PROGRAM:
J. BRAHMS: CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND ORCHESTRA IN D MAJOR, OP. 77
***
R. SCHUMANN: SYMPHONY NO. 2 IN C MAJOR, OP. 61
ARTISTS:
ISABELLE FAUST – violin
PHILIPPE HERREWEGHE – conductor
ORCHESTRE DES CHAMPS-ELYSÉES
28.03.2019, 19:30
ICE KRAKÓW CONGRESS CENTRE
“Her sound has passion, grit and electricity but also a disarming warmth and sweetness that can unveil the music’s hidden strains of lyricism ...” New York Times
Isabelle Faust fascinates her listeners with her sound standing interpretations. She dives deep into every piece considering the musical historical context, historically appropriate instruments and the most possible authenticity according to a contemporary state of knowledge. She manages to constantly illuminate and passionately perform the repertoire ranging from Heinrich I. F. Biber to Helmut Lachenmann.
After winning the reowned Leopold Mozart Competition and the Paganini Competition at a very early age, she soon gave regular guest performances with the world’s major orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Baroque Orchestra Freiburg.
It resulted in a close and sustained cooperation with conductors like Claudio Abbado, Giovanni Antonini, Frans Brüggen, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Philippe Herreweghe, Andris Nelsons and Robin Ticciati.
Isabelle Faust’s vast artistic curosity and broad mind allow her to include all eras and forms of instrumental cooperation. Thus, she never considers music as an end in itself but rather advances the piece’s essence in a devoted, subtle and conscientious way. Besides big symphonic violin concerts, she plays for instance Schubert’s octet with historical instrument ensembles as well as György Kurtág’s "Kafka Fragments" with Anna Prohaska or Igor Stravinsky’s "L’Histoire du Soldat" with Dominique Horwitz. With great commitment she renders an outstanding service to the performance of contemporary music. Premieres of Péter Eötvös, Ondřej Adámek, Marco Stroppa, Oscar Strasnoy and Beat Furrer are in preparation for the upcoming seasons.
Numerous recordings have been unanimously praised by critics and awarded the Diapason d’or, the Grammophone Award, the Choc de l’année and other prizes. The most recent recordings include Mozart’s violin concerts with Il Giardino Armonico under the direction of Giovanni Antonini and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra under the direction of Pablo Heras-Casado. Isabelle Faust presented further popular recordings, among others, of sonatas and scores for violin solo by Johann Sebastian Bach as well as violin concerts by Ludwig van Beethoven and Alban Berg under the direction of Claudio Abbado. She keeps a long collaboration in chamber music with the pianist Alexander Melnikov. Their recordings include all sonatas for piano and violin by Ludwig van Beethoven as well as other pieces.
Isabelle Faust is Artist in Residence at Kölner Philharmonie during the season 2018/2019.
Philippe Herreweghe was born in Ghent and studied at both the university and music conservatory there. During this period, he started conducting and in 1970, he founded Collegium Vocale Gent.
Herreweghe’s energetic, authentic and rhetorical approach to baroque music soon drew praises. In 1977 he founded the ensemble La Chapelle Royale in Paris, with whom he performed music of the French Golden Age. He founded several other ensembles with whom he made historically informed and well-thought-out interpretations of repertoire stretching from the Renaissance to contemporary music. They include the Ensemble Vocal Européen, specialising in Renaissance polyphony, and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, founded in 1991 with the aim of playing pre-Romantic and Romantic repertoire on original instruments.
Since 1997 he is attached to the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra. He is also in great demand as a guest conductor with orchestras such as Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig or the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich. In the upcoming seasons, he plans projects with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra London, the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra as well as the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and in Tokyo. He is Artist in Residence at the Philharmonie Luxembourg.
Philippe Herreweghe has received numerous European awards for his consistent artistic imagination and commitment. In 1990, the European music press named him the Musical Personality of the Year. Philippe Herreweghe and Collegium Vocale Gent were appointed Cultural Ambassadors of Flanders bin 1993. A year later, he was awarded the Belgian order of Officier des Arts et Lettres, and in 1997, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Catholic University of Leuven. In 2003, he received the French title Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur. In 2010, the city of Leipzig awarded him the Bach-Medaille for his great service as a performer of music of Johann Sebastian Bach. In 2017, Philippe Herreweghe received an honorary doctorate at Ghent University.
The Orchestre des Champs-Elysées is devoted to the performance of music written from the mid-18th to the early 20th centuries (from Haydn to Mahler) played on the instruments that existed during the composer's lifetime.
For several years, the Orchestra has been in residence at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. It has also performed in almost all the major concert halls such as the Musikverein (Vienna), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Barbican Centre (London), Alte Oper (Frankfurt), the Philharmonic Halls in Berlin and Munich, the Gewandhaus (Leipzig), the Lincoln Center (New York), Parco della Musica (Rome) and the Auditoriums of Dijon and Lucerne. The orchestra also toured Japan, Korea, China and Australia.
Philippe Herreweghe is the artistic director and principal conductor. The orchestra has also played under several guest conductors, among them Daniel Harding, Christian Zacharias, Louis Langrée, Hans Holliger, Christophe Coin, and René Jacobs.
The Orchestre des Champs-Elysées feels passionately about offering an innovative approach to music, therefore, at each one of its concerts it offers the possibility of public rehearsals, conferences, or meetings and workshops with classes of school children.
The Orchestre des Champs-Elysées, partner of the TAP – Théâtre Auditorium de Poitiers, is funded by the French Ministry of Culture and the government of the Poitou-Charentes region.
The Orchestra's extensive discography include: Mozart's Requiem and Mass in C minor; Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, Ninth Symphony, and complete works for violin and orchestra; Brahms' German Requiem; Mendelssohn's Elijah, Paulus, Midsummer Night's Dream; Schumann's Szenen aus Goethes Faust, Cello Concerto, and symphonies; Berlioz's L'enfance du Christ and Nuits d'Eté; Fauré's Requiem; Bruckner's Mass No. 3 and 4th, 5th & 7th symphonies; Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn and Symphony No. 4.
fot. Robert Słuszniak www.spheresis.com
