How do we know that the music we are listening to is being played according to the composers wishes? Fine if the composer is there in person and can direct or correct what he's hearing. But go back to the Baroque and surely it becomes guesswork. Violinist Daniel Hope's latest album Air is a biography of the baroque through the strings of a violin. He outlines the project, and talks also about his parallel writing career.

Daniel Hope - ein "europäischer" Geiger. Die biographischen Wurzeln des Briten reichen von Deutschland über Irland bis Südafrika. Schon als Kind wurde er von Yehudi Menuhin gefördert. Ihm zu Ehren spielt Hope heute Abend mit dem Chamber Orchestra of Europe bei den Ingolstädter Sommerkonzerten....

Interview mit Daniel Hope

„Musik ist stärker als Worte“: Ein Gespräch mit dem Geiger Daniel Hope über verstummte Komponisten, zukünftige Sinfonien und die therapeutische Wirkung von Musik.
 
Herr Hope, Sie veranstalten bei den Festspielen Mecklenburg-Vorpommern ein Gedenkkonzert zum 11. September. Wie kann Musik auf so ein Ereignis reagieren?

Wir haben Künstler aus New York eingeladen, die zum „Academy“-Programm der Carnegie Hall gehören. Die Musiker werden auch berichten, wie sie den Tag damals erlebt haben und was er für sie bedeutet. Ich denke aber, dass der stärkere Eindruck von der Musik kommen wird. Denn so bewegend viele Reden sein werden: Ich habe es oft erlebt, dass in dem Moment, in dem die Musik anfängt, alles andere in den Hintergrund tritt. Musik hat mehr Kraft als das gesprochene Wort. So war es beispielsweise, als ich ein Konzert in Dachau für 500 Überlebende des Konzentrationslagers gespielt habe. Erst als wir gespielt haben, kamen die Emotionen der Menschen richtig hoch. Musik trifft einen direkt, unabhängig davon, was gesagt wird.

Die Katastrophen des 20. Jahrhunderts haben großen Einfluss auf die Kunst gehabt. Die Musik hat sich nach dem Krieg radikal verändert. Glauben Sie, dass 9/11 auch ein künstlerischer Wendepunkt ist?

Ich denke, dass dieser Schock, der noch immer so tief sitzt, die Psyche nicht nur der Amerikaner verändert hat. Und was die Psyche verändert, verändert auch die Kunst. Ob man hier aber schon jetzt direkte Verbindungen zum 11. September herstellen kann, weiß ich nicht. Aber wenn man als Kind etwas Schreckliches erlebt, hat das oft gravierende Folgen: Den Werken der Musiker, die in den kommenden 20 Jahren Sinfonien schreiben, wird man das anhören.

Sie haben oft musikalische Projekte zu historischen Tragödien initiiert. Glauben Sie, dass Musik eine Art therapeutische Wirkung haben kann?

Es geht nicht nur um Schockerlebnisse. Ich versuche auch, die historische Erinnerung wachzuhalten. Sei es die Reichspogromnacht oder die Musik von Theresienstadt – es geht darum, Stimmen von Komponisten und Menschen erklingen zu lassen, die umgekommen sind. Fast die gesamte tschechische Musikwelt ist ja damals ausgelöscht worden. Und das hat für die Musikgeschichte entscheidende Folgen gehabt. Wir haben auf der einen Seite Webern und Schönberg, die einen fundamentalen Richtungswechsel eingeschlagen haben. Was aber gefehlt hat, ist die Musik von Komponisten wie Erwin Schulhoff oder Gideon Klein, die eine eigene tonale Stimme hatten.

Das heißt, die Musikgeschichte hätte Ihrer Meinung nach ganz anders ausgesehen, wenn einige Komponisten den Holocaust überlebt hätten?

Das ist zumindest mein Gefühl. Wenn ich mir überlege, was allein aus Klein hätte werden können, der mit Anfang 20 umgekommen ist, dann bin ich sicher, dass wir eine parallele tonale zeitgenössische Musikentwicklung hätten. Viele Komponisten kommen jetzt im 21. Jahrhundert zurück zur Tonalität.

Und die meisten davon kommen ausgerechnet aus Amerika...

Das war tatsächlich lange der Fall, aber wenn ich jetzt die wirklich jungen europäischen Komponisten beobachte, dann sehe ich auch dort einen Hang zur Tonalität. Ich finde es faszinierend, dass es gerade jetzt passiert. Es ist eine spannende Zeit.

Das klingt sehr optimistisch: Oft heißt es ja, die klassische Musik wäre vom Aussterben bedroht.

Ich denke, es gibt immer noch sehr, sehr viele Menschen, die klassische Musik hören wollen. Man muss sie aber so zugänglich machen, damit jemand, der noch keinen Zugang zur Klassik hat, es versteht. Dabei darf man aber niemals auf höchste Qualität verzichten. Es geht darum, die Ernsthaftigkeit der klassischen Musik und der Botschaften eines Komponisten so ernsthaft und zeitgemäß wie möglich rüberzubringen.

Wie kann man das erreichen?

Man muss dort beginnen, wo man etwas verändern kann. Es ist schon ein Anfang, wenn ein Lehrer mit seiner Schulklasse singt, wenn ein Laienchor eine eigene kleine Serie in der Kirche veranstaltet und so weiter. Es geht um die eigene Initiative. Ich habe aber überhaupt keine Zweifel, dass sich die klassische Musik halten wird, das hat sie schon länger als 500 Jahre getan. Man braucht jetzt trotzdem Menschen mit Ideen, die dieses Erbe weitergeben.

Sie selbst haben genug Ideen. Ein Projekt beschäftigt sich etwa mit dem Geiger Joseph Joachim. Der hat lange in Hannover gewirkt...

Als er dort ankam, hatte er gerade in Weimar mit Liszt gebrochen. Die Musikwelt war danach eine andere: Aus diesem Grund gibt es kein Violinkonzert von Liszt und keins von Wagner. In seinen Hannover-Jahren hat Joachim auch angefangen, selbst zu komponieren. Deshalb verbinde ich Hannover und Joachim sehr stark miteinander – die Stadt hat ihn beflügelt. Ich weiß, dass es dort heute den Violinwettbewerb mit seinem Namen gibt, aber meines Erachtens könnte es in Hannover noch viel mehr geben, denn Joachims Einfluss ist nicht zu unterschätzen.

Interview: Stefan Arndt

Daniel Hope wurde 1974 im südafrikanischen Durban geboren und ist einer der führenden Geiger seiner Generation. Er gehörte zum legendären Beaux Arts Trio und wurde für seine Einspielungen bislang viermal mit dem Klassik-Echo ausgezeichnet. Er veröffentlichte unter anderem das Buch „Wann darf ich klatschen?“ – eine Art Gebrauchsanweisung für Konzertbesuche. Hope entwickelt immer wieder ungewöhnliche Konzertformate wie etwa sein „Kristallnacht-Projekt“. Er ist seit diesem Jahr künstlerischer Direktor der Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Das 9/11-Konzert ist am 10. September in Schwerin zu erleben.

The violinist and artistic director of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival (Festival MV) talks about this year’s programme and its memorial concert for the victims of 9/11

Violinist Daniel Hope met the director of Festival MV when he was just eight years old. Since then, Hope has been one of the festival’s prize-winners and closely connected with the event throughout its 22-year history. Now in his first year as artistic director, Hope talks to us about this year’s festival and the 9/11 memorial concert he’s programmed on 10 September.

Tell us how you first became involved in the festival.
I’ve been connected with the festival now for almost 20 years and I was one of the first artists to start playing here when it started. The province of Mecklenburg is in the former East Germany, which at the time of the first festival was just recovering after the collapse of Communism, and I’ve seen it grow to the most extraordinary heights. I was a prize-winner and one of the young artists in the early days, and my involvement grew until one day they asked me if I’d consider taking on the position of artistic director.

Was the decision to take on the role an easy one?
I love the opportunity of inviting friends and colleagues to perform and creating programmes, whether I’m a part of that in terms of performance or whether I just get to listen. I am performing at Festival MV but I try not to programme myself too much because I don’t think it’s the job of a music director to be always on the stage. But the festival did want me to have a musical presence as well as a programming one.

You’ve overseen the 124 concerts for this year’s programme – including a remembrance concert for the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. How did you go about choosing the music for that concert?
It was quite a challenge because something like that demands music which is solemn, but at the same time the choice of music needed to have some kind of significance. The first piece that came to mind was Strauss’s Metamorphosen because it’s a work that’s about war, destruction and it touches people very deeply. For the rest of the programme I asked the other musicians (from the New York-based Ensemble ACJW) to come up with solo pieces and they chose Stravinsky’s Elegy for Viola, a piece by a young American composer, Adam Schoenberg, called Ayudame and I will play the Kaddisch, by Ravel, which is the Jewish prayer for the dead. The Rabbi of the province, a man called William Wolffe, will be speaking at the concert as well. He’s almost 90 and was born in Germany but escaped the Nazis and fled to Holland and then Hendon. He’s back in Germany now and I thought he was the ideal figurehead for the concert.

What about the future?
I will certainly be working as the festival’s artistic director for the next three years and we’re discussing things after that. The people of the province are so proud of the festival and we feel we’ve really accomplished so much here, so I’m certainly staying around.

Interview by Elizabeth Davis

Intervew alässlich derKonzerttournee in der Schwez im April 2011

LINK

Musical tradition comes naturally for Hope

Daniel Hope did not come from a musical family. In fact, when the celebrated violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin asked Hope's mother if she could tell the difference between Bach and Beethoven, her response was, “Yeah, I think so.”

Menuhin wasn't idly quizzing the woman on her knowledge of classical music; this was a job interview. She gave the answer with enough confidence that she got the job, as Menuhin's secretary. “And before we could blink, we were thrust into the world of music,” Daniel Hope said.

Out of that world of music, Hope has created another world of music, a mini-empire that spans continents and books, festivals and collaborations. Hope makes his debut at the Aspen Music Festival Friday, in a concert with the Aspen Chamber Symphony and conductor Robert Spano, the festival's music director-designate. Hope, a 37-year-old violinist, will be featured in two pieces: Ravel's “Tzigane,” and the American premiere of “Unfinished Journey,” a 2009 piece for violin and strings that Hope commissioned from Lebanese composer Bechara El Khoury, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Menuhin's death.

Hope moves over to the Harris Hall on Tuesday, July 19, for “A Baroque Evening with Daniel Hope,” a concert featuring works by the best-known figures of the Baroque period — Bach, Vivaldi, Telemann — and also spotlights the work of Westhoff, a largely forgotten composer who, according to Hope, was considered superior to his colleague Bach early in their careers. “He was one of the great violinists of his day. And a great discovery for me,” said Hope, who featured Westhoff on his 2009 album “Air: A Baroque Journey.”

It is a bit of a wonder that Hope is in Aspen at all. While he is in Colorado, the Mecklenburg Festival, which Hope serves as music director, carries on without him. Hope, however, already did his bit in Mecklenburg this summer, premiering El Khoury's War Concerto last month. And there will be time for Hope to return to his festival this summer; Mecklenburg, the third largest festival in Germany, spans three months, 80 venues and 125 performances. Under Hope, who took over in Mecklenburg last year, the festival began a young musicians exchange program with Carnegie Hall and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Hope is also the associate artistic director of the Savannah Music Festival, in Georgia, an early-spring gathering that covers jazz, country, bluegrass, gospel, Portuguese fado, and Indian styles, as well as classical.

And there are the projects. Over the last 15 years, Hope has been researching composers murdered by the Nazis; the interest has been manifested in a 2008 concert at the Berlin airport to commemorate the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, and a series of events with mezzo soprano Anne Sofie von Otter, including a concert tour and the 2007 recording, “Terezin.” Hope's latest recording, “The Romantic Violinist,” is designed to cast a light on Joseph Joachim, a 19th century musician whom Hope says was instrumental in the creation of violin concerto repertoire.

Hope is also an author, with three books to his credit. The first was a family history, tracing how the Nazis took over his ancestral villa, in Berlin, and made it into a center for Nazi cryptology. The second, “When Do I Applaud?” is a guide to concertgoing etiquette and customs. “Toi Toi Toi,” which translates as “good luck,” catalogues classical music catastrophes, from onstage deaths to the story that Sting, a friend of Hope's, told him, about a vocalist who collapsed on the Royal Albert Hall stage during the Proms concerts, and was promptly replaced by a member of the audience.

Hope has his own music tragedy to tell. As a 7-year-old in his first performance, at London's South Bank Center, with his teacher and several other young players, Hope leaned back against a swinging door and disappeared, to the laughter of the audience.

“I came back in, more laughter. I was incredibly embarrassed — and hadn't even played a note yet. My career was over before it began,” he recalled. Hope adds that the experience has had a happy ending: “I realized, it's not about the mishap, but about how you recover, how you make it not a disaster. Whenever I get nervous, I think about that moment and it relaxes me.”

Hope's entry into the music realm was less of a mixed experience. After Menuhin hired his mother, Hope practically became a fixture at the Menuhin house.

“I was soaking up the music — not only Menuhin, but Stéphane Grappelli, Ravi Shankar, people who came on a daily basis. I remember pulling the spike out from Rostropovich's cello,” he said. “It wasn't even a question of wanting to become a musician; music was implanted in my brain.”

One issue loomed over his career — a potential conflict of interest with his mother's employer. Menuhin intentionally kept his distance from the young Hope, until, when Hope was 16, he heard Hope play — and immediately brought him on a concert tour, with Menuhin conducting and Hope as soloist.

“It was the best possible way of learning those pieces,” Hope, who toured with Menuhin for 10 years and performed at the conductor's final concert, said. “It's one thing learning them with your teacher; it's another to play them in concert for an audience with someone who knows those pieces better than anyone in the world.
stewart@aspentimes.com

Brahms Hungarian Dances, WoO" - No.1 in G minor; No.5 in G minor (both arr. Marc-Olivier Dupin). Scherzo in C minor, Wo02. Geistliches Wiegenlied, Op. 91 No. 2. Bruch Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op. 26. Dvorak Humoresque in G flat, B187 No.7 (arr. Franz Waxman). Joachim Romanze, Op. 2 No.1. Notturno, Op. 12. Schubert Auf dem Wasser zu singen, D774 (transcr. Hope). C. Schumann Romanze, Op. 22 No. 1.

Daniel Hope (violin/Cviola); with Anne-Sofie von Otter (mezzo); Sebastian Knauer, Bengt Forsberg (pianos); Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/Sakari Oramo.

DG 477 9301 (full price, 1 hour 6 minutes). German texts and English/French translations included.

Website www.deutschegrammophon.com

Producer John West Engineers Mike Hatch, Dave Rowell. Date August 2010.

When I glanced at the track listing for this release, entitled 'The Romantic Violinist - A celebration of Joseph Joachim', my spontaneous reaction was one of instant disappointment. Any violinist keen to proselytize Joachim's cause on disc could find enough music (much of it un-recorded) by this hugely influential figure to fill several CDs, whereas Daniel Hope's latest offering for the yellow label opens with yet another recording of that mercilessly over-recorded violin concerto, Max Bruch's First in G minor, Op. 26. Where was Joachim's own splendid Violin Concerto in Hungarian Style, Op. 11 (written in 1853 and probably his finest work), or the affecting and idiomatic E minor Variations for violin and orchestra, dedicated to Sarasate?

Ironically, Joachim's most frequently recorded compositions are his indispensable cadenzas for the Beethoven and Brahms concertos. Collectors seeking a more representative introduction to his output as a composer will find Elmar Oliveira's version of the Hungarian Concerto, coupled with two fine orchestral works, the Hamlet, Op. 4 and Henry IV, Op. 7 Overtures, well worth seeking out. (It was released in 1991 on Pickwick IMP Masters MCD27 and subsequently reissued on Carlton Classics 6702092.)

Why, then, does Hope give us yet another Bruch G minor, albeit one which proves to be far from superfluous? History relates that Bruch's original 1886 score was completely overhauled by Joachim, who premiered the revised (and now mandatory) version in Bremen in 1868. Still, whether or not that fact is in itself sufficient to warrant its inclusion here is open to debate. What is certain, however, is that the present account is superlative in every regard - so fine, in fact, that I'm inclined to overlook the omission of Joachim's Hungarian Concerto, which no doubt he'd play equally well! This performance overflows with incident and rich musical detailing and, like James Ehnes's live BBC TV performance with Gianandrea Noseda and the BBCPhilharmonic at the 2010 Proms, which many readers will doubtless recall with pleasure, it serves as a telling reminder of how able an orchestrator Bruch actually was. If Hope breathes new life into this ubiquitous war-horse, no less impressive is

the contribution of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic under Sakari Oramo, who, as a fiddler himself, knows this piece inside out.

Oramo deliberately stresses the violas' tremolando entry at 1'35" in the opening movement (a detail lost to the ear in many recordings) and Hope's unexpected yet tremendously effective finger-substitution at l' 54" made me gasp with surprise upon first hearing. The horn crescendo at 2'05" often goes unobserved, too, and the lovely counter theme for first oboe (3'15") during the lyrical second episode is beautifully managed here. Oramo ushers in the noble second subject of the AdagiO (Richard Strauss must have had this theme in mind when he wrote his Alpensirifonie) with dignified understatement, and the cellos' counter melody supporting the solo line at 2'48" comes across as the composer might have wished. The finale dazzles, rounding out a captivating and insightful reading that probably deserves to be here after all!

Oramo and the Stockholmers join Hope again in Marc-Olivier Dupin's orchestrations of two Hungarian Dances by Brahms, originally transcribed for violin and piano by Joachim himself, in which form purists inight well have preferred them here. Yet these arrangements return to the spirit if not the letter of Joachim's own versions; both are tremendously well played and it would be hard to imagine anybody failing to respond to their visceral energy and momentum. By contrast, the Waxman arrangement of the familiar Dvorak Humoresque has an old- world charm which left me wondering if Hope had ever seen the heavily stylized 1926 film footage of Mischa Elman playing the piece with piano accompaniment.

Joachim's Op. 12 Notturno in A for violin and orchestra (1858) is at once substantial and original and receives a glowing performance. Joachim introduced the young Brahms to the Schumanns in 1853, 'and it's good to find the inclusion of Clara's Romanze, Op, 22 No.1, a work they often performed together. The so-called 'F-A-E Sonata' takes its name from Joachim's personal motto Jrei aber einsam ('free but solitary') and was written for him in the same year by Robert Schumann, Albert Dietrich and Brahms, whose C minor Scherzo is arrestingly realized by Hope and pianist Sebastian Knauer. It's also a pleasure to hear Anne-Sofie von Otter in one of Brahms's songs with obbligato viola.

Finally, it's worth noting that Joachim, who survived into the recording era, can be heard on several historical reissues from Pearl, Opal Recordings and Testament. Nevertheless, as one listens to him now it's hard to reconcile his slow, wideamplitude vibrato, frequent use of portamentos and often wayward intonation with the towering musical figure to whom Daniel Hope pays affectionate tribute in this release. This is an exceptionally fine issue, repertoire concerns notwithstanding.

Michael Jameson

Bruch: Violin Concerto in G minor;
plus works by Brahms, Dvorak,
Joachim, Schubert & C Schumann

Daniel Hope (violin, viola). Sebastian
Knauer, Bengt Forsberg (piano). Anne- Sofie von Otter (mezzo-soprano); Royal
Stockholm PO/Sakari Oramo
DG4779301 66:15 mins
BBC Music Direct £12.99

The centrepiece of Daniel Hope's affectionate tribute to the great Hungarian-born violinist Joseph Joachim, Bruch's G minor Concerto, receives a warmly committed account from the soloist and the hugely responsive Royal Stockholm Philharmonic under Sakari Oramo. As in his recording of the Mendelssohn, Hope never takes this over-familiar score for granted and has imaginative things to say at every juncture. Some may feel the violin cadenzas at the opening are a bit too self-consciously elongated. Also the recording places Hope rather close to the microphone, making the double stop passage work in the first movement and finale sound unnecessarily aggressive.

The rest of the programme presents an attractive sequence of shorter pieces, including the only available recording ofJoachim's Notturno for violin and orchestra. Although hardly a major discovery, the inventive orchestral fabric excluding violins gives the work a distinctly autumnal hue. I was somewhat less convinced by the rather rough and ready string orchestral transcriptions of Brahms's First and Fifth Hungarian Dances. Also why didn't Hope give us all three of Clara Schumann's Romances; and why omit the first of Brahms's glorious Op. 91 songs? The final item, Dvorak's ubiquitous Humoresque as arranged Hollywood-style by Franz Waxman, seems idiomatically out of place here, though Hope's performance is certainly seductive.

Erik Levi

PERFORMANCE ****
RECORDING ****

At the Berlin Philharmonie Kammermusiksaal - 18th December 2011
By Mai Kawabata
 
British violinist Daniel Hope (b. 1974) resists pigeonholing. Yes, he studied with legendary teacher Zakhar Bron (who also trained the likes of Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin). Not one to coast on pedigree, however, Hope has carved out a wide-ranging and eclectic career as a soloist and director motivated by pursuing projects that genuinely seem to inspire and energize him.
 
His collaboration with the Berlin Baroque Soloists, for the fourth Sunday of Advent, is a case in point.
 
This was not your usual Baroque Christmas concert. Sure, there was astonishing virtuosity (Hope’s technique is formidable). Sure, there was “Winter” from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (almost a must for such a concert). But the concert went way beyond those two certainties with its adventurous programming, freshness of approach, and sheer joy in ensemble teamwork.
 
The first surprise: no Bach! Instead, we had Telemann: his A-minor Violin Concerto (TWV 51:a1) and Double Violin Concerto in E-minor (TWV 52:e4), for which Hope was joined by principal second violinist Bernhard Forck. Here, spiccato bows came off with maximum vitality, so energetic and percussive that it didn’t seem to matter which direction the bows were going in (up-bow or down-bow) so much as they seemed to be moving along a vertical axis.
 
Dynamic playing, and especially energetic bowing, was also evident in Vivaldi’s Double Violin Concerto in A-minor (RV 522), again with Forck. The two soloists smiled at each other as they played, supported by a small orchestra of a dozen members (many of them drawn from the ranks of the Berlin Philharmonic), who were just as engaged in making phrases come alive.
 
Speaking through a microphone (in fluent German), Hope addressed the audience, comparing Vivaldi’s dramatic music to the European economic situation and the interaction of the soloists to that of Merkel and Sarkozy.
 
Germans may not exactly be known for their sense of humor, yet Hope had the audience laughing out loud. His ease on the stage, his ability to connect with his audience, and the relaxed ambiance that he creates are all remarkable. Hope’s natural charm is the polar opposite of those awkward attempts to “make classical music accessible” by crowd-shy ivory-tower musicians who are made to talk to the audience by administrators.
 
In the middle part of the program, the forces were pared down to an ensemble consisting of two violins and continuo (cello, harpsichord, and theorbo/lute). The change of texture was a nice touch, asking for a different kind of listening. The reduced ensemble played a series of short pieces, from the very famous “La Folia” by Vivaldi, to the very obscure “Imitations” by Johann Paul von Westhoff (a seventeenth-century German violinist) in which the violin imitates the sound of bells (using bariolage), the sound of a lute (using pizzicato), and the sound of “war” (lots of aggressive string-crossing accompanied by drums).
 
Because of all the personnel changes, no single musician played in every number of the program – with the exception of Hope himself. He played tirelessly (using, I should add, a beautiful unnamed Baroque bow), and even came back to play the last movement of Summer as an encore.
 
It was a fitting close to a concert in which Hope had blasted us with warmth as an oasis from the chilly Berlin winter.

Ein bisschen ist es Ironie des Schicksals, wenn gerade der Autor eines der originellsten Musikbücher der Gegenwart, das erklärt, wie das mit dem Klatschen im Konzertsaal funktioniert, mit dem ersten Satz von Brahms' "Regenlied-Sonate" im Gewandhaus Beifall provoziert. Er nimmt's mit Humor. Sollte er auch, muss er die despektierliche Bekundung spontanen Gefallens doch als Lob seiner einzigartigen Kunst verstehen.

Es ist eines der absoluten Bonbons der diesjährigen Mendelssohn-Tage: Daniel Hope und Sebastian Knauer huldigen im Mendelssohn-Saal Joseph Joachim.

Ein Programm aus Originalliteratur und Bearbeitungen haben sie zusammengetragen, das eine vom ersten bis zum letzten Ton faszinierende Auseinandersetzung mit dem Phänomen Joachim ermöglicht. Die bleibt bei einem Geiger wie Hope nicht bei der historiographischen Reflexion stehen, sondern ist musikalischer Diskurs und Genuss gleichermaßen. Joachim, der Bearbeiter, Joachim der Interpret, und Joachim der Komponist - unaufdringlich blitzen diese Figuren und ihre inspirative Kraft in dem Programm auf. Das ist trotzdem angenehm heutig. Es ist ein stimmiger Vormittag, getragen von einer bestechenden Mischung aus Intellektualität und Musikantentum.

Keine vordergründige Virtuosenliteratur ist es, die das Wechselspiel zwischen zwei Ausnahmemusikern trägt. Diese Kunst lebt von einem grandiosen Gespür für Dramaturgie und klangliche Feinheiten. Durchdacht und dennoch unmittelbar ziehen Hope und Knauer die großen Linien zwischen Formspiel und genialischen melodischen Einfällen. Ihre in das eigenwillig schöne Programm integrierten eigenen Bearbeitungen von Mendelssohn-Liedern sind eine Entdeckung mit Suchtpotenzial. "Felix macht glücklich!" - Ohne Zweifel, aber nicht allein er.

Tatjana Böhme-Mehner

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. His Sunday recital in Palo Alto -- part of the Music@Menlo chamber music festival -- raised certain Romantic works to a 103 degree fever-pitch, then turned cozy and meditative, drifting through delicate reveries toward a state of wonder. Everyone was content, even the birds outside; their songs grew perkier during the recital, which happened at twilight.

Performing at St. Mark's Episcopal Church with the pianist Wu Han, Hope curated his own "Carte Blanche" concert for the festival, cherry-picking favorites. And as this year's festival centers around Brahms, Hope built his recital around a figure central to the life of Brahms: the Hungarian violinist Joseph Joachim. A towering player of the 19th century, he was a sort of Zelig figure in musical culture -- a friend and musical counselor to Brahms, Dvorak, Schumann, Bruch and other composers, connecting and inspiring them to create a slew of the Romantic era's landmark works.

Fearing that Joachim's legacy is being forgotten, Hope earlier this year issued a CD on the Deutsche Grammophon label titled "The Romantic Violinist: A Celebration of Joseph Joachim." Picking up this thread Sunday, he opened with Dvorak's Four Romantic Pieces for Violin and Piano, Op. 75, setting parameters: the stomping Bohemian folk theme of the second movement, the gorgeous double-stopped melodic fragments of the fourth, gently nuzzled and grazed.

Hope explained to the audience that it was Joachim who introduced young Brahms to Robert and Clara Schumann, setting in motion one of the 19th century's most complicated (and creatively fertile) triangular relationships. Extending his thread, Hope played Clara Schumann's Romance, Op. 22, No.1, a work that she (a legendary pianist) and Joachim performed on tour. Their fans included King George V, who "went into ecstasy" over the Romance, Hope explained. "So I thought I'd just warn you."

Sunday's performance was sturdy and sweet, but 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 -- and its accessibility, like some amazing pop ballad. That opening melody, those startling chords! Where in the depths of imagination does a composer even conceive of such things?

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 -- a fragility, even. One could imagine Debussy hearing this music and finding inspiration in it.

The concert's second half was more consistently extroverted. It included the controlled fever of "Hexenlied" ("Witches Song"), Op. 8, by Felix Mendelssohn, an important mentor to Joachim. (Mendelssohn composed the piece for voice and piano; Hope arranged it for violin and piano.) It also included a work composed by Joachim, his Romance, Op. 2, No. 1, heavy with nostalgia, here given a swaying and aching performance by Hope and his accompanist.

Then something unusual happened as Hope's recital approached its end: The violinist stepped back into the ranks of a festival all-star quartet.

Out came violist Paul Neubauer and cellist David Finckel, who founded the festival in 2003 with Wu Han, his wife. (She and Finckel are Menlo's artistic directors.) With Wu Han still at the piano, and the audience cheering, the group settled in for Brahms' Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 25.

Finckel has a way of galvanizing performances, and this one was electric.

The members of the group played like old friends, bending with one another, growing ferocious or seeming to ask some big metaphysical question with each repetition of the four-note theme that sighs through much of the opening Allegro. Each movment of this vast piece is a latticework; there's always something new to take in.

This time, the otherworldy textures at the close of the Intermezzo were especially precise and eerie. While the closing Rondo alla zingarese (Rondo in the Gypsy Style) took off like a Lamborghini on a mountain pass: accelerations and decelerations, stops and starts and whiplash turns -- a wild ride, brilliantly executed. When it was over, some teenagers at the back of the hall -- young musicians from the festival's summer institute -- broke into laughter and sang another chorus of Brahms' Gypsy song.

By Richard Scheinin