Heading over to Cologne this week for a concert featuring the WDR Symphony led by Manfred Honeck and featuring Antoine Tamestit, viola in music of Braunfels and Mahler. Recorded by West German Radio in Cologne on February 16, 2015.
Beginning with Braunfels Scottish Fantasy for Viola and Orchestra (Antoine Tamestit, solo) and ending with Mahler’s Symphony Number 1.
Here are notes which accompanied the broadcast, giving details on the music of Walter Braunfels:
With “Scottish Fantasy”, the virtuoso French selected a work that marked Braunfels’ cautious opening to an expressionist musical language in 1932 – shortly before the National Socialists banned all compositions by the so-called “half-Jew” and forced him out of his offices. Braunfels should not recover from this blow. A renaissance, such as that experienced in particular by the music of the likewise ostracized Gustav Mahler, was denied Braunfels. Manfred Honeck is now also campaigning for his rehabilitation: the chief conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra presented an excellent recording of the “Great Mass” last year. In this concert he takes over the direction of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne.
Antoine Tamestit has premiered several contemporary compositions. He plays the Stradivarius viola Gustav Mahler.
Tamestit was born in Paris. He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris with Jean Sulem, and further with Jesse Levine at Yale University, and with Tabea Zimmermann. He was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist from 2004 to 2006.
He has performed at such venues as the Royal Concertgebouw, the Vienna Musikverein, and Carnegie Hall and with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome [14 March 2019]. In 2014, he played viola for the recording of Berlioz’s Harold en Italie,[4] conducted by Valery Gergiev.
Tamestit premiered several contemporary compositions, including Thierry Escaich’s La Nuit des chants, Bruno Mantovani’s Concerto pour deux altos et orchestre and Olga Neuwirth’s Remnants of songs… an Amphigory and Weariness heals Wounds. In 2015, he premiered Jörg Widmann’s Viola Concerto, which was commissioned by him, with the Orchestre de Paris and Paavo Järvi. This concerto depicts Tamestit’s skills and character.
Tamestit played chamber music with Emmanuel Ax, Isabelle Faust, Martin Fröst, Leonidas Kavakos, Yo-Yo Ma, Emmanuel Pahud, Francesco Piemontesi, Cédric Tiberghien, Yuja Wang, Jörg Widmann, Shai Wosner, and the Ébène Quartet.
Together with Frank Peter Zimmermann and Christian Poltéra [nl], Tamestit founded the Trio Zimmermann.
Manfred Honeck has firmly established himself as one of the world’s leading conductors, whose distinctive and revelatory interpretations receive great international acclaim. As Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, where his contract runs through the 2027-2028 season, he has entered his 17th season. Celebrated at home and abroad, he and the orchestra continue to serve as cultural ambassadors for the city of Pittsburgh. Guest appearances include Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York, as well as the major venues of Europe and leading festivals such as the BBC Proms, Salzburg Festival, Musikfest Berlin, Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Beethovenfest Bonn, and Grafenegg Festival. In summer 2024, he leads the Pittsburgh Symphony in a nine-city European Festivals Tour, starting with their appearance as the only American orchestra at the prestigious Salzburg Festival and concluding at Vienna Konzerthaus.
Relax and enjoy the concert.
