Franz Schubert – Salvatore Sciarrino

For chamber music lovers, the 2018/2019 season thus offers a number of welcome opportunities for utter listening enjoyment – “unforgettable moments of sheer musical magic” (Drehpunkt Kultur). The Hagen Quartet will be focusing on Franz Schubert for this season. In addition, they will also be directing their attention mainly to Shostakovich, but also to Beethoven, Dvořák and Schumann with all their tonal shapes and concentrated musical details.

Once again, in the course of this concert season, the Hagen Quartet’s performance schedule will take them to the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Wigmore Hall London and moreover to Brussels, Hamburg, Cologne and Berlin, to name but a few. They are also guests again at the Salzburg Festival and the Schubertiade Hohenems. In Asia there will be another tour with concerts in Tokyo and Fukushima as well as concerts in China, Macao and Taiwan. The Hagen Quartet will travel to the United States for concerts at Carnegie Hall New York, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Philadelphia.

The Hagen Quartet’s recording featuring the Mozart String Quintets K387 and K458 was awarded the Diapason d'or and the Choc of Classica Magazine (France), as well as the coveted German ECHO Klassik Prize (2016) for the Best Chamber Music Recording of the 17th/18th Centuries.

In 2011, the Hagen Quartet celebrated their 30th anniversary with two recordings for Myrios Classics featuring works by Mozart, Webern, Beethoven, Grieg and the Brahms Clarinet Quintet (with Jörg Widmann). That same year, the Hagen Quartet won the ECHO Klassik Prize as Ensemble of the Year; in 2012, the quartet was named Honorary Member of the Vienna Konzerthaus.

The Hagen Quartet’s unprecedented 3 1/2-decade career began in 1981. Its early years, marked by a series of prizes in chamber music competitions and an exclusive recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon that was to produce around forty-five CDs over the following twenty years, enabled the group to work its way through the immensely vast repertoire for string quartet in which this ensemble’s distinctive profile has emerged. Collaborations with artistic personalities such as György Kurtág and the late Nikolaus Harnoncourt are as important to the Hagen Quartet as its concert appearances with performers including Maurizio Pollini, Mitsuko Uchida, Sabine Meyer, Krystian Zimerman, Heinrich Schiff, and Jörg Widmann.

The group’s concert repertoire and discography feature attractive and intelligently arranged programmes embracing the entire history of the string quartet genre, from its pre-Haydn beginnings right through to Kurtág. The Hagen Quartet also works closely with composers of its own generation: not only reviving existing works, but also commissioning and premiering new pieces.

Many young string quartets regard the Hagen Quartet as a model in terms of sound quality, stylistic variety, ensemble playing and serious commitment to the works and composers of the genre. As teachers and mentors at the Salzburg Mozarteum and the Hochschule in Basel, as well as in international masterclasses, the quartet’s members pass on their great wealth of experience to younger colleagues.

The Hagen Quartet plays on old Italian master instruments.

“Music that sounds as if it came from another planet...” “The pinnacle of musicality!”

(Drehpunkt Kultur and Die Presse.com)

Widmann was awarded the Bayerischer Staatspreis for music in 2017, honouring her individuality and exceptional musicianship. Widmann was also the recipient of an International Classical Music Award (Concerto category) for her critically acclaimed recording of both Mendelssohn’s and Schumann’s Violin Concertos with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, released in August 2016 by ECM and which Widmann herself conducted from the violin.

Named ‘Musician of the Year’ at the International Classical Music Awards 2013, Widmann has enjoyed collaborations with some of the world’s leading orchestras include the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Orchestre National de France, Tonhalle Zurich, Czech Philharmonic, Vienna Radio Symphony, Bayerische Rundfunk, and Sydney Symphony, with distinguished conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle, Riccardo Chailly, Sir Roger Norrington, Edward Gardner, Sakari Oramo, Vladimir Jurowski, Marek Janowski, Christoph von Dohnányi and Daniel Harding. She has also appeared at such widely known festivals as Berliner Festspiele, Salzburg, Lucerne, Festival d' Automne, Ravinia Festival and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. During the 2014-15 season, Widmann was Artist-in-Residence at the Alte Oper, Frankfurt, which included numerous recital and chamber performances and a play/direct project on gut strings with Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin. That season also saw Carolin perform the world premiere of a new violin concerto written for her by Julian Anderson, at the Southbank Centre with the London Philharmonic under Jurowski.

Following the release of Widmann’s critically acclaimed Mendelssohn/Schumann Concerto’s disc, the 2016/2017 season saw her give debuts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Irish Chamber Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonia do Estado de São Paulo, Halle Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony, as well as Nuremberg Philharmonic. Widmann also premiered Michael Zev Gordon’s new violin concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo.

Highlights of Widmann’s 2018-19 season include invitations to the Berliner Philharmoniker, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, RSB Orchester Berlin, London Philharmonic, Gulbenkian Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony, Orchestra della Svizzera italiana and the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig. She will also perform the world premiere of Jörg Widmann’s 

Violin Concerto No. 2 at Suntory Hall in Tokyo and will perform the work in Europe with Orchestre de Paris and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding and Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Alte Oper under Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

A prolific chamber musician, Carolin appears regulary at the leading concert halls including Wigmore Hall, Bozar in Brussels, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. This season she will embark on major recital tours of North and South America, Italy and she will return to the Wiener Konzerthaus to perform an all Beethoven recital as part of their Beethoven celebrations.

Her discs of Schubert and Schumann sonatas received critical acclaim including the “Diapason d'Or” and the German Record Critics' Award. In 2006, Carolin Widmann's debut CD, “Reflections I,” was named “Critics' Choice of the Year” by the German Record Critics’ Award Association. Her recording of Morton Feldman’s concerto “Violin and Orchestra” with Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra under Emilio Pomarico was released in 2013.

Carolin Widmann was born in Munich and studied with Igor Ozim in Cologne, Michèle Auclair in Boston and David Takeno at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

Since 2006, she has been professor of violin at Leipzig’s University of Music and Theatre “Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy”. Carolin Widmann plays a G.B. Guadagnini violin from 1782.

His musical career path has been enriched from Italy till Conservatoire de Paris and at Université Paris IV (Sorbonne), where he has obtained his doctor degree with the highest honour (congratulations from the jury) in April 2015, specialized in interpretation, research and practice, with his thesis on the interpretation of time in L'orologio di Bergson of Salvatore Sciarrino and Carceri d'Invenzione IIb of Brian Ferneyhough. Being the laureate at several other competitions, he also won the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis at Darmstadt.

He has collaborated with numerous soloists of his generation such as the singers Stéphane Degout and Barbara Hannigan, the harpists Anneleen Lenaerts and Émilie Gastaud. As a soloist he has played with BBC Scottish Orchestra and the Ensemble Intercontemporain. He has worked with some of the well-renowned composers, conductors and artists of his time such as Salvatore Sciarrino, Brian Ferneyhough, Pierre Boulez, Péter Eötvös, Matthias Pintscher, Tito Ceccherini, Ivan Fedele, Hugues Dufourt, Stefano Gervasoni, Bruno Mantovani, Michael Finnissy and Pierluigi Billone.

He has given quantities of masterclasses and seminars organized by the Conservatory of Shanghai (China), Tokyo University of the Arts (Japan), Monash University (Australia) and University of London (UK). On a very regular base, he works as a teaching assistant in the composition class of Salvatore at Accademia Chigiana of Siena in Italy.

In summer 2020, mid-pandemic, Capuçon brought music directly into the lives of families across the length and breadth of France, free of charge, during his musical odyssey ‘Un été en France’. During July 2022, for the third edition of this project, he performs 15 concerts across the nation including Autun, Clairveaux, Eauz, and his hometown of Chambéry. He also showcases 14 young musicians and 8 young dancers within his concert presentations.

Committed to exploring and expanding the cello repertoire, Capuçon performs an extensive array of works each season and regularly premieres new commissions. Current projects include collaborations with Lera Auerbach, Danny Elfman and Thierry Escaich.

In the 2022/23 season, Capuçon appears with, amongst others, Boston Symphony Orchestra (Andris Nelsons), Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Manfred Honeck), San Francisco Symphony (Michael Tilson Thomas), Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks (Marie Jacquot), Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (Andris Nelsons), NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester (Pablo Heras-Casado), Munich Philharmonic (Lorenzo Viotti), Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich (Christoph Eschenbach), Orchestre de Paris (Klaus Mäkelä), and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (Semyon Bychkov). He is the Curating Artist at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, and in addition, Capuçon plays at Festivals worldwide, including the Salzburg, Grafenegg, and Verbier Festivals.

In recital, Capucon pairs regularly with Frank Braley and Jérôme Ducros – while other chamber music partners include Nikolai Lugansky and Gabriela Montero as well as Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Lisa Batiashvili, Renaud Capuçon, Leonidas Kavakos, Andreas Ottensamer, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Daniil Trifonov, Yuja Wang, the Labèque sisters and the Artemis, Ébène and Hagen quartets.

Recording exclusively for Erato (Warner Classics), Capuçon has won multiple awards and holds an extensive discography. His latest album Sensations is due to be released in Autumn 2022, exploring short pieces from a range of different genres. His album of romantic works by Brahms and Rachmaninoff in collaboration with Andreas Ottensammer and Yuja Wang is also released in Autumn 2022 by Deutsche Grammophon. 2020’s Warner Classics album Emotions features music from composers such as Debussy, Schubert and Elgar and has achieved gold status in France, remaining at Number 1 in the charts for over 30 weeks and selling more than 110,000 copies. Earlier recordings include concertos by Shostakovich (Mariinsky Orchestra with Valery Gergiev) and Saint-Saëns (Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France with Lionel Bringuier); the complete Beethoven Sonatas with Frank Braley; Schubert’s String Quintet with the Ébène Quartet; Intuition with Orchestre de Chambre de Paris/ (Douglas Boyd and Jérôme Ducros); an album of Schumann works, recorded live with Martha Argerich, Renaud Capuçon and Chamber Orchestra of Europe/ (Bernard Haitink); Beethoven Piano Trios with Renaud Capuçon and Frank Braley; Chopin and Franck sonatas with Yuja Wang; and a solo album featuring Bach, Dutilleux and Kodaly as well as a “Best of” recording on occasion of his 40th birthday.

Capuçon has been featured on DVD in live performances with the Wiener Philharmoniker (Saint-Saens Cello Concerto No.1) Berliner Philharmoniker (Haydn Cello Concerto No.1) and with Lisa Batiashvili, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann (Brahms’s Concerto for Violin and Cello). A household name in his native France, he also appears on screen and online in shows such as Prodiges, Now Hear This, and The Artist Academy, and is a guest presenter on Radio Classique in the show Les Carnets de Gautier Capuçon. 

Born in Chambéry, Capuçon began playing the cello at the age of five. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris with Philippe Muller and Annie Cochet-Zakine, and later with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna. Now, he performs with world leading orchestras, works with conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Christoph Eschenbach, Andrès Orozco-Estrada, Pablo Heras-Casado, Klaus Mäkelä, Andris Nelsons, and Christian Thielemann, and collaborates with contemporary composers including Lera Auerbach, Karol Beffa, Esteban Benzecry, Nicola Campogrande, Qigang Chen, Bryce Dessner, Jérôme Ducros, Henry Dutilleux, Thierry Escaich, Philippe Manoury, Bruno Mantovani, Krzysztof Penderecki, Wolfgang Rihm, and Jörg Widmann. 

Salvatore Sciarrino has already written three operas and a concert cycle for him. In 2017 the versatile artist made his highly regarded conducting debut at the Staatsoper Berlin with Aribert Reimann's "Gespenstersonate". Upcoming projects are the premiere of the opera "Violetter Schnee" by Beat Furrer under the direction of Matthias Pintscher and Claus Guth, and the premiere of the reworking of Jörg Widmann's "Babylon" directed by Daniel Barenboim and Andreas Kriegenburg, both at the Staatsoper Berlin, the premiere of "Thérèse by Philipp Maintz at the Salzburger Osterfestspielen and the Hamburgischen Staatsoper, for which he wrote the libretto, and in which he will also sing the role of "Laurent", as well as a concert tour with "Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen" by Gustav Mahler and directed by Maxime Pascal. 

He is the percussionist of the Ensemble recherche since 1988.

Together with Marcus Weiss and Nic Hodges he forms the trio accanto. In addition to his performances of new music, he has focused on non-European music and free improvisation.

He has given solo concerts throughout Europe. In the season 2010/11 he was one of the "Rising Stars" from the European Concert Hall Organisation.Important appearances include: Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Athens, Berliner Festspiele, Brussel Festival, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Huddersfield Festival, Lucerne Festival, Monday evening concerts Los Angeles, Rachmaninov Hall Moskau, Festival d'Autome Paris, Ircam Paris, Rome, Salzburg Festival, Schleswig Holstein Festival, Suntory Hall Tokyo, Wien Modern, Wittener Tage für neue Kammermusik, Zürich Festival für neue Musik and others.

He has recorded for several labels including Kairos, col legno, Stradivarius, Winter & Winter, neon and his recordings have been the recipients of numerous awards.

Christian Dierstein works together regulary with several of the greatest living composers, figures such as Hans Abrahamsen, Beat Furrer, Hugues Dufourt, Helmut Lachenmann, Rebecca Saunders, Salvatore Sciarrino.

Since 2001 he is Professor for percussion and new chamber music at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel, Switzerland.

He gave masterclasses in Buenos Aires, Berlin, Chicago, Los Angeles, Genf, Madrid, Moskau, New York, Oslo, Peking, Valencia, Tiflis and others. Since 2008 he is one of the percussion tutor of the Darmstädter summer courses, since 2011 he is the percussion tutor of the Impuls academy in Graz, since 2014 regular guest teacher in Madrid and 2017 tutor of the Luzern academy.