Christian Zacharias & Leipziger Streichquartett

Echter'Classic Festival

Deze inhoud is helaas niet in het Nederlands beschikbaar.

Christian Zacharias and the Leipzig String Quartet have been musical friends for many years. In 2025, the legendary musicians will go on tour together for the last time before Christian Zacharias retires from the piano and concentrates more on his work as a conductor.

Christian Zacharias is the narrator among the conductors and pianists of his generation. In each of his thoughtful, detailed and clearly articulated interpretations, it is clear that Zacharias is interested in what lies behind the notes.

With a unique combination of integrity and individuality, brilliant linguistic expressiveness, deep musical understanding and a sure artistic instinct, as well as his charismatic and engaging artistic personality, Christian Zacharias has established himself not only as the world's leading conductor and pianist, but also as a musical thinker. Numerous acclaimed concerts with the world's best orchestras, outstanding conductors and soloists, and multiple honors and recordings characterize his international career.

Christian Zacharias has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada since 2021/2022. He has also been part of the artistic management team of the Orchestre National Auvergne Rhône-Alpes as Associate Conductor since 2021/2022. In 2020, Zacharias was also appointed Honorary Conductor of the George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra Bucharest. Concerts also regularly take him to the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, the Orchestre National du Toulouse, the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, among others. He is also a welcome guest with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra and the Lyon National Orchestra.

Piano recitals, which are occasionally still part of his busy schedule, take him to the major cities of Europe, including Paris, London, Madrid and Frankfurt, as well as to the Schubertiade, La Roque d'Anthéron and Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse. In addition to recitals, Zacharias offers his audiences impressive musical insights in piano lectures on topics such as “Why does Schubert sound like Schubert?” or “From Couperin to Poulenc, from madrigals to Edith Piaf”.

A particular love of opera led to the musical direction of Mozart's La Clemenza di Tito and Le Nozze di Figaro as well as Offenbach's La Belle Hélène. Nicolai's production of The Merry Wives of Windsor, which he conducted at the Opéra Royal de Wallonie in Liège, was awarded the Prix de l'Europe Francophone 2014/2015 by the Association Professionnelle de la Critique Théâtre, Musique et Danse in Paris.

He has also made the following films since 1990: Domenico Scarlatti in Sevilla, Robert Schumann - der Dichter spricht (both for INA, Paris), Zwischen Bühne und Künstlerzimmer (for WDR-arte), De B comme Beethoven à Z comme Zacharias (for RTS, Switzerland) and the recording of all of Beethoven's piano concertos (for SSR-arte).

Christian Zacharias' musical work has been honored many times, among others with the Midem Classical Award Artist of the Year 2007, the honorable distinction Officier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of the French State as well as an award from Romania for his services to culture. In addition, Christian Zacharias was appointed a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 2016 and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Gothenburg in 2017.

During his time as chief conductor of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, he made numerous recordings that were highly praised by the international press. Particularly noteworthy is the complete recording of all of Mozart's piano concertos - awarded the Diapason d'Or de l'Année, Choc du Monde de la Musique and ECHO Klassik - as well as all of Schumann's symphonies. Almost twenty years later, two albums with sonatas by Haydn and partitas and suites by Bach were released in 2022/2023.

In the 35 years of its existence, the Leipzig String Quartet has developed into one of the most sought-after and versatile ensembles in this genre. Founded in 1988, three of its members were active in the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra until 1993, when, after intensive studies with Gerhard Bosse and Karl Suske in Leipzig, the Amadeus Quartet in London and Cologne, Hatto Beyerle in Hanover and Walter Levin in Lübeck, they left the orchestra to devote themselves exclusively to chamber music. Since then, the ensemble has received numerous international honors and prizes. In 1991, for example, it won the renowned international ARD competition in Munich and the Gebrüder Busch Prize; the following year it was awarded the Siemens Music Prize and also received a scholarship from the Amadeus Scholarship Fund and the Kulturfonds Foundation.

For over 25 years, the ensemble organized its own concert series “Pro Quatuor” in Leipzig; in addition, a busy concert schedule and regular invitations to renowned festivals in over 40 countries in Europe, the USA and South America, as well as Australia, Japan, Israel, Africa and Asia. Long-standing collaborations with musical partners such as clarinettist Karl Leister, cellist Michael Sanderling, violists Barbara Buntrock and Hartmut Rohde, pianists Alfred Brendel, Menahem Pressler, Andreas Staier and Christian Zacharias, sopranos Juliane Banse and Christiane Oelze, baritone Olaf Bär and the “King of Klezmer” Giora Feidman have enriched the ensemble's repertoire over many years.

Since 1992, the ensemble has been recording its extensive repertoire - including complete recordings of works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the entire Second Viennese School - exclusively for Musikproduktion Dabringhaus und Grimm.

The resulting recordings - there are now around 100 of them - are highly regarded by international critics and have received numerous awards such as the Diapason d'Or, the Premios CD Compact, the Indie Award and five ECHO Klassik prizes.

Most recently, the ensemble dedicated itself to Joachim Raff's string quartet oeuvre and the complete recording of Haydn's string quartets, which was completed in 2024. 

.

An important concern has always been the engagement with contemporary composers - this has resulted in numerous world premieres by Beat Furrer, Jörg Widmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Steffen Schleiermacher, Christian Ofenbauer, Siegfried Thiele, Bernd Franke, Cristóbal Halffter and many others; in 2022, the performance of “Plappergeister” by Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen at the WDR Funkhauskonzert in Cologne was on the program. 

The LSQ was a member of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra for 10 years at the invitation of Claudio Abbado and held a guest professorship at the Tokyo University of the Art (Geidai) from 2009 to 2014.

PROGRAM:

Niels W. Gade „Willkommen und Abschied“ (25‘) 

Brahms Streichquartett Nr. 2 in a-moll op. 51 Nr. 2 (33‘) 

break

Schumann Klavierquintett (30‘) 

CREDITS: 

Christian Zacharias - Piano

Stefan Arzberger - Violin

Tilman Büning - Violin

Ivo Bauer - Viola

Peter Bruns - Cello

Duration: 90 min. with break

Location: Atrium

Festival packages .HERE