Zimmermann and Brahms’ Masterful Violin Concerto
Frank Peter Zimmermann, one of the greatest violinists of our time, performs Brahms’ quasi-symphonic Violin Concerto, in which the orchestra and the soloist engage in dialogue as equal partners. Here, the violin, with its high-energy gusto, spurs the orchestra to a playful, Romani-inspired finale. A contemporary of Brahms, Emilie Mayer, a composer well worth discovering, expresses her fascinating musical personality in her Symphony no. 7, a highly original work replete with surges of passion.
Frank Peter Zimmermann, one of the greatest violinists of our time, performs Brahms’ quasi-symphonic Violin Concerto, in which the orchestra and the soloist engage in dialogue as equal partners. Here, the violin, with its high-energy gusto, spurs the orchestra to a playful, Romani-inspired finale. A contemporary of Brahms, Emilie Mayer, a composer well worth discovering, expresses her fascinating musical personality in her Symphony no. 7, a highly original work replete with surges of passion.
Artists
Orchestre symphonique de Montréal
Rafael Payare, conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin
Programme
Brahms, Tragic Overture, op. 81 (13 min.)
Emilie Mayer, Symphony no. 7 in F minor (30 min.)
Intermission (20 min.)
Brahms, Violin Concerto in D major, op. 77 (38 min.)
Rafael Payare
Music DirectorRafael Payare’s prodigious musicianship, technical brilliance and charismatic presence on the podium have made him one of the world’s most sought-after conductors. A graduate of the celebrated El Sistema music education program in Venezuela, Mr. Payare began his formal conducting studies in 2004 with José Antonio Abreu. Since winning the prestigious Malko International Competition for Young Conductors in Denmark in 2012, Maestro Payare’s career has advanced rapidly. Since 2015, he has served as Principal Conductor of the Castleton Festival, founded by his mentor the late Lorin Maazel. He was Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Ulster Orchestra from 2014 to 2019 and in 2019, took up the position of Music Director of the San Diego Symphony. In recent years, Rafael Payare has conducted many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including those of New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Zurich, Berlin, Vienna, London, Munich, Chicago and Paris. He has also made important opera debuts at the Glyndebourne Festival, Stockholm’s Royal Swedish Opera, the Royal Danish Opera, and most recently at London’s Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In the 2022-2023 season, Payare became the ninth Music Director in the history of the OSM.
To consult:
rafaelpayare.com
Long biography
Frank Peter Zimmermann
ViolinFrank Peter Zimmermann is widely regarded as one of the foremost violinists of his generation. He has performed with all major orchestras in the world, such as the Vienna Philharmonic, with which he played for the first time in 1983 with Lorin Maazel in Salzburg; the Berlin Philharmonic with which he made his debut in 1985 with Daniel Barenboim; the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, all London orchestras, as well as all of the most prominent American orchestras. He is a regular guest at major music festivals, including Salzburg, Edinburgh and Lucerne.
Over the years, Mr. Zimmermann has built up an impressive discography on the Warner Classics, BIS, Sony Classical, Ondine, Hänsler, Decca, and ECM labels.
Born in 1965 in Duisburg, Germany, he started learning to play the violin with his mother when he was 5 years old. He studied with Valery Gradov, Saschko Gawriloff and Herman Krebbers.
Frank Peter Zimmermann plays the 1711 Antonio Stradivari violin “Lady Inchiquin”, which is kindly provided by the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, “Kunst im Landesbesitz”.