The whole thing actually started as a crazy idea,” says violinist Daniel Hope. “A year and a half ago I sat down in Hamburg with Christian Kuhnt, the director of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (SHMF). When he asked me if I wanted to be the portrait artist in 2023, I simply said yes.” Because Hope has been organizing a mini festival in Lübeck at the SHMF for years, Kuhnt insisted on a new structure. With a glass of red wine, they came to 50 concerts for their 50th birthday, then philosophized and worked out the concept right away. “The next morning I wasn’t sure if the conversation really took place,” says Hope, “but when I saw Kuhnt again for breakfast, he had already prepared a contract on his napkin. I signed it right away.”
Adventure journey through your own artistic biography
So it came about that the violinist will play more than a quarter of the entire program of 197 concerts around his milestone birthday – on August 17th. It will be an exciting journey through your own artistic biography. Daniel Hope is not only a top musician who became a world star as a soloist alongside the conducting Yehudi Menuhin in classical music, but also a musician who is not afraid to venture into other genres from jazz to folk. The Hope Festival within the festival not only stands for the violinist himself, but also for the entire range of the SHMF program, which will unfold in the north from July 1st to August 27th. This time 21 concerts and events will take place in Hamburg, eleven of them in the Elbphilharmonie.
Daniel Hope will also play in the Elbphilharmonie, one day after his 50th birthday – and for the first time in his life together with the SHMF Festival Orchestra. Christoph Eschenbach, who gave his farewell concert as chief conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin just a week ago at the age of 83, will direct the evening. With a view to the war in Ukraine, Benjamin Britten’s highly topical Violin Concerto in D minor is on the program, “a somber, uncompromising work in which Britten describes the powerlessness in the face of the horrific destruction of the city of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War and in which he seeks peace,” Hope said.
“Artists like Bernstein and Celibidache didn’t come as stars, but as people”
Hope finds it amazing that he is only now making his debut with the festival orchestra – because something kept getting in the way – after all he has known the SHMF for 36 years. In 1987, in the second festival summer, the Irish-German artist had his first stage appearances in Wotersen at the age of 13 in front of a large audience. To this day he has retained the spirit of change that was felt under Leonard Bernstein. “Artists like Bernstein and Celibidache didn’t come as stars, but as people and musicians who wanted to experience music directly in connection with nature. That was practically unique in the world at the time.”
Hope found the so-called artists’ kitchen in Wotersen, where the virtuosos met before the concert, particularly impressive. “Butter and crumble cakes were served. I was sitting there once next to the pianist Svyatislav Richter. He got a piece of Stollen and chatted with us. That was the first positive shock experience that these people are genuine and real and that you can just talk to them. And then they went out and played in front of thousands of people,” Hope enthuses. The encounters with people from the audience are also exceptional. “You’re bound to meet people when you’re playing in a cowshed or a barn,” explains Hope, “because there’s often no real backstage area there.” In the country, people would tell why they came and “sometimes there is it also criticism.”
Tones of this violin touch the soul
Hope’s journey through his own musical life goes right through the line-ups, from two solo recitals by the violinist to the Elbphilharmonie performance with the festival orchestra. In terms of time, Hope’s performances even frame the official framework of the festival. Already on June 20th there was the prelude in Elmshorn with the pianist Alexej Botvinov and the New Century Chamber Orchestra from San Francisco, which Hope has been conducting since 2017. And two weeks after the official end of the festival, there will be concerts in Flensburg and Brunsbüttel with the second orchestra conducted by Hope, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. Together with the musicians from Zurich and the trombonist Nils Landgren, with whom Hope made music for the first time during the pandemic in his living room for the ProArte series “hope@home”, two concerts will be performed in Husum and Stade at the beginning of July.
Jazz musicians simply say: “Join in, come in”, Hope explains his fascination for the genre and describes the interaction: “This element of ignorance, when the other suddenly goes in a great different direction, is extremely exciting”, Hope describes the interaction. Anyone who has heard the performance of the two musicians will note a rare harmony created by the same ability. Because although Hope plays his violin from 1742 from the workshop of Guarneri del Gesù and Landgren his red trombone, which he had specially made by Yamaha, both hit the soul of their listeners with their very different tones. This connection from person to person is both trademarks.
“Irish Folk Night” to the Irish roots
The artist has dedicated several programs to his Irish roots. In mid-July he presented a journey through four centuries, from the Renaissance to the late Baroque, in Nieblum auf Föhr, in Rellingen and Marne under the title “Irish Roots”. At the “Irish Folk Night” Hope plays with the ensemble Lúnasa, an export hit from the Emerald Isle. The band plays folk songs with traditional instruments in creative arrangements.
For fans of classical music, Hope has worked on literary and musical evenings with US opera star Thomas Hampson; Under the title “Paradise” with actor Sebastian Koch, the violin and texts by Ovid, Goethe, Nietzsche and Dostojewski can be heard. Another focus of Hope is early musical education. “I always give children’s concerts and develop children’s programs,” says the violinist, “because there is nothing nicer than bringing children into contact with music.” This is reflected in the program, among other things, in the concert “Paddington Bear’s First Concert”. Making music with 80 young violinists in the workshop on July 9 in Kiel is all about promoting young talent.
London as the second festival focus
A second focus of the festival program is London. The program includes the “London Proms”, which Hope organizes together with the NDR Radiophilharmonie under the direction of Paul Daniel. At his first appearance in the Holstenhallen in Neumünster, the violinist hopes that the North Germans will have an affinity for London. The SHMF will traditionally be opened by the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra conducted by Alan Gilbert on July 1st in the Music and Congress Hall in Lübeck. The performance of Felix Mendelssohn’s Elijah is the first of 197 exciting concerts that complement Daniel Hope’s extensive contribution to the SHMF.