BBT Christian Tetzlaff Tour 2006

Violinist and BB Trust honorary committee member Christian Tetzlaff led a three-day residency and a high profile European tour with five Borletti-Buitoni Trust award winners from 2004 and 2005: percussionist Colin Currie, violinist Soovin Kim, cellist Christian Poltéra, mezzo-soprano Christianne Stotijn and pianist Shai Wosner.

Such a diverse ensemble resulted in an eclectic programme: Christian Tetzlaff took up his violin alongside Christian Poltéra for Arthur Honegger's Sonatine and with Soovin Kim for Bartok's Duos - then his viola in Dvorak's Piano Quartet in E flat Op 87 with Shai Wosner, Soovin Kim and Christian Poltéra. Christianne Stotijn sang songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Rheinlegendchen, Wo die Schönen Trompeten blasen, Das irdische Leben, Urlicht) accompanied by Shai Wosner, while Colin Currie performed Trilogy, written for him by Dave Maric.

To bring all the musicians together, the Borletti-Buitoni Trust specially commissioned a work by young British composer Richard Baker and acclaimed poet and librettist Lavinia Greenlaw, entitled Written on a train.

Just as the BBT launch tour in 2004 gave the first award winners from 2003 the opportunity to work and tour with Mitsuko Uchida, so these 2004 and 2005 winners benefited from their experience with Christian Tetzlaff. The group worked together in the inspirational setting of Aldeburgh for three days of collaboration, developing partnerships and friendships, which was an important fulfilment of the Trust's aims.

The Aldeburgh Residency preceded a concert at Snape Maltings Concert Hall. The next day's programme at Queen Elizabeth Concert Hall in London included a pre-concert talk at 6pm, with Christian Tetzlaff in conversation with BBT Artistic Committee member Adam Gatehouse. The tour continued in Brussels, Amsterdam and Hamburg and concluded in Vienna.

Programme

Saturday 30 September 2006

Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Aldeburgh

Sunday 1 October 2006

Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

Monday 2 October 2006

Conservatoire Royal de Musique/Koninklikj Conservatorium, Brussels
Mozart-Saal, Konzerthaus, Vienna

Bartok Duos for violin
Honegger Sonatine for violin and cello
Mahler songs from Des Knaben Wunderhorn
Dave Maric Trilogy
Dvorak Piano Quartet in E flat Op 87
Richard Baker/Lavinia Greenlaw Written on a Train

Tuesday 3 October 2006

Kleine Saal at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam

Wednesday 4 October 2006

Laeiszhalle - Musikhalle Hamburg

Thursday 5 October 2006

Mozart-Saal, Konzerthaus, Vienna

Reviews

Six young musicians pool together their spectacular talents

Christianne Stotijn (mezzo soprano), Christian Tetzlaff (violin/viola), Christian Poltéra (cello), Shai Wosner (piano), Colin Currie (percussion) and Soovin Kim (violin) on 3 October at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Kleine Saal

The six notable names mentioned above indicate what a unique event Tuesday evening's concert was. Under the banner 'Strings with Variations' the audience of the Concertgebouw's Kleine Saal was treated to an entire chamber-music festival condensed into two marvellous hours.

Headed by Christian Tetzlaff, five previous Borletti-Buitoni Trust Awards winners took to the stage in a most unusual way. Organized by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, this Award Winners Tour kicked off in Aldeburgh in England, followed by further concerts in London, Brussels, Amsterdam and Hamburg. And this evening these six young talents are appearing at the Vienna Konzerthaus where they will repeat this striking and varied programme in which Honegger, Mahler, Maric and Dvorák are played alongside a new Borletti-Buitoni commission entitled Written on a Train by Richard Baker, who composed it specially for this particular combination of musicians.

Baker based this work on a text by Lavinia Greenlaw, which describes a busy musician on a train writing a letter to her lover whom she has just left. Theatrical scenes of this kind ,a sort of mini La voix humaine (Poulenc) or a mini Erwartung (Schönberg), are a perfect vehicle for Christianne Stotijn. In collaboration with her accompanist Shai Wosner, Stotijn had already made a huge impression in four songs from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn. How can one describe or characterize the intense depth of tone and textual subtlety that Stotijn achieved here? One could say that it was an unimaginable mix of the beautiful timbres of Janet Baker, Margaret Price and Jard van Nes, enhanced by Brigitte Fassbaender's theatricality. But mere name-dropping does not do her justice : Stotijn is first and foremost her own person and thus not to be compared with anyone.

How exquisitely Stotijn managed to give a different colour to the returning 'Ade' in Scheiden und Meiden, how the word 'weinen' in Wo die schönen Trompeten blasen seared one to the soul, and how dramatically she conveyed Das irdische Leben as a pendant to Schubert's Erlkönig. And all that without mentioning the final words of Urlicht sung in one long breath! And every word clear and intelligible. A class act of great rarity.

Another class act was that of the percussionist Colin Currie in Trilogy, specially written for him by Dave Maric. Live percussion combined with previously recorded sounds, Currie was lord and master of his extensive instruments, using hands and feet with incredible virtuosity.

Tetzlaff and cellist Christian Poltéra opened the concert with a sonatina by Honegger. Both played with vibrant tone and passion, but there was nothing of the wild humour of the last movement to be gleaned from Tetzlaff's face. German efficiency with no laughter permitted.

But Tetzlaff can certainly play, as he amply demonstrated when he took up the viola for Dvorák's E flat Piano Quartet. And how wonderfully Wosner here pulled all the strands together.

Peter van der Lint, Trouw - 5 October 2006

Chamber Music of the finest

Christian Tetzlaff guests in the Laeiszhalle with six excellent musicians.

The presentation of this concert in the small hall was quite unpretentious, but the quality and sound of what was on offer was quite spectacular: Christian Tetzlaff and prize-winners of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. These fabulous six musicians - a piano quartet led by Tetzlaff, percussionist Colin Currie and mezzo soprano Christianne Stotijn - presented on Wednesday chamber music of the finest played in brilliantly varied formations.

The best example: the selection of songs from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn interpreted by the Dutch singer and Israeli pianist Shai Wosner. It must have been the great Christa Ludwig in a matinee performance at the opera who last performed these songs with such a mature understanding and deep feeling for the world of Gustav Mahler's yearning. And how could a young singer, not yet 30 years old, have experience of this kind of despair... Christianne Stotijn who studied with Dame Janet Baker amongst others, bestows every song with a vocal imagination that makes each one a miniature drama.

Another highpoint: Anton Dvorak's Piano Quartet. Christian Tetzlaff, as gracious host, settled for the part of the viola. With violinist Soovin Kim, cellist Christian Poltéra and pianist Shai Wosner he created a Dvorak rich in nuance, energy and daring, without neglecting the delicately playful tone of the Czech composer. It doesn't come any better.

The innovative counterpoint of the percussion piece Trilogy by Dave Maric was played out with sensitivity by Colin Currie; while Tetzlaff, together with Christian Poltéra, balanced fiendish poise and subtle softness in their superb playing of Arthur Honegger's Sonatine for Violin and Cello. Written on a Train by Richard Baker was a humorous finale piece which brought together all six musicians in perfect harmony.

Die Welt - 6 October 2006

Masterful and spellbinding

Suit, shirt, tie - this is how Christian Tetzlaff usually appears on stage. But this buttoned-up appearance can be misleading. This Hamburg-born violinist certainly doesn't perform with the austerity of an accountant, but imbues his playing with body and soul. In this way he inspires his young fellow musicians at his concert in the small hall of the Laeiszhalle - all of them recipients of the distinguished Borletti-Buitoni Trust awards.

Right at the beginning he presented Honegger's Sonatine as an exciting dialogue with the cellist Christian Poltéra. Christianne Stotijn's interpretation of songs from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn got right under the skin; percussionist Colin Currie showed virtuosity and wit with Trilogy by Dave Maric. Pure love of music and joy of collaboration were played out in perfect harmony by Tetzlaff, Poltéra, violinist Soovin Kim and pianist Shai Wosner in Dvorak's piano quartet. For the finale, an artfully crafted bon mot, Written on the train, composed by Richard Baker for the whole ensemble.

Hamburger Abendblat - October 6 2006

Young, grand and uncomplicated

Might and money are still always concentrated but no longer require education. The finer forms of patronage are, therefore, all the more heart warming. And the Borletti-Buitoni Trust is a good example. The Trust bears the name of the eponymous Italian enterprises, which are joined not only in the Trust but also in marriage, and is distinguished by its understanding of the needs of musicians. The Trust awards young musicians a sum of money. These artists are not talented children, however, but 20 to 30-year-olds who have all shown that they really have something to contribute. And the candidates are not selected by a competition, but by an artistic committee that includes Leif Ove Andsnes, Richard Goode, Christian Tetzlaff and Mitsuko Uchida. The musicians use the money, for example, to buy a better instrument, commission a composer to write a new work, or take a sabbatical or study year.

Headed by violinist Tetzlaff, the 2005 winners are currently on tour and appeared at the Brussels Conservatory on Monday evening. Firstly it was a great pleasure to see Shai Wosner again, who eight years ago unaccountably came fourth instead of first in the Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition. Without a single virtuoso trick, his accompaniment of several songs from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn showed that he is cut from a rare cloth. And the same holds true of Christianne Stotijn who, together with Wosner, achieved complete psychological equilibrium in Das irdische Leben and Urlicht.

The programme also included two Belgian premieres: Trilogy for live percussion and CD by Dave Maric, and Written on a Train by Richard Baker. The former was performed with striking precision by Colin Currie, even though the work could just as well have been done entirely on CD. But then just looking at and listening to a loudspeaker would have been rather boring! Richard Baker's piece vied with Trilogy in its lack of motivation and rhetorical cogency, but worked well nonetheless: as a totally innocent and innocuous piece d'occasion, specially written for this unusual combination of forces.

Dvorák's piano quartet, with Tetzlaff playing viola and Soovin Kim the violin, was also a coming-together at once grand and unassuming. These young musicians are already at the top of their profession and it is wonderful that they are still prepared to take part in an uncomplicated party of this nature.

De Morgen - October 10 2006

Photos taken by John Ferro Sims
www.simspix.co.uk