Christian Tetzlaff | |
|---|---|
 Tetzlaff playing chamber music in 2022 | |
| Born | 29 April 1966 Hamburg, Germany |
| Occupation | Classical violinist |
Christian Tetzlaff (born 29 April 1966) is a German violinist who has performed internationally, with a focus on chamber music.
Tetzlaff was born in Hamburg. His parents were amateur musicians and met in a church choir. [1] He began playing the violin and piano at the age of 6, and made his concert debut at 14 years old. He studied with Uwe-Martin Haiberg at the Musikhochschule Lübeck and later with Walter Levin at the University of Cincinnati's College-Conservatory of Music.
His breakthrough as a soloist came in 1988, at the age of 22, when he performed Schoenberg's Violin Concerto in critically acclaimed concerts with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic. [1] The following year he made his solo recital debut in New York City. [2] He has continued to play as a soloist with major orchestras on stage and in recordings, including Beethoven's works for violin and orchestra performed with the Tonhalle Orchester Zürich under David Zinman. He returned to New York in 2011 for a recital with Antje Weithaas at Zankel Hall. [3] 2012 he joined his sister Tanja (cello) and Leif Ove Andsnes (piano) playing Schumann's piano trios, which were awarded. [4] Other critically acclaimed recordings include his 2007 release of Bach's sonatas and partitas for solo violin, [5] and in 2012 his release of three Mozart violin sonatas with Lars Vogt at the Spannungen chamber music festival in Heimbach. [6] His recording of Schumann's violin sonatas with Lars Vogt (piano) was named Gramophone's recording of the month for January 2014. [7] His discography includes a number of modern works such as the violin concertos of György Ligeti and Stuart MacRae. [8]
In 2011 he signed a long-term recording contract with Ondine. [9]
He was the Artist in Residence of the Dresden Philharmonic in the 2018/2019 season and of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in the year 2019.
Tetzlaff plays a contemporary violin by Stefan-Peter Greiner which he has had since 2002, preferring it to his previous Stradivarius instrument. He uses a Peccatte bow, and Vision strings by Thomastik-Infeld in Vienna. [10] He eschews routinely playing the violin with the full, lyrical sound preferred by many of his contemporaries, telling The New Yorker : "The listener loses the ear for the most beautiful sounds if they've been used for arbitrary, non-important things". [1] This approach has occasionally left Tetzlaff open to criticism. The Guardian's critic Andrew Clements argued that his recording of the Schumann piano trios, mentioned above, lacked "any sense of involvement or affection for the music", and that his 2014 release of Shostakovich's violin concertos was sometimes devoid of "character". [1] [11]
Tetzlaff suffers from neurodermatitis in his left hand, which can cause extreme pain when the hand's fingers are applied to the strings of a violin. Over the years he has managed the condition in a variety of ways, including by using cotton thimbles to cover his fingers, and more recently by increasing his blood circulation by exercising before performances. [1]
Musical America named him Instrumentalist of the Year 2005. [12] In 2012 his Schumann's piano trios (with Leif Ove Andsnes (piano) and his sister Tanja (cello) won the Gramophone Award for best chamber recording. [4]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| People | |
| Other | |
Leif Ove Andsnes is a Norwegian pianist and chamber musician. Andsnes has made several recordings for Virgin and EMI. In 2012, Andsnes signed with Sony Classical, and recorded for the label the "Beethoven Journey" project, which included the five piano concertos with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. The works were recorded over three years, beginning with Nos. 1 and 3 in 2012, followed by Nos. 2 and 4 in 2013 and the Fifth Piano Concerto and Choral Fantasy in 2014. He is represented by IMG.
The Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129, by Robert Schumann was completed in a period of only two weeks, between 10 October and 24 October 1850, shortly after Schumann became the music director at Düsseldorf.
Murray David Perahia is an American pianist and conductor. He has been considered one of the greatest living pianists. He was the first North American pianist to win the Leeds International Piano Competition, in 1972. Known as a leading interpreter of Bach, Handel, Scarlatti, Mozart, Beethoven, and Schumann, among other composers, Perahia has won numerous awards, including three Grammy Awards from a total of 18 nominations, and 9 Gramophone Awards in addition to its first and only "Piano Award".
Christian Ferras was a French violinist.
James Ehnes, is a Canadian concert violinist and violist.
Ilya Kaler is a Russian-born violinist. Born and educated in Moscow, Kaler is the only person to have won Gold Medals at all three of the International Tchaikovsky Competition ; the Sibelius ; and the Paganini.
James Zuill Bailey, better known as Zuill Bailey is an American Grammy Award-winning cello soloist, chamber musician, and artistic director. A graduate of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and the Juilliard School, he has appeared in recital and with major orchestras internationally. He is a professor of cello and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at El Paso. Bailey’s extensive recording catalogue are released on TELARC, Avie, Steinway and Sons, Octave, Delos, Albany, Sono Luminus, Naxos, Azica, Concord, EuroArts, ASV, Oxingale and Zenph Studios.
Augustin Hadelich is an Italian-German-American Grammy-winning classical violinist.
Radu Lupu was a Romanian pianist. He was widely recognized as one of the greatest pianists of his time.
Vasily Eduardovich Petrenko is a Russian-British conductor. He is currently music director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Alina Rinatovna Ibragimova is a Russian-British violinist.
Piotr Anderszewski is a Polish pianist and composer.
Lars Vogt was a German classical pianist, conductor and academic teacher. Noted by The New York Times for his interpretations of Brahms, Vogt performed as a soloist with major orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic. He was the music director of the Orchestre de chambre de Paris at the time of his death and also served as the music director of the Royal Northern Sinfonia. He ran a festival of chamber music, Spannungen, from 1998, and succeeded his teacher Karl-Heinz Kämmerling as professor of piano at the Musikhochschule Hannover.
Olli Mustonen is a Finnish pianist, conductor, and composer.
The Diapason d'Or is a recommendation of outstanding (mostly) classical music recordings given by reviewers of Diapason magazine in France, broadly equivalent to "Editor's Choice", "Disc of the Month" in the British Gramophone magazine.
Tanja Becker-Bender is a German violinist. She lives in Berlin and Hamburg.
The International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) are music awards first awarded 6 April 2011. ICMA replace the Cannes Classical Awards formerly awarded at MIDEM. The jury consists of music critics of magazines Andante, Crescendo, Fono Forum, Gramofon, Kultura, Musica, Musik & Theater, Opera, Pizzicato, Rondo Classic, Scherzo, with radio stations MDR Kultur (Germany), Orpheus Radio 99.2FM (Russia), Radio 100,7 (Luxembourg), the International Music and Media Centre (IMZ) (Austria), website Resmusica.com (France) and radio Classic (Finland).
Lisa Smirnova is an Austrian pianist, originally from Moscow.
Tanja Tetzlaff is a German cellist. She played first as an orchestra member, but then as a soloist, a founding member of the Tetzlaff Quartet, a string quartet led by her brother Christian Tetzlaff, and as a chamber musician. She has recorded cello concertos and chamber music, including contemporary music, and has appeared internationally.
Timothy Ridout is a British violist and 1st Prizewinner of the prestigious Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition.
