Sibelius: Violin Concerto Frank Peter Zimmermann

• Jean Sibelius (1865-1957): Violin Concerto in D Minor, Op. 47 (1905)
• 1 I. Allegro moderato 15:09
• 2 II. Adagio di molto 08:17
• 3 III. Allegro ma non tanto 06:57
• The Bard, Op. 64 (1914)
• 4 Barden (The Bard), Op. 64 08:08
• The Wood Nymph, Op. 15 (1895)
• 5 The Wood Nymph, Op. 15 24:05
• Total Runtime 01:02:36

Info for Sibelius: Violin Concerto

Marking his debut on Ondine, the German star violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann is featured here as soloist in the virtuoso Sibelius Violin Concerto, one of the most spectacular late Romantic works in its genre. Its dazzling finale has been described as an 'invocation' filled with 'demonic passion'.

Also, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra under chief conductor John Storgårds performs two elusive tone poems by the same composer, The Bard and The Wood Nymph - works that were premiered by the same orchestra a century ago, conducted by Sibelius himself. The Wood Nymph is based on the ballad 'Skogsrået' by Viktor Rydberg; a first sketch resulted in a play with music (for narrator, strings, two French horns, and piano). The present recording follows the orchestral version's recently published critical edition.

„Frank Peter Zimmermann offers a fresh and exciting view of the Violin Concerto (...) with swift tempos, and in particular a dazzling quick finale. (...) John Storgårds (...) conducts all of this music with unaffected mastery. (...) The engineering is generally excellent, particularly in the concerto (…).“ (David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com)

“Zimmermann...commits to the music with a controlled emotion, delivering a certain coolness to the first movement which moderates slightly as the passion intensifies for the second...The orchestral playing is incisive, rich and powerful especially in the two tone poems” (Classic FM Magazine)

Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra
John Storgårds, conductor

Frank Peter Zimmermann
is widely regarded as one of the foremost violinists of his generation. Praised for his selfless musicality, his brilliance and keen intelligence he has been performing with all major orchestras in the world for well over three decades, collaborating on these occasions with the world's most renowned conductors. His many concert engagements take him to all important concert venues and international music festivals in Europe, the United States, Japan, South America and Australia.

One of his last engagements during the 2015/16 season were concerts with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and Kirill Petrenko, with whom he started his 2016/17 season with further concerts in Dortmund, Bonn and Berlin (Musikfest). Other highlights during 2016/17 include engagements with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Jakub Hrůša, the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Göteborg Symphony Orchestra and Eivind Aadland, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Juraj Valcuha and Rafael Payare, the Berliner Philharmoniker and Alan Gilbert, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Hannu Lintu, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and Alan Gilbert (4 concerts in Europe), the Orchestre National de France and Juraj Valcuha, the Berliner Barock-Solisten, the Bamberger Symphoniker and Manfred Honeck and the Wiener Symphoniker and Jakub Hrůša. With his string trio, the Trio Zimmermann, he undertook a European tour in December 2016 with concerts in among others Zürich, Luxembourg, Warsaw, Amsterdam and Milan.

In December 2015 Frank Peter Zimmermann gave the world premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s violin concerto no. 2 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Jaap van Zweden. Further performances of this new concerto took place with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, both under Daniel Harding and with the New York Philharmonic and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, both under Alan Gilbert. Further highlights in 2015/16 included engagements with orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Jakub Hrůša, the Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Möst and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Jaap van Zweden. He joined the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and David Afkham for their Easter tour in March/April 2016. With his Trio Zimmermann he appeared at the festivals of Salzburg and Edinburgh, as well as in Vienna, Munich, Amsterdam, Madrid, Barcelona and Hamburg.

Mr. Zimmermann is an equally respected chamber musician and recitalist. His interpretations of the classical, romantic and 20th Century repertoire are received with great critical acclaim from press and public alike.

Together with viola player Antoine Tamestit and cellist Christian Poltéra he forms the Trio Zimmermann; the string trio performs in all major music centres and festivals in Europe. BIS Records released three award-winning CD recordings of works for string trio by Beethoven (Op. 3, Op. 8 and Op. 9), Mozart (Divertimento KV 563) and Schubert (Trio, D 471).

In addition to the afore-mentioned violin concerto of Magnus Lindberg, Mr. Zimmermann has given three further world premieres: the violin concerto “en sourdine” by Matthias Pintscher with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Peter Eötvös (2003), the violin concerto “The Lost Art of Letter Writing” by Brett Dean, who received the 2009 Grawemeyer Award for this composition, with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by the composer (2007) and the violin concerto no. 3 “Juggler in Paradise” by Augusta Read Thomas with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Andrey Boreyko (2009).

He received a number of special prizes and honours, among which the “Premio del Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena” (1990), the “Rheinischer Kulturpreis” (1994), the “Musikpreis” of the city of Duisburg (2002), the “Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse der Bundesrepublik Deutschland” (2008) and the “Paul-Hindemith-Preis der Stadt Hanau” (2010).

Over the years Frank Peter Zimmermann has built up an impressive discography for EMI Classics, Sony Classical, BIS, Ondine, Teldec Classics and ECM Records. He has recorded virtually all major concerto repertoire, ranging from Bach to Ligeti, as well as recital repertoire. Many of these recordings have received prestigious awards and prizes worldwide.

His most recent CD with the two violin concertos of Shostakovich, performed with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Alan Gilbert was released on BIS in 2016. In 2015 and 2016 hänssler Classic released 2 CDs with his new recording of the 5 violin concertos and Sinfonia Concertante of Mozart with the Kammerorchester des Symphonieorchesters des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Antoine Tamestit. In 2014 his second recording of the Dvořák violin concerto was released by Decca as part of the complete symphonies and concertos with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Jiří Bělohlávek. And in 2013 BIS released his highly praised recording of the Hindemith violin concerto (1939), which he performs with the hr-Sinfonieorchester under Paavo Järvi, and of four sonatas by the same composer (three of which together with pianist Enrico Pace), as well as a recording of the violin concerto "The Lost Art of Letter Writing" by Brett Dean, with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Nott.

Born in 1965 in Duisburg, Germany, Mr. Zimmermann started playing the violin when he was 5 years old, giving his first concert with orchestra at the age of 10. He studied with Valery Gradov, Saschko Gawriloff and Herman Krebbers.

This album contains no booklet.