PETA STEWART
While violinist Daniel Röhn is delighted to be touring South Africa, bringing the Cape Town Philharmonic’s 12th International Summer Season to an end, giving a recital with Francois du Toit for the Cape Town Concert Series and playing in Johannesburg and Durban, he is equally thrilled to finally be is realizing a life-long dream – to see the big cats!
If Röhn had not chosen the violin, he would like to have pursued his passion for animals and worked with lions at the very least, he says.
Africa is the only continent he has not performed on, yet he has been fascinated with South Africa since his grandmother gave him a Krugerrand when he was really small. It was the bright and shiny antelope that first got his attention, but it was hearing good things about the CPO from others like Nikita Boriso-Glebsky and Conrad van Alphen, artists in the CPO’s May-June season, that got him here! “I have heard so many good things about the orchestra, the audience and the country that I am super-excited to be playing – and of course seeing the cats!”
‘Sensational and mesmerizing’
However, it was the violin he chose over wildlife – at the age of three. His parents – his mother a pianist and his father concertmaster of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra for 30 years – realized he was serious when he was seen to be copying his dad on a tennis racquet with a light blue shoe horn as his bow. So he was given his first violin and his first lesson, all before he was four.
It makes you wonder when his five month-old daughter will be copying her father. This little girl Lily may take the music to the fourth generation – for Daniel’s grandfather was Furtwängler’s concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic and his wife is also a musician, international flautist Ana de la Vega. He says he found his own style “by listening to all the Kreislers and Heifetzs. One of my best teachers was my parents’ record cabinet”.
He confesses to getting all the fun he needs from his family and his music. “I am lucky in that in my profession joy and work are not really separated. My joy comes from my work. Of course this is not always the case, it’s a tough and stressful profession with a lot of travel and sometimes I wish I had more time to pursue other interests!
But there is so much fulfilment intellectually and emotionally in classical music – the joy comes from the thinking about music, dealing with it, and finally having the opportunity to share it with your audience” he says. “Then of course there’s the life-changing experience that comes with having a baby! At my last concert I had to change a nappy in my dressing room at half time.”
He comes to Cape Town from Ukraine having just performed Mozart Concerto No.5 for Mozart’s Birthday at the National Philharmonic in Kiev, and shortly before that, Prokofiev Concerto No.1 in Turkey. He leaves us to return shortly home to Germany, before leaving for a tour of China. Coming up are debuts with the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, and a recital tour of Spain and of Sweden. He has played with numerous top orchestras in Europe and has appeared in almost all of the world’s most prestigious concert halls. High points include concerto appearances with Riccardo Muti and Gustavo Dudamel.
Reviewed as “sensational” and “mesmerizing”, he is acclaimed for his “technical wizardry, melting musicality, and old-school style and panache“
Mathematical use of double-stops
When asked why Szymanowski No.2, he says: “There is a tonal language in Szymanowski’s music that is unique and to me this language speaks very directly. It is highly sensual, emotional, and mysterious, with echoes of the sound worlds of Bartok and Korngold in this concerto. This combined with the almost mathematical use of double-stops make it a powerful experience to listen to and to play.”
Also on the programme are the Kodaly Concerto for Orchestra and Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9. From the New World.
The recital programme he is “delighted to be playing with Francois du Toit combines one of the greatest sonatas of all time, Beethoven’s mighty Kreutzer Sonata, with jewels from the charming short pieces genre. Other works are by Brahms, Suk, Wieniawski, Bloch, Hubay and Sarasate as well as Kreisler’s Grave in the style of Bach and Kreisler arrangements of works by Paganini and Tartini.
He has released a number of CDs, including The Kreisler Story which was acclaimed by BBC Music Magazine for its “silvery tonal purity and exquisite subtlety of phrasing”, will hopefully be on sale at his concerts.
So when the tour is over, Daniel – take a break, and enjoy those cats in KwaZulu/Natal!
Who: Violinist Daniel Röhn / Francois du Toit (Concert Series only)
What: CPO Symphony Concert / Cape Town Concert Series recital
Where: Artscape Opera House / Baxter Concert Hall
When: 18 February, 6pm, 24 February, 2018, 8pm
Info: www.cpo.org.za/
Book: Artscape Dial-a-Seat 021 421 7695,http://bit.ly/DanielRohn
www.ctconcerts.co.za/ 084 683 1337, https://www.webtickets.co.za/event.aspx?itemid=1476861233
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