Music and Kinetic Painting
Musik und Malerei in Konzerthaus Berlin
Now Daniel, after his lifelong personal friendship with Yehudi, has wondrously brought us all together again in music and painting - with William Walton's Violin Sonata, commissioned by Yehudi in 1947.
How timely this celebration is, in our troubled times! Not only was Yehudi Menuhin perhaps the most renowned violinist of the 20th century. He was a great humanist and philanthropist, campaigning ceaselessly for human rights and international understanding. He was the first world-class Jewish artist to play in Germany after World War II, as a statement of reconciliation. Until his death in Berlin in 1999 he believed in the unifying powers of music and in using it to change society for good.
Daniel is following in his footsteps. His fascinating books (in German) Familienstücke and Sounds of Hollywood include accounts of how his ancestors in Berlin and many musicians fled the horrors of the Nazis. And how many of those musicians who migrated to the USA contributed to the creation of the special "Hollywood-sound" for the films of those years, music full of both sadness and hope.
It
gives me great pleasure to announce a concert of kinetic painting and
discussion with violinist Daniel Hope and pianist Sebastian Knauer in
Konzerthaus Berlin, on April 25th 2016. One of seventeen concerts to pay
homage to Yehudi Menuhin at the centenary of his birth in 1906. I'm touched
and honoured by Daniel's invitation to take part in this historic celebration.
Ever since I met Yehudi in 1963, he was very supportive of my work, became a dear
friend and the first great musician to ask me to perform live paintings - to
his performance of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, filmed for French
Television by the legendary Bruno Monsaingeon in 1979.
How timely this celebration is, in our troubled times! Not only was Yehudi Menuhin perhaps the most renowned violinist of the 20th century. He was a great humanist and philanthropist, campaigning ceaselessly for human rights and international understanding. He was the first world-class Jewish artist to play in Germany after World War II, as a statement of reconciliation. Until his death in Berlin in 1999 he believed in the unifying powers of music and in using it to change society for good.
Daniel is following in his footsteps. His fascinating books (in German) Familienstücke and Sounds of Hollywood include accounts of how his ancestors in Berlin and many musicians fled the horrors of the Nazis. And how many of those musicians who migrated to the USA contributed to the creation of the special "Hollywood-sound" for the films of those years, music full of both sadness and hope.
Chatting with Yehudi Menuhin at Symphony Hall Birmingham in 1991
Daniel unites the three of us in my Amsterdam studio
A old clipping from the Luzerner Tagblatt in 1971, when Yehudi opened an exhibition of my paintings at his Gstaad Festival.
Here's the link to the concert Live; Musik und Malerei
in Berlin on April 25th. See you there?
