Guest Concert in Munich

David Afkham Conductor
Julia Fischer Violin

Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy

  • »The Hebrides«, Concert Overture, Opus 26
  • Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
  • Symphony No. 3 in a minor, Opus 56 »Scottish«

Fruit of a friendship

Some half-century after Felix Mendelssohn’s untimely demise, the music critic Eduard Hanslick recalled the horror that the news provoked throughout Europe: »Like a light­ning bolt it struck all lovers of serious music. Everyone was in agreement: the musical church had lost its spiritual head.« 175 years after the artist’s death, the Staatskapelle will perform a programme of his music on three evenings. The centrepiece will be the famous Violin Concerto, which Mendelssohn worked on for six years before his childhood friend, the violinist Ferdinand David, performed the premiere at Leipzig’s Gewandhaus in 1845.

David Afkham

David Afkham is Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Orquestra y Coro Nacional de España since September 2019, following a highly successful tenure as the orchestra’s Principal Conductor since 2014. His work with the OCNE so far has featured critically acclaimed performances of Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, Mahler’s Symphony No. 6, Bruckner Symphony No. 9, Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Brahms’ Requiem, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, Bach’s Mass in B Minor as well as several world premieres and semi-staged projects with Wagner’s Die fliegende Holländer, Strauss’ Elektra and Salome, Bach’s St. Mathew Passion and Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle. Born in Freiburg, Germany, in 1983, David Afkham is in high demand as a guest conductor with some of the world’s finest orchestras and opera houses, and has established a reputation as one of the most sought after conductors to emerge from Germany in recent years.

Future highlights as a guest conductor include his debut with the Orchestre National de Lyon and return invitations to the Minnesota Orchestra, Chicago Symphony and Copenhagen Philharmonic. In 2022/23, David will also conduct Strauss’ Arabella at Teatro Real, Madrid.

As an opera conductor, David Afkham made a noted debut at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2014, with Verdi’s La Traviata, later reviving the production for performances around the UK and Ireland for Glyndebourne on Tour. In 2017, he conducted Ginastera’s Bomarzo at Teatro Real in Madrid in a new production by Pierre Audi, to unanimous critical acclaim, and leading to an immediate re-invitation. In season 18/19 he made his German opera debut at Frankfurt Opera with Humperdinck’s Hänsel & Gretel, followed by Stuttgart Opera with Wagner’s Die fliegende Holländer. He opened his 19/20 season at Theater an der Wien with Dvorak’s Rusalka.

David Afkham began piano and violin lessons at the age of six in his native Freiburg. At 15, he entered the city’s University of Music to pursue studies in piano, music theory and conducting and continued his studies at the Liszt School of Music in Weimar. David Afkham was the first recipient of the ‘Bernard Haitink Fund for Young Talent’ and assisted Maestro Bernard Haitink in a number of major projects including symphony cycles with the Chicago Symphony, Concertgebouworkest and London Symphony Orchestra. He was the winner of the 2008 Donatella Flick Conducting Competition in London, and was the inaugural recipient of the ‘Nestle and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award’ in 2010. He was Assistant Conductor of the Gustav Mahler Jungendorchester 2009-2012.

Highlights among David’s guest conducting projects to date include with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood, Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. In Europe, David has guest conducted the London Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, DSO-Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden, Orchestre National de France, Gothenburg Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony as well as toured with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Deutscher Kammerphilharmonie, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and regular appearances at the Musikverein, Vienna, with the Wiener Symphoniker and the Gustav Mahler Jungendorchester.

Julia Fischer

One of the world's leading violinists, Julia Fischer is a versatile musician also known for her extraordinary abilities as a concert pianist, a chamber musician and a violin teacher.

Born in Munich to German-Slovakian parents Julia received her first violin lessons at the age of 3 and her first piano lessons shortly after from her mother Viera Fischer. At the age of 9 she started studying with the renowned violin professor Ana Chumachenco, later becoming her successor. The first prize at the international Yehudi Menuhin Competition in 1995 was one of the milestones in her early career and she has since performed with top orchestras worldwide frequently working with renowned conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Vladimir Jurowski, Riccardo Muti, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Yuri Temirkanov and Franz Welser-Möst among others.

In the 2020-2021 season, Julia Fischer appears in concert with the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and Alan Gilbert, Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski, premieres a new piece by Pascal Zavaro with Orchestre national de France and tours Europe with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Ivan Fischer, Academia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Anthony Pappano and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, and ensemble with which she has enjoyed a long-standing relationship leading from the violin. Her recitals this season focus on Bach’s solo Sonatas and Partitas which she will perform in their

entirety at the Berlin Konzerthaus as well as New York’s Lincoln Center. In North America, Julia Fischer returns to the Cleveland Orchestra and the San Francisco Symphony.

In 2011 Julia Fischer founded her own Quartet with Alexander Sitkovetsky, Nils Mönkemeyer and Benjamin Nyffenegger and continues to tour extensively in this formation. Teaching is another integral part of her musical life as she continues to nurture and guide young talent including performances alongside her students.

Over the course of her artistic career Julia Fischer has released numerous critically acclaimed and awarded CD and DVD recordings, first under the Pentatone label and later under Decca. Breaking new ground in the classical music market, she has recently launched her own music platform, the JF CLUB, which offers exclusive audio and video footage, previews of her new recordings as well as personal insight into music and her her work. The six solo sonatas by Eugène Ysaye, César Franck’s Sonata in A major and Karol Szymanowski’s Sonata in D minor are all available exclusively on JF CLUB.

Julia Fischer holds numerous awards including the Federal Cross of Merit, Gramophone Award and the German Culture Prize. She plays a violin by Giovanni Battista Guadagnini (1742) as well as an instrument made by Phillipp Augustin (2018).