Hope@Home
Daniel Hope (violin)
Christoph Israel (piano, arranger) and colleagues
rec. 2020, Berlin and Frauenkirche Dresden, Germany.
DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON 4839482 [77:00]
If you did not see any of the nightly lockdown recitals that violinist and conductor Daniel Hope and various Berlin-based colleagues gave from Hope’s Berlin home, then It might help at the outset to let Hope himself explain how he
“…spent this period of social distancing by performing chamber concerts from my living room in Berlin online and for Arte Concert with specially invited guests. Deutsche Grammophon is proud to present Hope@Home the album, a selection from this ground-breaking series of livestream events which attracted a combined audience of 2.5m viewers. This album is a document of these extraordinary weeks. Everything you hear is live, one take only. Some pieces were rehearsed, others were not. In some cases Christoph Israel finished the arrangements literally minutes before we went live. You will hear the frequent squeak of my living room floor, as well as other spontaneous bumps and bangs. There were no patches or editing, no second takes. Sometimes life doesn’t allow for second takes. This was my world for six magical and highly unusual weeks.”
There was more setting up than that reveals, but Hope’s booklet note adds the all-important fact that he was concerned about sound quality from the outset. When the German-French cultural public service TV channel Arte asked if he was interested in doing a live stream he said “Only if it is with top-notch sound”. So with help from the co-owner of the Teldex Studios in Berlin Hope’s home became organised with good sound and film facilities, and routes to enable social distancing, calls were made to the luminaries listed above (and others), musical arrangements were hastily assembled, Mrs Hope came up with the series title, and thus began a nightly show for six weeks. It was quite addictive at the time, seeing who the guest would be (every performer had an empty diary of course), and what mix of popular, popular classics, and some more esoteric music (and readings) they would offer each time. Hope was a genial host, and a couple of examples of his spoken introductions are on the CD.
A couple of items will be elusive for non-German speakers, such as “Berlin – Tel Aviv” where Joy Denalane sings, Christoph Israel and Daniel Hope play piano and violin, while Max Herre speaks. But it still makes an engaging effect, as does “Irgendwo auf der Welt” where Max Raabe’s ‘speech song’ transports us to a good table in a Berlin nightclub. Kipling’s poem “If” read in her German accent by actress Iris Berben, to music by Falla, seems a touch more contrived though it was quite interesting to see that occasion, the actress just visible in an adjacent room. The mood is domestic, the only hint of the recital room coming when Matthias Goerne, no less, turns up and sings a Brahms song. There are two items (Nos 6 and 21 in the listing below) where Jacques Ammon replaces Christoph Israel at the piano, and are curiously described as recorded at Dresden’s Frauenkirche, which hardly qualifies as “Hope@Home”. But the booklet alas gives no texts or explanation of any of these numbers, suggesting the release is aimed primarily as a souvenir for the (very many) viewers of the series around the world. For that purpose, it is ideal.
Its wider appeal will be for the numerous ‘easy listening’ items that dominate this release. At the more classical end of the range there are violin and piano versions of famous songs by Schubert, Fauré, Rachmaninov, and Gershwin, and of Satie’s Gnossienne No.1, all performed with a feeling for the different styles of those composers. Film music makes its appearance too, in such numbers as Nino Rota’s melancholy waltz from “The Godfather” and Arlen’s “Over the Rainbow”. Christoph Israel’s arrangements are sensitive and unobtrusive, and his playing perfectly in scale for the repertoire. Hope’s Guarneri violin has a wonderful sweet tone, beautifully captured by the recording, and his playing is close to perfect; touching and sentimental, but only to the right degree for each piece. And of course, the circumstances in which this music was recorded ensure it could hardly sound more spontaneous. This disc is an obvious recommendation for anyone who saw the shows, but many others will be delighted to hear it as well.
Roy Westbrook
Contents
1. Kosma: Les feuilles mortes [3:54] Daniel Hope (violin), Christoph Israel (piano), Till Brönner (trumpet), Christoph Israel (work arranger) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
2. Marcel Louiguy: La vie en rose [2:37] Daniel Hope (violin), Christoph Israel (piano) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
3. Max Richter, Clyde Lovern Otis: This Bitter Earth / On the Nature of Daylight [6:36] Joy Denalane (vocals), Christoph Israel (piano), Daniel Hope (violin), Christoph Israel (work arranger) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
4. Heymann: Irgendwo auf der Welt (from Der Blonde Traum) [3:53] Max Raabe (vocals), Christoph Israel (piano), Daniel Hope (violin), Christoph Israel (work arranger) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
5. Schubert: An die Musik D547 [2:58] Daniel Hope (violin), Christoph Israel (piano) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
6. Weber: Larghetto [2:50] Daniel Hope (violin), Jacques Ammon (piano), Fritz Kreisler (work arranger) Recorded: 6/2020 Frauenkirche Dresden
7. Weill: Youkali [4:29] Daniel Hope (violin), Christoph Israel (piano), Christoph Israel (work arranger) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
8. Rota: Godfather Waltz [3:52] Daniel Hope (violin), Christoph Israel (piano) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
9. Satie: Gnossienne No.1 [3:33] Daniel Hope (violin), Christoph Israel (piano) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
10. Ward, S A: America the Beautiful [3:08] Daniel Hope (violin), Christoph Israel (piano), Paul Bateman (work arranger) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
11. Mancini, H: Moon River [2:47] Daniel Hope (violin), Christoph Israel (piano) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
12. Jose Maria Cano Andres: Hijo De La Luna [2:13] Daniel Hope (violin), Christoph Israel (piano), Michael Metzler (percussion) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
13. E.Y. Harburg, Harold Arlen: Over the Rainbow [3:44] Daniel Hope (violin), Christoph Israel (piano), Christoph Israel (work arranger) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
14. Fauré: Après un rêve, Op. 7 No. 1 [3:28] Daniel Hope (violin), Christoph Israel (piano) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
15. Kawamura, Herre, Hunger, Di Gioia: “Berlin – Tel Aviv”[4:32] Joy Denalane (vocals), Christoph Israel (piano), Daniel Hope (violin), Max Herre (vocals) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
16. Rachmaninov: “Vocalise” [5:45] Daniel Hope (violin), Christoph Israel (piano) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
17. Gershwin: Summertime (from Porgy and Bess) [2:46] Daniel Hope (violin), Sebastian Knauer (piano) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
18. Brahms: “Wie rafft ich mich auf in der Nacht” from Lieder Op. 32 [4:32] Matthias Goerne (baritone), Tamara Stefanovich (piano) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
19. Falla: Asturiana / Kipling’s Poem “If” [3:26] Iris Berben (narrator), Christoph Israel (piano), Daniel Hope (violin) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
20. Hadjidakis: Never on Sunday: theme [2:21] Aliya Vodovozova (flute), Michael Metzler (percussion), Christoph Israel (piano), Daniel Hope (violin), Christoph Israel (work arranger) Recorded: 6/2020 Berlin
21. Weill: Lost in the stars [4:05] Daniel Hope (violin), Jacques Ammon (piano) Recorded: 6/2020 Frauenkirche Dresden
