“Antje Weithaas is one of the great violinists of our time.”
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Brimful of energy, Antje Weithaas’ brings her compelling musical intelligence and technical mastery to every detail of the music. Her charisma and stage presence are captivating, but never overshadow the works themselves. She has a wide-ranging repertoire that includes the great concertos by Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann, new works such as Jörg Widmann’s Violin Concerto, modern classics by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Ligeti and Gubaidulina, and lesser performed concertos by Hartmann and Schoeck.
The BBC Music Magazine "Concerto" Award 2021 winner is Antje Weithaas with her Schumann Violin Concerto recording - “A truly compelling performance” (Michael Beek/BBC Music Magazine) - with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, Andrew Manze and Maximilian Hornung (cello, Brahms Double Concerto) on the label cpo.
Watch the official BBC Music Magazine trailer introducing the winners of this year's BBC Music Magazine Awards (Antje Weithaas starting at 8:10).
Brimful of energy, Antje Weithaas’ brings her compelling musical intelligence and technical mastery to every detail of the music. Her charisma and stage presence are captivating, but never overshadow the works themselves. She has a wide-ranging repertoire that includes the great concertos by Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann, new works such as Jörg Widmann’s Violin Concerto, modern classics by Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Ligeti and Gubaidulina, and lesser performed concertos by Hartmann and Schoeck.
As a soloist, Antje Weithaas has worked with most of Germany’s leading orchestras, including the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Bamberg Symphony and the major German radio orchestras, numerous major international orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Philharmonia Orchestra and the BBC Symphony, as well as and the leading orchestras of the Netherlands, Scandinavia, and Asia. She has collaborated with the illustrious conductors Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dmitri Kitayenko, Sir Neville Marriner, Marc Albrecht, Yakov Kreizberg, Sakari Oramo and Carlos Kalmar.
Antje Weithaas begins the 2022/23 season with concerts at Leif Ove Andsnes‘s Rosendal Chamber Music Festival and in her hometown Cottbus at the Brandenburgische Sommerkonzerte as well as on tour with the Bundesjugendorchester under Marc Albrecht, during which she will play Brahms Double Concerto with Maximilian Hornung at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Young Euro Classic Berlin amongst others. Other highlights include concerts with the MDR Symphony Orchestra, the Hofer Symphoniker, the Residentie Orkest, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Bochumer Symphoniker, the WKO Heilbronn, the Bielefelder Philharmoniker, the Landesorchester Schleswig-Holstein as well as the Hallé Orchestra Manchester. In the chamber music realm, she continues a new musical partnership with harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani in concerts at the Traunsteiner Sommerkonzerte and the Alte Oper Frankfurt. In a trio concert with Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Martin Helmchen, she will kick off the new festival of these two artists.
Through her infectious zest for communication, Antje Weithaas‘ reputation for inspiring play-lead concerts with international renowned chamber orchestras is rapidly growing. Having been the Camerata Bern’s artistic director for almost ten years, she was responsible for the ensemble’s musical profile, leading large works such as Beethoven’s symphonies, and recording music by Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Mendelssohn and Beethoven. Her concerts as artiste associé of the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris in the 2021/22 season led to an immediate re-invitation.
Antje Weithaas produced a reference recording of Beethoven and Berg’s violin concertos in 2013 with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Steven Sloane (CAvi-music). The label cpo released her recordings of Max Bruch’s complete works for violin and orchestra with the NDR Radio Philharmonic under Hermann Bäumer to great acclaim. There were rave reviews for Antje Weithaas’ project for CAvi, the complete recordings of Johann Sebastian Bach’s solo sonatas and partitas and Eugène Ysaÿe’s solo sonatas. Two CDs were released in 2019: a recording of the violin concerto by Robert Schumann and the double concerto by Johannes Brahms with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, cellist Maximilian Hornung and conductor Andrew Manze, and a recording of the violin concerto and concert rhapsody by Khachaturian with the Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie and conductor Daniel Raiskin.
Antje Weithaas began playing the violin at the age of four and later studied at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” Berlin with Professor Werner Scholz. She won the Kreisler Competition in Graz in 1987 and the Bach Competition in Leipzig in 1988, as well as the Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hanover in 1991. Together with Oliver Wille, she recently took over the artistic leadership of the renowned Joachim competition. After teaching at the Universität der Künste Berlin, Antje Weithaas became a professor of violin at the Hochschule für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in 2004. She plays on a 2001 Peter Greiner violin.
Bach |
Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, BWV 1041 |
Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major, BWV 1042 |
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Concerto for 2 Violins and Orchestra in D minor, BWV 1043 |
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Bartók |
Violin Concerto No. 1 |
Violin Concerto No. 2 |
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Beethoven |
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 61 |
Triple Concerto for Violin, Violoncello and Piano in C major, Op. 56 |
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Berg |
Violin Concerto "Dem Andenken eines Engels" |
Bernstein |
"Serenade" |
Brahms |
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77 |
Concerto for Violin, Violoncello and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 102 |
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Britten |
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 15 |
Bruch |
Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 |
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Violin Concerto Nr. 2 in D minor, Op. 44 |
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Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 58 |
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Konzertstück for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 57 |
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"Scottish Fantasy" for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 46 |
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Serenade for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 75 |
Dvorák |
Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53 |
Elgar |
Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61 |
Glanert |
Music for Violin and Orchestra |
Glazunov |
Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 82 |
Gubaidulina |
"Offertorium" |
Hartmann |
"Concerto funèbre" |
Haydn |
Violin Concerto in C major, Hob. VIIa:1 |
Violin Concerto in A major, Hob. VIIa:3 |
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Khachaturian |
Violin Concerto |
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Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra |
Korngold |
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 |
Lalo |
"Symphonie Espagnole" in D minor, Op. 21 |
De Leeuw |
Violin Concerto No. 1 |
Ligeti |
Violin Concerto |
Lindberg |
Violin Concerto |
Lutoslawski |
"Partita" |
"Chain 2" |
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Martinú |
Concerto da Camera |
Mendelssohn |
Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 |
Concerto for Violin and Strings in D minor |
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Mozart |
Violin Concerto No. 1 in B flat major, KV 207 |
Violin Concerto No. 2 in D major, KV 211 |
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Violin Concerto No. 3 in G major, KV 316 |
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Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, KV 218 |
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Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major, KV 219 |
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Sinfonia Concertante for Violin, Viola and Orchestra in E flat major, KV 364 |
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"Concertone" for 2 Violins and Orchestra in C major, KV 190 |
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Nielsen |
Violin Concerto, Op. 33 |
Prokofiev |
Violin Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 63 |
Respighi |
Concerto gregoriano for Violin and Orchestra |
Rihm |
"Gesungene Zeit" |
"Lichtes Spiel" |
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Schnittke |
1. "Concerto grosso" for 2 Violins and Chamber Orchestra |
Schoeck |
Violin Concerto in B major, Op. 21 |
Shostakovich |
Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 99 |
Violin Concerto No. 2 in C sharp minor, Op. 129 |
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Schumann |
Violin Concerto in D minor |
Sibelius |
Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47 |
Spohr |
Violin Concerto No. 8 in A minor, Op. 47 |
Violin Concerto No. 9 in D minor, Op. 55 |
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Violin Concerto No. 11 in G major, Op. 70 |
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Stravinsky |
Violin Concerto in D major |
Szymanowski |
Violin Concerto No. 1 |
Tchaikovsky |
Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 |
Tüür |
Violin Concerto |
Vivaldi |
"The Four Seasons" |
Widmann |
Violin Concerto |
Beethoven - Violin Sonata No. 2 in A major, Op. 12 No. 2 - III. Allegro piacevole
Bach - Gavotte en rondeau from Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006
Bach - Andante from Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003
Brahms - Allegro giocoso from Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 77
Ysaÿe - Fugato from Sonata in G minor, Op. 27 No. 1
Bruch - Recitativ, Allegro moderato from Violin Concerto No. 2