Thomas Zehetmair
(born 1961 in Salzburg) is one of the most distinguished violinists of his generation. He has collaborated with all major orchestras and important conductors and plays most of the violin repertoire from the Baroque (in historically informed interpretations) to contemporary composition. He has premiered violin concerti by James Dillon and Hans-Jürgen von Bose and, for ECM New Series, recorded the concerto by Heinz Holliger which was dedicated to him. Zehetmair's account of the complete solo sonatas by Eugène Ysaÿe won great critical acclaim in 2004. In The Guardian Andrew Clements wrote: "Zehetmair's performances of these hugely demanding sonatas are fabulously impressive. This is a perfect example of how a great interpreter can transform musical base metal into something infinitely more precious. Zehetmair's achievement is to unite all conflicting creative currents into a single, surging flood of invention. The playing is so assured, so instinctively musical, that you take everything he plays on trust, believing with him that it is genuinely great music." The violinist's most recent disc on ECM - Bartók's fifth quartet coupled with the fourth quartet by Paul Hindemith, played by the Zehetmair Quartett - was issued in 2007. Zehetmair will perform the complete cycle of Ysaÿe's six sonatas at this year's Salzburger Festspiele on August 28.