Creation Nicolas Altstaedt

• Helena Winkelman (b. 1974): Atlas:
• 1Winkelman: Atlas: I. Passacaglia - Atlas and Heracles08:55
• 2Winkelman: Atlas: II. Adagietto fluido - The Golden Apples in The Garden of The Hesperides07:04
• 3Winkelman: Atlas: III. Perpetuum Mobile - Ladon the Dragon09:20
• Sonett 74:
• 4Winkelman: Sonett 7408:54
• Matan Porat (b. 1982): Fragment:
• 5Porat: Fragment01:22
• Erkki-Sven Tüür (b. 1959): Memo:
• 6Tüür: Memo01:48
• Olli Mustonen (b. 1967): Inventio:
• 7Mustonen: Inventio00:54
• Patricia Kopatchinskaja (b. 1977): Ghiribizzi:
• 8Kopatchinskaja: Ghiribizzi: I. Wer weiss00:48
• 9Kopatchinskaja: Ghiribizzi: II. Nicht zusammen, doch zusammen00:56
• 10Kopatchinskaja: Ghiribizzi: III. Nein00:38
• 11Kopatchinskaja: Ghiribizzi: IV. Nostalgic01:16
• 12Kopatchinskaja: Ghiribizzi: V. Giocoso-Serioso01:10
• 13Kopatchinskaja: Ghiribizzi: VI. Intermezzo00:59
• Maja Ratkje (b. 1973): Hymn:
• 14Ratkje: Hymn01:40
• Kurt Schwertsik (b. 1935): Locken-House / Un-Locked:
• 15Schwertsik: Locken-House / Un-Locked01:44
• Esa-Pekka Salonen (b. 1958): Two Fragments for Lockenhaus:
• 16Salonen: Two Fragments for Lockenhaus: Ritual01:55
• Pentatonic Chain:
• 17Salonen: Pentatonic Chain02:31
• Raphaël Merlin (b. 1982): See: Sea & Seeds. Si!:
• 18Merlin: See: Sea & Seeds. Si!: I. See06:32
• 19Merlin: See: Sea & Seeds. Si!: II. Sea03:13
• 20Merlin: See: Sea & Seeds. Si!: III. Seeds02:29
• 21Merlin: See: Sea & Seeds. Si!: IV. Si!03:07
• Johannes Fischer (b. 1981): Still Here:
• 22Fischer: Still Here03:24
• Lera Auerbach (b. 1973): Don't Prolong Goodbyes:
• 23Auerbach: Don't Prolong Goodbyes01:30
• Total Runtime01:12:09

Info for Creation

Forty years have passed since Gidon Kremer created a little musical oasis in the Austrian town of Lockenhaus in 1981. The violinist’s open-minded attitude has left its mark on this event, which has become a must in the concert calendar, and the cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, who took up the torch in 2012, continues the same philosophy. For this fortieth anniversary, he has decided to call on composers who have come to Lockenhaus or had works performed there in the past ten years. Hence the programme contains two premieres – the cello concertos of Raphaël Merlin and Helena Winkelman – but also short pieces by Erkki-Sven Tüür, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Lera Auerbach, Patkop, Maja Ratkje, Matan Porat, Kurt Schwertsik and Johannes Fischer. Musical postcards that celebrate the anniversary while foreshadowing the next forty years!

Nicolas Altstaedt, cello
Helena Winkelman, violin (track 4)
Vilde Frang, violin (tracks 8-13)
Gidon Kremer, violin (track 17)
Ilya Gringolts, violin (tracks 4, 5, 14, 15)
Tatiana Grindenko, violin (track 16)
Meesun Hong Coleman, violin (track 6)
Nicholas Rimmer, piano (tracks 14, 15, 22)
Julian Hedenborg, piano (track 5)
Joonas Ahonen, piano (track 6)
Zsolt Fejervari, double bass (track 4)
Peter Szabo, cello (track 4)
Lockenhaus Strings (tracks 1-3, 18-21, 23)
Kremerata Baltica (tracks 16, 17)
Raphael Merlin, conductor (tracks 18-21)

Nicolas Altstaedt
German-French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt is one of the most sought after and versatile artists today. As a soloist, conductor and artistic director, he performs repertoire spanning from early music to the contemporary.

Nicolas Altstaedt was Artist in Residence 19/20 at the SWR Symphonie Orchestra under Teodor Currentzis and Artist in Fokus at Alte Oper Frankfurt. Other recent highlights included a tour with B’Rock and René Jacobs.

Season 21/22 includes debuts with the London and Munich Philharmonic, Symphonieorchester des Bayrische Rundfunks, RAI Torino, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, National Orchestra of Spain and tours with l’Orchestre des Champs-Elysées and Philippe Herreweghe as well as the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and Dmitri Slobodeniouk, reinvitations to the Rotterdam Philharmonic and NHK Symphony Orchestra. This autumn he will debut with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Iván Fischer as well as with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Osmo Vänskä.

He has debuted in recital at BOZAR Brussels, Carnegie Hall, Park Avenue Armory, TCE Paris and Koerner Hall, Toronto. During the 17/18 season, Nicolas gave the highly acclaimed Finnish Premiere of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Cello Concerto under the baton of the composer at the Helsinki Festival and was “Artist in Spotlight” at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

As a conductor, he works closely with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and conducted in recent seasons the SWR, OPRF Paris, OSI Lugano, Aurora, Zurich and Munich chamber orchestras.

Awarded the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award in 2010, he gave a critically praised performance of the Schumann Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel at the Lucerne Festival. Since then, he has performed worldwide with orchestras such as the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, all BBC Orchestras, Tokyo Metropolitan-, NHK and Yomiuri Symphony Orchestra, ONF and OPRF Paris, Melbourne and New Zealand Symphony Orchestras with conductors including Sir Roger Norrington, Francois Xavier Roth, Lahav Shani, Sir Neville Marriner, Robin Ticciati, Cristian Macelaru, Ed Gardner, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Christoph Eschenbach, Andrew Manze, Kazuki Yamada, Thomas Dausgaard, Thomas Hengelbrock as well as with orchestras of historical performance practice such as “Il Giardino Armonico” under Giovanni Antonini, Andrea Marcon and Jonathan Cohen.

In 2012, Nicolas was chosen by Gidon Kremer to succeed him as the new artistic director of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival and in 2014 by Ádám Fischer to become the new Artistic Director of the Haydn Philharmonie whom he regularly performs with at the Vienna Konzerthaus, Esterházy Festival and recently on tour in both China and Japan. Nicolas is Artistic Director of the Pfingstfestspiele Ittingen 2019 and 2023.

As a chamber musician, Nicolas partners include Janine Jansen, Vilde Frang, Christian Tetzlaff, Pekka Kuusisto, Barnabás Kelemen, Joshua Bell, Tabea Zimmermann, Lawrence Power, Antoine Tamestit, Martin Fröst, Alexander Lonquich, Jonathan Cohen, Jean Rondeau and the Quatuor Ébène. He performs at both Salzburg Mozart and Summer Festival, Verbier, Utrecht, BBC Proms, Lucerne, Musikfest Bremen, Schleswig-Holstein and Rheingau.

Joint appearances with composers such as Thomas Adès, Jörg Widmann, Wolfgang Rihm, Thomas Larcher, Fazil Say and Sofia Gubaidulina also consolidate his reputation as an outstanding interpreter of contemporary music. Sebastian Fagerlund, Helena Winkelman, Anders Hillborg and Fazil Say have recently written concertos for Nicolas. New Concertos by Erkki-Sven Tüür and Márton Illés are in commission.

His most recent recordings for his Lockenhaus Festival garnered the BBC Music Magazine 2020 Chamber Award and Grammophone Award 2020. He received the BBC Music Magazine Concerto Award 2017 for his recording of CPE Bach Concertos on Hyperion with Arcangelo and Jonathan Cohen and the Edison Klassiek 2017 for his Recital Recording with Fazil Say on Warner Classics.

Nicolas received the Beethovenring Bonn 2015 and Musikpreis der Stadt Duisburg 2018. Nicolas was a BBC New Generation Artist 2010-2012 and a recipient of the „Borletti Buitoni Trust Fellowship“ in 2009.

Booklet for Creation