Dvořák: Violin Concerto in A Minor; Serenade for Strings Antje Weithaas & Camerata Bern

• Antonín Dvořák (1841 - 1904): Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op. 53, B. 108:
• 1 Dvořák: Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op. 53, B. 108: I. Allegro ma non troppo 10:58
• 2 Dvořák: Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op. 53, B. 108: II. Adagio ma non troppo 10:11
• 3 Dvořák: Violin Concerto in A Minor, Op. 53, B. 108: III. Finale. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo 10:26
• Serenade for Strings, Op. 22, B. 52:
• 4 Dvořák: Serenade for Strings, Op. 22, B. 52: I. Moderato 04:34
• 5 Dvořák: Serenade for Strings, Op. 22, B. 52: II. Tempo di valse 07:07
• 6 Dvořák: Serenade for Strings, Op. 22, B. 52: III. Scherzo. Vivace 06:12
• 7 Dvořák: Serenade for Strings, Op. 22, B. 52: IV. Larghetto 04:49
• 8 Dvořák: Serenade for Strings, Op. 22, B. 52: V. Finale. Allegro vivace 06:40
• Total Runtime 01:00:57

Info for Dvořák: Violin Concerto in A Minor; Serenade for Strings

Antje Weithaas and the Camerata Bern are releasing their new album, on which they perform Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A Minor and his Serenade for Strings.

On the one hand, Dvořák’s violin concerto is a large-scale symphonic tapestry for soloist and orchestra; in contrast, his Serenade has a strong chamber music feel to it. Written in 1875 and premiered in 1876, the Serenade is among Dvořák’s most popular works. On the perhaps less well-known violin concerto from 1879 Antje Weithaas comments: “It’s a gorgeous piece, but difficult to play. Tricky passages await the soloist right at the beginning. No violinist feels at ease when going onstage to play this concerto! But the musical content is magnificent, and we should all do justice to this work by rising to the challenge.”

A unique virtuoso career that began almost four decades ago is being honoured by a number of prestigious awards: Antje Weithaas has just received the 2024 German Record Critics' Annual Prize (for her recording of the complete Beethoven sonatas with Dénes Várjon). And this fall, she will be awarded the honor of Instrumentalist of the Year 2025 at the OPUS KLASSIK prize-giving ceremony in Berlin. She is "probably the best-known insider tip in classical music," according to an arte Metropolis documentary made about the Lower Lusatian native a few years ago. A clear change in status is now in order. Not only a look at her impressive discography of thirty albums, many of which have received top critical acclaim, but also her broad repertoire, which includes the most important solo concertos from the classical to modern age, making Antje Weithaas one of, if not the, European authority on the art of violin. And she does so without any extroversion, predictability, or overt display, which might be more appealing to an audience, but simply doesn't suit her nature. Her passion for and mastery of chamber music reveals one of her greatest strengths: listening to and sensing the musical counterpart, withdrawing the self – something from which her students at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin also benefit greatly, allowing them to explore their own individual paths.

It's all the more gratifying that Antje Weithaas is now in the spotlight of the classical music market in 2025, with two top awards at once. She's already releasing another exciting album on the CAvi Music label in mid-August: an album which is believed to be the first recording of Dvořák's Violin Concerto and String Serenade, where the soloist also acts as conductor. Weithaas recently demonstrated that this concept, borrowed from the Baroque period in music history, can lead to extraordinary interpretive results with Pēteris Vasks’ Violin Concerto No. 2 “In Evening Light,” in which she shone together with the Camerata Bern – and was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK. orchestergraben.com was also impressed with the innovative assemblage: “In the first part, Antje Weithaas embeds herself very much in the orchestra, she really melts with the high strings… With calm and experience, the violinist knows how to position herself skillfully and tactically in the spirit of the music.”

With her new, now 31st studio production, Weithaas adds another heavyweight record to her own discography, following recordings of the epochal solo concertos by Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Bruch, Berg, Khatchaturian, and Vasks; namely, Antonín Dvořák's Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53. "In his music," says Weithaas, "we have the dance-like figures, a generous portion of poetry and melancholy, and all of this works together to create a far-reaching emotional depth." Despite the underlying musical and folkloristic tone, the technical challenge for the soloist here is particularly testing – it is no coincidence that the violinist of the century and dedicatee Joseph Joachim played a significant role in the concerto's creative process, which lasted a good three years (1879–1883). Antje Weithaas states that the solo part is "difficult to play and somewhat uncomfortable," but at the same time knows: "Of course, it shouldn't sound difficult to the audience!" But rather self-evident, almost natural - a predicate that is regularly attested to the German violinist and her style (*"Triumph of naturalness," was the headline on Deutschlandfunk, for example).

Antje Weithaas, solo violin & leader
Camerata Bern

Antje Weithaas
goes all out. She interprets Robert Schumann's first violin sonata, a work that could previously be understood as slightly melancholy and a beautiful contribution to domestic music, as music full of loneliness and forlornness. Her ability to evoke hell with a single note immerses the music in the highest emotionality. She not only masters the entire spectrum of creative mastery - she also utilises it mercilessly (…) Antje Weithaas, and this is certain, is not just a violinist, she is a musician, and currently one of the best. rbb Kultur, 13/12/2023

With captivating energy and a fine sense for nuances, Antje Weithaas gives her audience a "stellar hour of music" (FAZ) time and again. Her wide stylistic range and unmistakable musical language are fascinating. Blessed with impressive technical mastery and an enormous gamut of sound, she manages the feat of finding very individual readings of the great masterpieces and yet unpretentiously placing herself at the service of the composer. She has an extensive 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.

Last season, Antje Weithaas completed the complete recording of Ludwig van Beethoven's sonatas for violin and piano with Dénes Várjon as her piano partner on CAvi-music, digitally distributed by Deutsche Grammophon which was honoured with the German Record Critics' Award 2024. Following her debut recital at the Pierre Boulez Saal, she and Dénes Várjon will perform the complete cycle there in May 2025. The two artists will continue to perform the entire cycle next season at the Casals Forum Kronberg and in Budapest, and will also perform Beethoven recitals in Italy.

Antje Weithaas is a sought-after conductor for play-conduct projects with international chamber orchestras. As artistic director of the Camerata Bern, she was responsible for the musical profile of the ensemble for almost ten years, with whom she continues to work regularly and whose next joint recordings on CAvi-music we can look forward to. From the podium of the concertmaster, she has even conducted large-scale works such as Beethoven's symphonies and released recordings of works 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 several new projects. Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler

Currently, Antje Weithaas does not teach workshops or master classes and doesn’t give private lessons before the auditions. But students with an interest in studying with her are welcome to sit in on her Berlin classes. Further details are available from the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler.

In 2013, Antje Weithaas produced a reference recording of the violin concertos by Beethoven and Berg with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra under Steven Sloane (CAvi-music). The Arcanto Quartet's highly acclaimed recordings with Daniel Sepec, Tabea Zimmermann and Jean-Guihen Queyras, released on the Harmonia Mundi label, include works by Bartók, Brahms, Ravel, Dutilleux, Debussy, Schubert and Mozart. In 2016, her complete recording of Max Bruch's works for violin and orchestra with the NDR Radiophilharmonie under Hermann Bäumer was released on cpo. There was also an enthusiastic response to the complete recording of the solo sonatas and partitas by Johann Sebastian Bach and the solo sonatas by Eugène Ysaÿe as well as Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto and his 3rd String Quartet in an orchestral version with the Camerata Bern (CAvi). Two CDs were released in 2019: a recording of Robert Schumann's Violin Concerto and Johannes Brahms' Double Concerto with the NDR Radiophilharmonie, cellist Maximilian Hornung and conductor Andrew Manze, which won the BBC Music Magazine's “Concerto” Award, and a recording of Khachaturian's Violin Concerto and Concerto Rhapsody 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 has taken over the artistic leadership of the renowned Joachim competition. She taught as a professor at the Universität der Künste Berlin for several years before moving to the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in 2004. Since then, she has become a world-class violin teacher. She plays on a 2001 Peter Greiner violin.

Booklet for Dvořák: Violin Concerto in A Minor; Serenade for Strings