Chausson with Daniel Hope & NCCO

Posted by Maxim Lando, on Dec 04, 2019

It was an honor to perform Chausson Concerto for violin, piano and strings with Daniel Hope and the New Century Chamber Orchestra in California! This was an amazing opportunity to play a monumental piece that deserves to be performed much more often, and share that experience with top notch performers! NCCO is a fantastic conductorless ensemble based in the San Francisco Bay Area, led by the pioneering violinist Daniel Hope. I wish I could think of the right words to describe my excitement about this underplayed work. The Chausson Concerto for Violin and Piano is originally scored for Violin, Piano, and String Quartet. For this set of concerts however, Daniel Hope arranged the work for Violin, Piano, and String Ensemble (the larger 19 member New Century Chamber Orchestra replacing the traditional string quartet). The larger instrumentation really worked. The concerto features an intensely melodic violin line and a hyperactive piano score with an insane amount of notes, working in conversation with the engaging string quartet parts. I felt that the larger instrumentation brought out the symphonic qualities of the piece and also highlighted the unique voices of the solo violin and piano.

It was joy to work with Daniel Hope and the superb musicians of the NCCO, and I was so happy that we had the opportunity to repeat the program in three separate Bay Area venues (including San Francisco’s beautiful Herbst Theater). I also had the chance to perform a short program with Daniel Hope at Gordon and the late Ann Getty’s magnificent home -and it was especially fun that we had prepared a short encore of one of Gordon Getty’s compositions for the occasion.

For some fun reviews of the concerts read here:

https://www.sfcv.org/reviews/new-century-chamber-orchestra/new-century-opens-new-season-with-lush-music-from-the-gilded

https://sfciviccenter.blogspot.com/2019/10/fin-de-siecle-at-new-century-chamber.html