"Admittedly, it is quite exceptional for an orchestra and a soloist to record the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto without a conductor. Some members of Camerata Bern were less worried about this project; others – including myself – had their misgivings at first.
Essential questions remained with us throughout: how do we stay in sync while ensuring that the music remains lively and flexible; how can we go on interacting? What we are applying here is indeed a chamber music approach, which is supposed to allow us to gain in terms of freedom and clarity.
Otherwise, such a project would not be justified. Now, listening to the result, I must concede that the adventure was well worth the effort, even though such projects can only succeed when the soloist and the orchestra know one another very well, as is the case with myself and the Camerata. After several days of intense recording sessions, I feel thoroughly grateful to all members of the ensemble and to the marvellous additional wind section for the incredibly stimulating, creative time
we spent together. The shared atmosphere created a kind of energy that released unforeseen potential in us and inspired everyone involved. Of course we could already look back on our previous collaborations: in the Beethoven Violin Concerto, and particularly in the Brahms. Now, recording the Tchaikovsky, we found those experiences extremely helpful.
I wanted to record Tchaikovsky for several reasons. Most importantly, I love Tchaikovsky’s music, particularly the two works featured on this recording. I wanted to coax the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto out of the corner of virtuoso tradition it has occupied until now. In certain aspects, an established way of playing it has become somewhat cemented over the last decades. But neither do I see that approach justified in the score, nor does it correspond with my view of Tchaikovsky as a musician and as a human being. We all found it thrilling to challenge and question our previous experience with this piece, both as performers and as listeners, and to tackle it as if it was new to us. I had played the Tchaikovsky Concerto a lot as a student, but had not returned to it for over ten years. Besides, German violinists are generally not often called upon to interpret Russian composers. What better point in time than this one to learn the piece once more, almost from scratch? I purchased a new score; I intensely studied the Henle Urtext edition and tried to develop a fresh approach, daring to question tradition by taking Tchaikovsky’s tempo relations, dynamics and articulation utterly seriously.
I view Tchaikovsky as a gracefully elegant, thoroughly aristocratic Russian, and I wanted to help the listener clearly discern his moving sadness and yearning: however, this music always remains elegant and noble in spite of its emotional depth. These aspects are thoroughly Russian, but in a very fine, subtle way. I extend my heartfelt thanks to all members of Camerata Bern for this thrilling production.
What a luxury to be able to make music together in this way!"
Brimming with energy, Antje Weithaas brings her compelling musical intelligence and technical
mastery to every detail in the score. Her charisma and stage presence are captivating, but never
overshadow the works themselves. Her wide-ranging repertoire encompasses a large portion of
major concerto and chamber music works from the Baroque age to the present day.
As a soloist, she has made appearances with a great number of orchestras in Europe and around
the globe, collaborating with conductors such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Dmitri Kitayenko, Sir Neville
Marriner, Marc Albrecht, Yakov Kreizberg, Sakari Oramo, and Carlos Kalmar.
With her infectious zest for communication, Antje Weithaas has become a sought-after leader in
“Play-Conduct concerts” with internationally renowned chamber orchestras. She was Artistic Director
of the Camerata Bern for almost ten years and still returns to work with them on a regular basis.
Her concerts as Associated Artist of the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris in the 2021/22 season led
to an immediate re-invitation.
Weithaas’s recordings include the solo sonatas of Bach and Ysaÿe, the Ligeti horn trio, Beethoven
quartets, Schubert trios, and the violin concertos of Beethoven, Schumann, Berg, and Khachaturian.
More than anything else, Antje Weihaas is a chamber music musician par excellence and is playing
with many high qualified partners.
She won the Kreisler Competition in Graz in 1987 and the Bach Competition in Leipzig in 1988, as
well as the renowned Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hanover in 1991. Together
with Oliver Wille, she recently assumed the artistic directorship of the Joachim competition.
After teaching at the Berlin University of the Arts, Antje Weithaas was appointed to a chair at the Hochschule
für Musik “Hanns Eisler” in 2004, where she has acquired a pre-eminent worldwide reputation
as a violin teacher. She plays on a 2001 Peter Greiner violin. www.antje-weithaas.de
Founded in 1962 as a flexible instrumental ensemble without a conductor, the CAMERATA BERN quickly rose to international success. Its members are highly gifted soloists and chamber musicians. Under the artistic direction of Antje Weithaas and guest concertmasters such as Erich Hörbarth, Patricia Kopatschinskaja, Amandine Beyer, Rachel Podger and Enrico Onofri, the ensemble stands out with its subtle and perfectly homogeneous sound, its freshness and mastery of style. The CAMERATA BERN now extends its focus to historically informed peformance on period instruments, while maintaining a lively, fruitful dialogue with the music of our time.
These exceptional qualities have led the ensemble to collaborate with a great number of internationally renowned soloists such as Heinz Holliger, András Schiff, Alexander Lonquich, Jörg Widmann, Tabea Zimmermann, Bernd Glemser, Christian Gerhaher, Marie Luise Neunecker, Vesselina Kasarova, Radu Lupu, Gidon Kremer, Barbara Hendricks, Reinhold Friedrich, Leonidas Kavakos and Angelika Kirchschlager, amongst others.
The ensemble has toured extensively in Europe, South and North America, as well as in South Asia, the Far East, Australia and Japan, recently to Mexico, Costa Rica, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Montevideo, Geneva, Genua and others. Its recordings have won several international awards. In 2012, the CAvi-Music label released a CAMERATA BERN Beethoven CD as well as the Brahms Violin Concerto (2015) with Antje Weithaas.
The CAMERATA BERN hosts its own subscription concert cycles in Berne. It brings music closer to children thanks to a large-scale project initiated in 2010, with over 130 concerts in schools across the Canton of Bern. In collaboration with Bern Municipal Theatre, the CAMEARATA co-produces full-length choreographies and opera. In early 2015, the ensemble co-produced Monteverdi’s opera “L’Orfeo” with Konzert Theater Berne very successfully conducted by Attilio Cremonesi.
The CAMERATA BERN FOUNDATION receives subsidies from the City, the Burgergemeinde and the Canton of Berne. It also receives regular support endowments from the Ursula Wirz Foundation and project-related funding from a series from further foundations and sponsors. In its programmes dedicated to early music, the ensemble performs on a set of 14 period instruments based on Baroque models, donated by the Bernese Guilds, the Burgergemeinde of Berne and and the Hans & Verena Krebs Foundation.
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