Christoph Koncz

Conductor

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Chief Conductor: Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein
Principal Guest Conductor: Les Musiciens du Louvre

The young Austrian conductor Christoph Koncz has already established himself as one of the outstanding musicians of his generation. His debut at the 2013 Salzburg Mozartwoche was followed by concerts at such prestigious venues as the Berlin, Cologne and Munich Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, KKL Lucerne and Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam as well as at the Salzburg Festival.

Christoph Koncz is currently in his third season as Chief Conductor of the Deutsche Kammerakademie Neuss am Rhein and has recently been appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the renowned French period instrument ensemble Les Musiciens du Louvre. Much in demand as a guest conductor, he has performed worldwide with orchestras such as the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal and Hong Kong Philharmonic.

During the upcoming season, Christoph Koncz will appear for the first time with the New World Symphony Miami, Orchestre Dijon Bourgogne, Danish Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa and Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse. He also returns to the Philharmonia Orchestra London, the Verbier Festival Chamber Orchestra and will make his debut at the Opéra National de Bordeaux and the Opernhaus Zürich, conducting an enormously varied repertoire ranging from Monteverdi Madrigals and Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro to Stravinsky’s Petrushka and The Spark Catchers by the contemporary British composer Hannah Kendall.

Christoph Koncz is particularly noted for his interpretations of the works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His recording of the Complete Violin Concertos as soloist and conductor with Les Musiciens du Louvre was released by Sony Classical in October 2020 under the title Mozart’s Violin and caused an international sensation for being the first recording of these famous works on the composer’s original Baroque violin. The Strad magazine described Koncz’s performance as ‘a masterly demonstration of melodic playing’.

Born 1987 in Konstanz into an Austrian-Hungarian family of musicians and raised in Vienna, Christoph Koncz received his first violin lesson at the age of four and entered the Vienna University of Music only two years later. In addition to his violin studies, he also enrolled in the conducting class of Mark Stringer in 2005. Master classes with Daniel Barenboim, Daniel Harding and David Zinman further enriched his musical education. At the age of just nine, he received worldwide acclaim for starring as child prodigy Kaspar Weiss in the Canadian feature film The Red Violin, which won an Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Christoph Koncz made his North American debut as a violin soloist at age twelve with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra conducted by Charles Dutoit, leading to collaborations with conductors such as Sir Neville Marriner, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Gábor Takács-Nagy and Marc Minkowski. An avid chamber musician, his musical partners include Leonidas Kavakos, Joshua Bell, Vilde Frang, Renaud Capuçon, Antoine Tamestit, Kim Kashkashian, Gautier Capuçon, Nicolas Altstaedt, Andreas Ottensamer and Rudolf Buchbinder. His concert engagements have taken him to numerous countries across Europe and to the Middle East, Asia, Australia as well as North and South America.

In 2008, at the age of twenty, Christoph Koncz was appointed principal second violin of the Vienna Philharmonic, a position he has held ever since. He plays the 1707 ex Brüstlein violin by Antonio Stradivari on generous loan by the National Bank of Austria.

Gallery

OSR - Concert d'Automne des Amis de l'OSR 2020 © OSR - Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Christoph Koncz | Schumann: Overture, Scherzo and Finale © Christoph Koncz

“Koncz’s luxurious and engaging interpretation of Johannes Brahms’ masterful and expansive Symphony No.1 in C minor saw the Hong Kong Philharmonic hit all the right buttons and more.”

(Christopher Halls, South China Morning Post, May 2021)

“Conducted by heart and delivered with conviction and enthusiasm by the musicians, Brahms’ 2^nd Symphony unfolded in beautiful sound clarity.”

(Le Temps, Nov 2020)

“If I could own only one set of the Mozart violin concertos, this would be it.”

(Terry Robbins, The WholeNote, December 2020)

“In the second part, Brahms’ Second Symphony impresses more thanks to the young Christian Koncz…a conductor to follow!”

(Crescendo Magazine, November 2020)

“The Neussers love their orchestra and are already worshiping the charming young man…who elicited some beautiful phrases, filigree structures and a wonderfully silvery string tone from the Viennese classics with a very organic approach.”

(Das Orchester, May 2020)

“Christoph Koncz’s conducting can be described as “breathtaking” without exaggeration.”

(RP Online, Feb 2020)

“His extremely precise conducting could be admired right from the start of Beethoven’s overture to his only opera ‘Fidelio’: He carried the intimate opening theme all the way up to the crisp ending of the stormy victory anthem.”

(NGZ Online, 12 January 2020)

“Christoph Koncz, the smile of music. The conductor’s temperament burst out in Schumann’s little symphony, which does not bear the title correctly. Koncz’s gestures are clear, enthusiastic; he supports and encourages the musicians, stimulating by example the lyricism of the Opening and the energy of the Final. […] In this piece as on stage, and
probably in life, Koncz smiles at the music. […] With a lot of common sense, Koncz operates by accumulation of energy, almost placing the Second Symphony of Brahms in an extension of the First, in a great movement of “post-Beethoven symphonic liberation” culminating in a radiant finish. Christoph Koncz will return to Montreal. That’s for sure!”

(Le Devoir, Canada, March 2019)

“Rapturous applause. Christoph Koncz was a sensitive and stylistically confident conductor in both concerts. With Mozart’s Parisian symphony (KV 297), the young Viennese conductor showed how transparent a Mozart symphony can sound. He had all the wind players mix their colours into the overall sound and made all the string parts audible in a distinct way. In Schubert’s 3^rd Symphony in D major, he was completely in his element and his joy in conducting was transferred to the whole orchestra. Consequently, he succeeded in delivering an interpretation full of youthful freshness, liveliness and lightness, a real celebration of music. Huge applause for this captivating conducting. We can only hope to see Christoph Koncz on the podium in Jena again soon.”

(Ostthüringer Zeitung, Germany, March 2016)

“Simply brilliant. Christoph Koncz fascinates with an incredible presence, sends impulses in all directions, communicates perfectly with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, and combines virtuosity with enormous expressive potential.”

(Der Bund, Switzerland, December 2005)