©Photo: Marco Borggreve

©Photo: Marco Borggreve

Nicolas Altstaedt

Cello / Conductor

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“The cellist Nicolas Altstaedt is an artist a category on its own”
(Hamburger Abendblatt)

Artistic Director: Haydn-Philharmonie
Artistic Director: Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival

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, playing on period and modern instruments.

Season 2021/22 includes debuts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in London and at the Enescu Festival in Bucharest, Münchner Philharmonic, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Orquesta Nacional de España, and the Royal Liverpoool Philharmonic. He returns to Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Orchestra sinfonica di Milano della RAI, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and les Violons du Roy in Quebec. He tours with l’Orchestre des Champs-Elysées and Philippe Herreweghe as well as the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and Dmitri Slobodeniou. Nicolas is due to premiere a new project with Anna Prohaska and Francesco Corti centering around two new compositions by Jörg Widmann and Wolfgang Rihm at the Berliner Festspiele and other European venues.

Highlights of the 2020/21 season included several collaborations with Munich Kammerorchester, returns to Orchestre National de France, Strasbourg Philharmonic and Fondazione per l’orchestra della Svizzera Italiana. He debuted with the Gulbenkian Orchestra at the Espinho Festival in Portugal and with Montpellier Orchestra. Altstaedt also appeared at summer festivals in Budapest, Salzburg and Oslo. Nicolas Altstaedt was Artist in Focus at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and Artist in Residence at the SWR Symphonieorchester with Teodor Currentzis in 2019/20.

Nicolas Altstaedt performs regularly with the most renowned orchestras around the world, including the Wiener Philharmoniker and Symphoniker, Tonhalle-Orchestra Zürich, and all BBC orchestras with conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Roger Norrington, Lahav Shani, François-Xavier Roth, Robin Ticciati as well as with orchestras of historical performance practice such as ‘Il Giardino Armonico’ under Giovanni Antonini, Andrea Marcon and Jonathan Cohen.

As a conductor, he works closely with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and conducted in recent seasons the SWR, OPRF Paris, Aurora and Münchener Kammerorchester orchestras. 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.

In 2012 Nicolas Altstaedt succeeded Gidon Kremer as artistic director of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, and in 2014 he succeeded Ádám Fischer in this position at the Haydn Philharmonic.

As a chamber musician, Nicolas’ regular partners include Janine Jansen, Vilde Frang, Pekka Kuusisto, Lawrence Power, Antoine Tamestit, Alexander Lonquich, Jean Rondeau and the Quatuor Ébène.

He has received numerous prizes including the Beethovenring Bonn 2015 and Musikpreis der Stadt Duisburg 2018. His most recent recording 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 is a recipient of the Credit Suisse Award in 2010 and was a BBC New Generation Artist 2010 – 2012.

Nicolas Altstaedt - Courante uit Bach's ‘Vijfde suite’ - Concertgebouw Sessions © Het Concertgebouw

Bloch Schelomo Nicolas Altstaedt, Lahav Shani © Nicolas Altstaedt

Nicolas Altstaedt with Arcangelo: Haydn cello concerto No.1, H. 7b, 3rd movement: Allegro molto © Arcangelo

Fazil Say and Nicolas Altstaedt record 'Four Cities: Ankara' Cello Sonata © Warner Classics

Lutosławski Cello Concerto Nicolas Altstaedt, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Dima Slobodeniouk © Nicolas Altstaedt

Schumann: Cello Concerto - Nicolas Altstaedt © AVROTROS Klassiek

Nicolas Altstaedt | Esa-Pekka Salonen: Violoncellokonzert | SWR Symphonieorchester © SWR Classic

Nicolas Altstaedt | DUTILLEUX Tout un monde lointain | Fabien Gabel © Detroit Symphony Orchestra

Nicolas Altstaedt | William Walton: Violoncellokonzert | SWR Symphonieorchester © SWR Classic

“Messiaen’s sweeping and mystical “Quartet for the End of Time,” … was given one of the finest readings I’ve heard … the pianist Francesco Piemontesi and the cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, who played together with hypnotic and alluring restraint in the fifth movement … this account was masterly and meditatively played.”

(The New York Times, July 2021)

“In this beautifully recorded release, the interpretations [of Beethoven’s Sonatas] by Altstaedt and Lonquich bristle with boldness, exploiting the revolutionary aspects of the music with relish. The performances are vivid and dramatic… Quite simply, the range of timbre, dynamics, and characterisation in these performances is phenomenal.”

(The Strad, October 2020)

“Nicolas Altstaedt’s take on Beethoven’s music for cello and piano is magical, proud, and glorious.”

(Strings Magazine, July 2020)

“Altstaedt’s crisp, penetrating sound was arresting in the first movement of Debussy’s 1915 Cello Sonata … yet he brought a deftness of touch that lent his lines a graceful lyricism over the march of Madžar’s piano.”

(Limelight Magazine, Angus McPherson, September 2017, 4.5 stars)

“Nicolas Altstaedt is one of that elite group: here you would think he was a Baroque full-timer, his approach is so indefinably delicate, the phrasing of CPE Bach’s seductive lines limpid, the recitative hyper-articulate. The tawny warmth of his tone is perfectly attuned to the composer’s sound world; slow movements have an inward grace, while the fast are marked by vivid detail and natural effervescence.”

(Classical Music, August 2017)

“Altstaedt’s feathery touches and hushed wisps that opened the concert were delicately placed and continued throughout these two [Beethoven Op.5 sonatas], with deftness in the upper registers alternating with forceful pounding of both cello and piano in the lower, and both finales taken at a healthy brisk pace with authority and plenty of rippling fluidity.”

(Bachtrack, Mark Thomas, June 2017)

“Nicolas Altstaedt is an ideal protagonist; no sentimental phrasing impedes the music’s dynamic thrust and the angry opening of [CPE Bach’s] A‑minor Concerto is gripping… Emotions are at their darkest in the Finale – displayed dramatically by Altstaedt whose presentation of the rapid staccato passages involves virtuosic skill.”

(Classical Source, Antony Hodgson, Nov 2016, 5 stars)

“Muscular playing, klezmerish swing. The two composers’ cello concertos make an impressive vehicle for rising cellist Nicolas Altstaedt”

(The Guardian April 2016)

“The compelling French-German cellist Nicolas Altstaedt gave a performance of this compact 10-minute piece that thoroughly conveyed its audacious, even radical elements. This was his New York recital debut. It’s about time.”

(New York Times, Anthony Tommasini, February 2016)

“Altstaedt displayed a consistently gorgeous tone and warmth of phrasing, particularly effective in the ghostly high line in the second movement [of Dutilleux’s Tout un monde lointain]”

(Bachtrack, Simon Holden, April 2015)

“An absolute revelation. Nicolas Altstaedt, one of the cello realm’s most brilliant young princes.”

(Huffington Post)