Patricia Kopatchinskaja

Violin

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“A player of rare expressive energy and disarming informality, of whimsy and theatrical ambition”
(Zachary Woolfe, New York Times, 2018)

Artistic Partner: The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Moldovan born violinist and “one of the most distinctive voices in the violin world”, Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s unique approach shows itself in her diverse repertoire ranging from baroque and classical works played on gut strings, to new commissions and re-interpretations of modern masterpieces.

2018/19 is another exciting season for Kopatchinskaja as she continues to collaborate with leading conductors and orchestras. The season begins with a debut for Orchestre symphonique de Montréal (Kent Nagano), performances with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester and Berliner Philharmoniker (Kirill Petrenko) and a European tour with Kammerorchester Basel (Heinz Holliger). In the U.S., Kopatchinskaja will make another important debut with The Cleveland Orchestra for concerts of Eötvös’ Seven, and under the baton of Currentzis she will revive Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with Musica Aeterna for a Japanese Tour.

With recital partner, Polina Leschenko she has released Deux (Alpha) which the duo will tour, making their collective debut to the U.S.A and Japan.

PATRICIA KOPATCHINSKAJA // Death and the Maiden #Schubert // with THE SAINT PAUL CHAMBER ORCHESTRA © Alpha Classics

Kopatchinskaja has held the position of Artistic Partner with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra since 2014 and was awarded a Grammy in 2018 for their recording, Death and the Maiden (Alpha). Other accolades include the prestigious Swiss Grand Award for Music in 2017, a recognition of exceptional talent and innovation awarded by the Federal Office of Culture for Switzerland.

Highlights for 2017/18 include the world premiere of her new project, Dies Irae at the Lucerne Festival where she was ‘artiste étoile’. The project also received its North American premiere as part of Kopatchinskaja’s position as Music Director at the Ojai Music Festival this summer. Other highlights include appearances at the Salzburger Festspiele with Markus Hinterhauser and Camerata Salzburg for pieces by Ustwolskaja and Hartmann.

Gallery

Patricia Kopatchinskaja: Pierrot © The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

DEUX // Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Polina Leschenko (Ravel, Poulenc, Bartok) © Alpha Classics

2018 Ojai Music Director Patricia Kopatchinskaja © Ojai Music Festival

Patricia Kopatchinskaja - Take Two album trailer © Alpha Classics / Outhere Music France 2015

Patricia Kopatchinskaja - Kopatchinskaja on Bartók © Naïve Classique

Patricia Kopatchinskaja - Trailer for SFR documentary © Béla Batthyany/SRF 2012

Patricia Kopatchinskaja - Ligeti: Violin Concerto (excerpt) © naïve

Patricia Kopatchinskaja - Bartók: Violin Concerto No.2 (excerpt) © naïve

“[She] is a phenomenal virtuoso with the necessary technique to burn and the bravery to then burn it”

(Mark Swed, LA Times, April 2019)

“Patricia Kopatchinskaja never fails to engage both the listener’s ears and mind with performances of personality that make scores live as if freshly discovered. Leschenko is the perfect partner.”

(Gramophone, December 2018)

“Patricia Kopatchinskaja, who commissioned the concerto (Hersch Violin Concerto), aptly describes it as ‘brutal and vulnerable at the same time’, and her performance conveys that dichotomy with ferocious commitment, aided with fearlessness by the International Contemporary Ensemble under Tito Muñoz. The music’s intense physicality and bleak atmosphere make for gripping, if harrowing, listening. What draws me to listen again and again is Hersch’s ability to communicate desperation that somehow never plummets into despair.”

(Andrew Farach-Colton, Gramophone, October 2018)

“She is a player of rare expressive energy and disarming informality, of whimsy and theatrical ambition. (Listen to her Tchaikovsky concerto recording, now!) In all these qualities, she was a perfect choice for Ojai, which each year invites a different artist — a performer, director, composer, conductor or choreographer — to plan the four-day festival as a concentrated shot of his or her enthusiasms.”

(New York Times, June 2018)

“This was a performance like no other, fabulously virtuosic with soloist and orchestra uncannily on the same wavelength.”

(About Bye Bye Beethoven at Ojai- Mark Swed, LA TIMES, June 2018)

“Nor is there anything ordinary about this latest CD, a recital with the pianist Polina Leschenko that is a feast of edgy, risk-filled music-making.”

(About Deux Recording- Erica Jeal, The Guardian, March 2018)

“One of the most distinctive voices in the violin world at the moment is surely that of Patricia Kopatchinskaja, whose previous recordings of works such as Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto have undoubtedly offered a unique take on familiar pieces. For her latest recording of music by Poulenc, Bartók and Ravel she is joined by pianist Polina Leschenko.”

(James Longstaffe, Presto Classical, February 2018)

“In the moments before pressing play on any new recording from Patricia Kopatchinskaja, the only thing you can be absolutely certain of is that you’re about to hear something brimming with personality, individuality and panache”

(Gramophone Magazine, February 2018)

“….And then there was Kopatchinskaja in the violin work, an astonishing force of nature, powering her way through its hair-raising difficulties as the orchestra conjured a half-remembered world that seems gradually to be slipping beyond recall, and throwing in a cadenza of her own for good measure, one totally consistent with Ligeti’s surreal world.”

***** (Andrew Clements, The Guardian, May 2018)

“Her voice was her instrument, Sprechstimme her style, a cross between speaking and singing to which she added dramatic movement and expression…She was a sprite in a deconstructed tux, fearless and wild.”

(Pamela Espleland, Minnesota Post October 2017)

“… Kopatchinskaja commanded the stage, the quintet around her perfectly in sync with her in both rhythm and spirit.”

(Rob Hubbard, Twin Cities Pioneer Press, October 2017)

“In between came a wondrous account of Berg’s violin concerto, written both to mark a death and in the year that Berg himself died. Patricia Kopatchinskaja’s account was fragile, eloquent and never portentous. Her playing captured this heartbreaking music with just the right mixture of tenderness and transcendence.”

(Martin Kettle, The Guardian, February 2017)

“[Ligeti’s Violin Concerto] suits the flamboyant Patricia Kopatchinskaja, who has both the monster technique and the theatricality that the piece demands…. The paradox of her extroversion is that it never seems exhibitionistic. Every gesture serves to underscore the music, and her playing has an animalistic wildness to it that is anything but self-serving. This is playing with guts and meaning, with burly physicality and risk, with a formidable toolkit that can take in everything from fragility to brutality.”

(Shirley Apthorp, Financial Times, February 2017)

“Patricia Kopatchinskaja shows her astonishing artistry on ‘Take Two’ and ‘Chiaroscuro … Her body and her instrument and the music she makes all seem one. She is ever thrilling alive to the moment … I don’t have to think twice about making my recording of the year.”

(Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, November 2015)

“Patricia Kopatchinskaja excels in Thomas Larcher’s extraordinary violin concerto; she brings a fiery originality to everything she plays.” *****

(Michael Church, The Independent, October 2015)