My Discoveries

I've always been deeply interested, indeed passionate, about helping and supporting young talent. Besides the essential technical perfection and musicality that an artist needs, the qualities I look for are: uniqueness, personality, charisma, and in conjunction with all of the above a performance palette that exceeds the boundaries of the instrument itself. There are poets, painters and dancers who know how to use music in that way, actors who embody the poetry and drama of music and breathe new life into it.

Tzimon Barto and Renée Fleming were my two biggest discoveries, musicians who have accompanied me for so many years through so many performances and who in the 1980s were initially my incentive for continuing my search for new talent.

My more recent discoveries are

- Pianists:

Lang Lang, who remains the only musician whose performance on the piano moves me as Tzimon Barto did when I first heard him. In recent years he has become an absolute superstar on the international scene and it gives me great pleasure to see that.
Christopher Tainton is a musician of great sensitivity whose career I continue to follow with great interest and with whom I perform.

- Violinists:

Julia Fischer: I have followed her development for years, choosing the right moment to perform with her, continuing to encourage her talent, arranging orchestral concerts for her, and now seeing that she is already reaping the profits of a world-class career.
Erik Schumann: For years now Erik has been coming to me every few months for study. He has now embarked upon an impressive solo career. He has been awarded by the European Cultural Foundation, and in 2004 he received the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival's Leonard Bernstein Award. A real discovery!

- Cellists:

Claudio Bohórquez: Claudio is a born superstar who can communicate immediately with any audience on any level, but it's his profound musicality and humanity that make him what he is!
Leonard Elschenbroich: Leonard came to my attention through Anne-Sophie Mutter and her foundation. On top of his total mastery of the cello, Leonard possesses a profound musicality and projects the essence of the works he plays with a highly charismatic intensity.
Dimitri Maslennikov: Marc-André Dalbavie, the prince of French composers, introduced Dimitri to me. I listened to him and found all the elements for a career in music.
Daniel Müller-Schott: He, too, has been for many years prominent in my thoughts. Elegance, tone and depth combine to make for his very own personal style. Performing with him is a wonderful musical experience.

- Conductors:

John Axelrod, a former student of mine from Houston, has had success after success as a guest conductor with, among others, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Since 2004, John has been Chief Conductor and Music Director of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Theater.

- Ensembles:

G-Strings: Nearly all of them are members of the NDR Sinfonieorchester. They represent imagination, brilliant virtuosity and the joy of making music. It is always an enormous pleasure for me to perform together with this exceptional ensemble.

- Vocalists:

Marisol Montalvo, dramatic coloratura soprano, came to my attention through an audition of 20th Century music held in Paris. I was so extremely impressed that I immediately engaged her for two big projects: Marc-André Dalbavie's "Double jeu" which we performed at the Beijing Festival in 2004 and Matthias Pintscher's "Hérodiade Fragments" which we performed together in Philadelphia and at New York's Carnegie Hall. Her success at these concerts was so overwhelming, that I have continued to collaborate with her regularly since then.