Daniel Hope dedicates this program to the musical diversity of America - an evening that combines great classics, forgotten voices and new perspectives on a country that draws its music from many cultures.
There's never a dull moment with Daniel Hope: equipped with never-ending curiosity and a compass for all directions of the repertoire, he uses his musical brilliance as a means of taking the audience with him on his journeys of discovery. For the artist, who was born in South Africa and grew up in England with German-Irish roots, the USA was a land of adventure even as a child:
Here he visited his great-aunt and was impressed by an environment where everything was "big, generous, oversized". The music of America still captivates the star violinist today - his book on Hollywood composers bears witness to this, as do his concert programs. "America is a fascinating place, historically, humanly, politically," Hope said in an interview. "What I find so exciting about American music is that it was largely created by immigrants - just like the country itself, in principle. European classical composers have undoubtedly influenced American composers, but true to the pioneering spirit of the country, the genre continues to evolve in its own unique way."
At the Albert guest performance, Daniel Hope and his Zurich Chamber Orchestra present the diversity of American music in the turbulent 20th century. Of course, the great "classics" such as Leonard Bernstein and Aaron Copland, whose music is emblematic of the vastness of his homeland, are not missing. The many Broadway successes of George Gershwin, the apostle of the synthesis of jazz and high culture, are also a cornucopia. In addition to exile Kurt Weill, the program also features two fundamentally different African-American voices: composer Florence Price and legendary bandleader Duke Ellington.
February 12, 2026
