Dubai, UAE
An exciting evening awaits classical music lovers on Friday, 18th April 2025, as the InClassica International Music Festival, organised by SAMIT Event Group, presents its first duo recital of this 14th edition, featuring none other than the globally acclaimed violinist Daniel Hope and the renowned Uzbek pianist Behzod Abduraimov. Together, the duo will present an exciting selection of compositions, starting with Antonín Dvořák’s Sonatina for Violin and Piano, Op. 100, a lively and lyrical piece showcasing the simplicity and clarity of musical ideas, perfectly setting the stage for the recital. They will then move on to Composer-in-Residence Alexey Shor’s Violin Sonata No. 1, an evocative piece in three movements characterised by its tonal elegance intermixed with technically demanding passages. After the intermission, the duo will conclude the concert with César Franck’s beloved Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major, considered one of the finest sonatas for violin and piano ever written.
The violinist Daniel Hope has toured the world as a virtuoso soloist for 30 years and is celebrated for his musical versatility as well as his dedication to humanitarian causes. Winner of the 2015 European Cultural Prize for Music, whose previous recipients include Daniel Barenboim and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Daniel Hope appears as soloist with the world’s major orchestras and conductors, also directing many ensembles from the violin. Since the start of the 2016/17 season Hope is Music Director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra – and from the 2018/19 Season also Music Director of the New Century Chamber Orchestra in San Francisco.
In 2019 he became Artistic Director of the Frauenkirche Cathedral in Dresden, and from 2020 he will assume the role of President of the Beethovenhaus Bonn, an honorary position following in the footsteps of Kurt Masur and Joseph Joachim.
Daniel Hope was raised in London at Highgate School and the Royal Academy of Music, studying the violin with Zakhar Bron, Itzhak Rashkovsky and Felix Andrievsky. The youngest ever member of the Beaux Arts Trio with whom he performed over 400 times during its final six seasons, today Daniel Hope appears at all the world’s greatest halls and festivals: from Carnegie Hall to the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, from Salzburg to Schleswig-Holstein and from Aspen to the BBC Proms and Tanglewood. He has worked with conductors including Kurt Masur, Valery Gergiev and Christian Thielemann, and with the world’s greatest symphony orchestras including Berlin, Boston, Chicago, Paris, London, Los Angeles and Tokyo. Devoted to contemporary music, Hope has commissioned over thirty works, enjoying close contact with composers such as Alfred Schnittke, Toru Takemitsu, Harrison Birtwistle, Sofia Gubaidulina, György Kurtág, Peter Maxwell-Davies and Mark-Anthony Turnage.
Daniel Hope is one of the world’s most prolific classical recording artists, with over 25 albums to his name. His recordings have won the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, the Diapason d’Or of the Year, the Edison Classical Award, the Prix Caecilia, the ECHO-Klassik Award and numerous Grammy nominations. His album of Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Octet with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe was named one of the best of the year by the New York Times. His recording of Alban Berg’s Concerto was voted Grammophone Magazine’s “top choice of all available recordings”. His recording of Max Richter's Vivaldi Recomposed, which reached No. 1 in over 22 countries is, with 250,000 copies sold, one of the most successful classical recordings of recent times. Hope has been an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist since 2007.
In 2017 the documentary film “Daniel Hope – The Sound of Life” was screened in European cinemas as well as in Movie Theatres in Australia and North America.
Daniel Hope has penned four bestselling books published in Germany by the Rowohlt publishing company. He contributes regularly to the Wall Street Journal and has written scripts for collaborative performances with the actors Klaus Maria Brandauer and Mia Farrow. In Germany he presents a weekly radio show for the WDR3 Channel and curates, since the 2016/17 season his own salon “Hope@9pm”, a music and talk event with guests from culture and politics at the Konzerthaus Berlin.
Daniel Hope plays the 1742 “ex-Lipínski” Guarneri del Gesù, placed generously at his disposal by an anonymous family from Germany.
He holds both Irish and German citizenship and resides with his family in Berlin. January 2020
Behzod Abduraimov’s performances combine an immense depth of musicality with phenomenal technique and breath-taking delicacy. He performs with renowned orchestras worldwide including Philharmonia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, San Francisco Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Concertgebouworkest, Czech Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (RSB) with prestigious conductors such as, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Gustavo Dudamel, Semyon Bychkov, Gianandrea Noseda, Juraj Valčuha, Vasily Petrenko and Constantinos Carydis.
2023/24 performances include Chicago Symphony, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Houston Symphony and Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, Oslo Philharmonic, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra including a tour of Spain and Belgian National Orchestra performing at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Behzod will also appear with Adelaide Symphony Orchestra and Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Conductor collaborations include Osmo Vänskä, Juraj Valčuha, Constantinos Carydis, Robin Ticciati, Manfred Honeck, Yoel Levi, Han-Na Chang, Hannu Lintu and Andris Poga.
In recital Behzod has appeared a number of times at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and has recently been presented by Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Toppan Hall, Tokyo, Teatro alla Scala and La Società dei Concerti di Milano. In 2023/24 Behzod will appear twice at Carnegie Hall – returning to the Stern Auditorium for solo recital, followed by a duo recital with Daniel Lozakovich at the Weill Auditorium. The duo will present recitals elsewhere in North America including Bing Hall, Stanford, and the Vancouver Recital series. Behzod will also perform in recital at the Seoul Arts Centre, Shanghai Concert Hall, Amare Hall, Hague and the Tuesday Evening Concert Series, Charlottesville. Regular festival appearances include Aspen, Verbier, Rheingau, La Roque Antheron, Lucerne and Ravello festivals.
Behzod’s second recording for Alpha Classics, featuring works by Ravel, Prokofiev, and Uzbek composer Dilorom Saidaminova, was released on 12 January 2024. The album won the Gramophone Editor’s Choice award and was named one of the Apple Music ‘10 Classical Albums You Must Hear This Month’ of February 2024. 2021 saw the highly successful release of his first recital album for Alpha Classics based on a programme of Miniatures including Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. In 2020 recordings included Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini with Lucerne Symphony Orchestra under James Gaffigan, recorded on Rachmaninov’s own piano from Villa Senar for Sony Classical and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3 with Concertgebouworkest, for the RCO live label. Both recordings were nominated for the 2020 Opus Klassik awards in multiple categories. A DVD of his BBC Proms debut in 2016 with Münchner Philharmoniker was released in 2018. His 2012 debut CD of Liszt, Saint-Saëns and Prokofiev for Decca won the Choc de Classica and Diapason Découverte, and his first concerto disc for the label featured Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.3 and Tchaikovsky’s Concerto No.1.
Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, in 1990, Behzod began the piano aged five as a pupil of Tamara Popovich at Uspensky State Central Lyceum in Tashkent. In 2009, he won first prize at the London International Piano Competition with Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No.3. He studied with Stanislav Ioudenitch at the International Center for Music at Park University, Missouri, where he is Artist-in-Residence.
“Behzod Abduraimov has the magic touch” — The Times
