The San Antonio Strauss Festival continues this week with something quite special — violinist Daniel Hope. His back story is nothing if not fascinating.
“My whole family has, in a sense, been touched by exile. My father, who was a writer, is very anti-apartheid, and we were forced to leave the country when I was a baby.”
That country was South Africa, and the family took root in London, where Hope began playing the violin as a young boy. But his interests didn’t stop with music.
“I’m fascinated by history in particular, and when music meets history, that’s when it arouses great interest in me.”
Not unlike Hope’s family, a composer that was exiled from Germany during the rise of the Nazis was Erich Wolfgang Korngold, and this Friday and Saturday, Daniel Hope plays the Korngold Violin Concerto with the symphony.
“The Korngold Concerto is a great document of time, and of history. And yet, it is phenomenally beautiful music which is great fun to play.” Korngold's concerto notably uses themes from films that Korngold scored, including "Anthony Adverse" and "The Prince and the Pauper."
We have more on the concert here. And more on Daniel Hope here.
