Christian Tetzlaff is one of the most sought-after violinists and most exciting musicians on the classical music scene. Concerts with him often become an existential experience for the interpreter and audience alike, as old familiar works suddenly appear in a completely new light. In addition, he frequently turns his attention to forgotten masterpieces such as Joseph Joachim’s Violin Concerto or the Violin Concerto No. 22 by Giovanni Battista Viotti, a contemporary of Mozart and Beethoven. To broaden his repertoire, he also commits himself to substantial new works, such as Jörg Widmann’s Violin Concerto, which he premiered in 2013. With devotion, he cultivates an unusually extensive repertoire and performs approximately 100 concerts every year.
In the 2023–24 season, Christian Tetzlaff appears with the world’s foremost orchestras. In Europe, he performs with the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Orchestre de chambre de Paris and Orchestre National de France, among others. He also appears on stage with the most renowned English ensembles: with the Philharmonia Orchestra Tetzlaff gives performances in Grafenegg and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra he appears at the BBC Proms. He returns to Chamber Orchestra of Europe, undertakes two tours to Korea and Europe with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and records Thomas Adès’ Violin Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic. In the U.S., he returns to the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.
Christian Tetzlaff is regularly invited as Artist-in-Residence to present his musical views over a longer period of time, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Dresdner Philharmoniker. In the 2021–22 season, he was given this honor at London’s Wigmore Hall and, in 2022/23, he was “Portrait Artist” of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Over the course of his career, Christian Tetzlaff has made guest appearances with all the great orchestras, including the Wiener Philharmoniker and New York Philharmonic, the Concertgebouworkest in Amsterdam and all the London orchestras. He has worked with legendary maestri such as Sergiu Celibidache, Bernard Haitink, Lorin Maazel, Kurt Masur and Christoph von Dohnányi. He has also forged close artistic ties with Karina Canellakis, Daniel Harding, Paavo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Andris Nelsons, Sir Simon Rattle, Francois Xavier Roth, Robin Ticciati, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Michael Tilson Thomas, Barbara Hannigan, Ed Gardner, Ingo Metzmacher and Kent Nagano.
In 1994, Christian Tetzlaff founded, with his sister the cellist Tanja Tetzlaff, his own string quartet, and to this day chamber music is as close to his heart as his work as a soloist with or without orchestra. In recital, this season he appears with Kirill Gerstein in the U.S., including dates at New York’s Carnegie Hall and in Washington and Boston. Each year, he undertakes at least one tour with the Tetzlaff Quartett, with concerts this season at Berlin’s Boulez Hall, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, Vienna’s Musikverein and BOZAR Brussels. The Tetzlaff Quartett was awarded the “Diapason d’or” in 2015, and the trio with his sister Tanja Tetzlaff and pianist Lars Vogt was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2016. The trio’s last recording of works by Schubert was released just after Lars Vogt’s untimely passing and was awarded the OPUS Klassik for best chamber music recording in 2023.
Christian Tetzlaff has also received numerous prizes for his recordings, including the “Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik” and the “Diapason d’or” in 2018 as well as the Midem Classical Award in 2017. Of special significance is his solo recording of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas, which he recorded for the third time and released in September 2017. The Strad magazine praised this recording as “an attentive and lively answer to the beauty of Bach’s solos.” The Ondine label released the recording of the Beethoven and Sibelius violin concertos in autumn 2019, followed by Brahms and Berg in August 2022—both with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin conducted by Robin Ticciati.
Born in Hamburg in 1966 and now living in Berlin with his family, three things make Tetzlaff unique, aside from his astounding skill on the violin. He interprets the musical manuscript in a literal fashion, perceives music as a language, and reads the great works as narratives that reflect existential insights. As obvious as it may sound, he brings an unusual approach in his daily concert routine.
Christian Tetzlaff tries to fulfill the musical text as deeply as possible—without indulging in the usual technical short-cuts on the violin—often allowing a renewed clarity and richness to arise in well-known works. As a violinist, Tetzlaff tries to disappear behind the work—paradoxically this makes his interpretations very personal.
Secondly, Christian Tetzlaff “speaks” through his violin. Like human speech, his playing comprises a wide range of expressive means and is not aimed solely at achieving harmoniousness or virtuosic brilliance.
Above all, however, he interprets the masterpieces of musical history as stories about first-hand experiences. The great composers have focused on intense feelings, great happiness and deep crises in their music; Christian Tetzlaff, as a musician, also explores the limits of feelings and musical expression. Many pieces deal with nothing less than life and death. Christian Tetzlaff’s aim is to convey this to his audience.
Significantly, Tetzlaff played in youth orchestras for many years. In Uwe-Martin Haiberg at the Lübeck Music Academy, he had a teacher for whom musical interpretation was the key to mastering violin technique, rather than the other way round.
Christian Tetzlaff plays a violin by the German violin maker Peter Greiner and teaches regularly at the Kronberg Academy.
He lives in Berlin with his wife, the photographer Giorgia Bertazzi, and three children.
Photo Credit: Giorgia Bertazzi