Rachel Portman: Tipping Points, Vivaldi/Kerschek: The New Four Seasons Niklas Liepe, WDR Funkhausorchester & Erina Yashima, Patrick Lange

• Rachel Portman (b. 1960): Tipping Points:
• 1 Portman: Tipping Points: I. Invocation 03:18
• 2 Portman: Tipping Points: II. Air 05:03
• 3 Portman: Tipping Points: III. Water 03:04
• 4 Portman: Tipping Points: IV. Fire 04:25
• 5 Portman: Tipping Points: V. Earth 05:09
• 6 Portman: Tipping Points: VI. Epilogue 04:05
• Leaves and Trees:
• 7 Portman: Leaves and Trees 05:47
• Flight:
• 8 Portman: Flight 04:33
• The Little Prince:
• 9 Portman: The Little Prince: On My Planet (Arr. for Violin and Orchestra by James Welleland) 03:42
• Antonio Vivaldi (1678 - 1741): The New Four Seasons - Spring:
• 10 Vivaldi: The New Four Seasons - Spring: I. Ice Melting into Joyful Spring (After Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 8, RV 269, I. Allegro, Arr. by Wolf Kerschek) 03:39
• 11 Vivaldi: The New Four Seasons - Spring: II. Shepherd's Wildest Dreams (After Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 8, RV 269, II. Largo, Arr. by Wolf Kerschek) 02:43
• 12 Vivaldi: The New Four Seasons - Spring: III. Dances with Nymphs (After Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 8, RV 269, III. Danza pastorale, Arr. by Wolf Kerschek) 03:34
• The New Four Seasons - Summer:
• 13 Vivaldi: The New Four Seasons - Summer: I. Heat and Raving (After Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 8, RV 315, I. Allegro non molto, Arr. by Wolf Kerschek) 02:56
• 14 Vivaldi: The New Four Seasons - Summer: II. Mosquitos and Flies (After Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 8, RV 315, II. Adagio e piano - Presto e forte, Arr. by Wolf Kerschek) 02:21
• 15 Vivaldi: The New Four Seasons - Summer: III. Summer Thunderstorms (After Violin Concerto No. 2, Op. 8, RV 315, III. Presto, Arr. by Wolf Kerschek) 02:01
• The New Four Seasons - Autumn:
• 16 Vivaldi: The New Four Seasons - Autumn: I. Harvest Dance and too much Wine (After Violin Concerto No. 3, Op. 8, RV 293, I. Allegro, Arr. by Wolf Kerschek) 04:16
• 17 Vivaldi: The New Four Seasons - Autumn: II. Sweet Sleep (After Violin Concerto No. 3, Op. 8, RV 293, II. Adagio molto, Arr. by Wolf Kerschek) 02:01
• 18 Vivaldi: The New Four Seasons - Autumn: III. The Hunt (After Violin Concerto No. 3, Op. 8, RV 293, III. Allegro 'Caccia', Arr. by Wolf Kerschek) 03:29
• The New Four Seasons - Winter:
• 19 Vivaldi: The New Four Seasons - Winter: I. Freezing and Shivering (After Violin Concerto No. 4, Op. 8, RV 297, I. Allegro non molto, Arr. by Wolf Kerschek) 03:16
• 20 Vivaldi: The New Four Seasons - Winter: II. Cozy Fireplace and Rain Outside (After Violin Concerto No. 4, Op. 8, RV 297, II. Largo, Arr. by Wolf Kerschek) 01:53
• 21 Vivaldi: The New Four Seasons - Winter: III. Slipping and Falling (After Violin Concerto No. 4, Op. 8, RV 297, III. Allegro, Arr. by Wolf Kerschek) 03:41
• Total Runtime 01:14:56

Info for Rachel Portman: Tipping Points, Vivaldi/Kerschek: The New Four Seasons

For his new album on Sony Classical, the violinist Niklas Liepe, together with the Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman, has created an urgent musical appeal to preserve creation: "Tipping Points" is a film music-like, six-part suite for violin and orchestra.

In her suite for solo violin and orchestra "Tipping Points", composed especially for violinist Niklas Liepe, Oscar winner Rachel Portman pays homage to the beauty of the four elements of nature and negotiates the need for their preservation in a musically impressive way. The title "Tipping Points" refers directly to so-called tipping points in the global ecosystem, which, if exceeded, result in an irreversible system collapse as a result of the climate crisis. The suite, consisting of six shorter movements, begins with "Invocation" - a call to be mindful of the changes in nature - and ends with a haunting epilogue that calls for rethinking and active action. These two frame the four mournful movements dedicated to the elements of air, water, fire and earth. All parts of the suite are commented on by new poems by the English author Nick Drake, who wrote his texts in close collaboration with Portman. His poignant verses are spoken by actress Gráinne Dromgoole.

"Tipping Points" was written on behalf of the WDR Funkhausorchester Köln and the Norrlandsoperans Symphony Orchestra and recorded with the WDR Funkhausorchester under the direction of Erina Yashima. The premiere was at the Beethoven Festival Bonn in autumn 2023.

The album also includes three new, thematically appropriate orchestral arrangements by Rachel Portman: of "On My Planet", inspired by her opera "The Little Prince", as well as the piano compositions "Leaves and Trees" and "Flight".

The second thematically appropriate piece on the album is "The New Four Seasons", the world premiere recording of a new arrangement of Antonio Vivaldi's famous "Four Seasons" for large orchestra and solo violin. Niklas Liepe once again worked with the composer Wolf Kerschek, with whom he already collaborated on his successful album "#GoldbergReflections". About his new sound-painting version of the cycle for violin and orchestra, Wolf Kerschek says: "Vivaldi composed his Four Seasons based on sonnets, which describe the changing of the seasons in his homeland in his own time. We have heard so much different music since then; with complex harmony, odd rhythms and influences from all over the world, with which we also associate seasonal phenomena of nature. The color palette of emotional expression has grown continuously since Vivaldi's time, which we can use today to create the images in our heads without the "Compromising the essence of Vivaldi's composition."

Niklas Liepe came up with the idea of commissioning a new adaptation of Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" with a view to how they have changed due to the climate crisis: "The way Vivaldi described the seasons musically, we no longer experience them today. This trend will continue In the future, it will become even more dramatic. In this respect, the modernized version with a larger orchestra also sounds more dramatic."

"The New Four Seasons" was also recorded by the WDR Funkhausorchester, this time under the direction of Patrick Lange.

Niklas Liepe, Violin & Piano
WDR Funkhausorchester Cologne
Erina Yashima, Conductor (tracks 1-9)
Patrick Lange, Conductor (tracks 10-21)

Niklas Liepe
The Opus Klassik award winner Niklas Liepe is one of those highly talented young soloists who consistently follow their own path. One of those artists who are constantly hatching new ideas and in doing so also tackle undertakings that really demand courage: because their concept and artistic aspirations verge on the presumptuous.

With his Paganini project, Niklas Liepe from Hamburg, Germany, has caused astonishment and glowing reviews internationally in recent years. He has commissioned around twenty composers and arrangers to provide Niccolò Paganini's hair-raisingly difficult caprices for solo violin with orchestral accompaniments - but in such a way that each of the pieces appears in a different stylistic guise.

Foxtrot and tango, jazz and romantic bombast alternate in these amusing as well as provocative reinterpretations, while the original violin part always remains untouched.

In 2017, he founded the "Liepe & Co. Festival in the Stahlhallen am Südbahnhof in Hannover" together with his brother, pianist Nils Liepe, where he also explores the boundaries of classical music in a new way.

In the fall of 2020, his second CD project #GoldergReflections together with conductor Jamie Phillips and the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover was released by SONY Classical.

In 2021, Niklas Liepe won the Opus Klassik.

Niklas Liepe recently made debuts at the Rheingau Music Festival, the Ocean Sun Festival in Helsinki, the Musikverein Vienna, La Seine Musicale Paris and the Beethovenfest Bonn. In the current and past seasons, he has performed with the NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, the Munich Radio Orchestra, the WDR Funkhausorchester, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, and the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra in Europe and Asia, among others. In addition, in the 2023/24 season he will be a guest at the Elbphilharmonie, the Berlin Philharmonie and will make his debut with the Norrlandsoperan Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Jessica Cottis.

At the Beethovenfest Bonn, the violin concerto composed for Niklas Liepe by Oscar winner Rachel Portman was premiered and recorded on the SONY Classical label with the WDR Funkhausorchester and Erina Yashima.

Niklas Liepe is a lecturer at Villa Musica Rheinland-Pfalz and The Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

Niklas Liepe has performed with artists such as Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Fazil Say, Christoph Eschenbach and Andras Schiff.

As a soloist, Niklas Liepe also performs with various orchestras such as the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra Bratislava, the Kaohsiung City Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken/ Kaiserslautern under conductors such as Jamie Phillips, Garry Walker, Hartmut Haenchen, Christoph Koncz, Christoph Eschenbach and András Schiff. He also studied at the Hanover Conservatory with Prof. Krzysztof Wegrzyn, at the Cologne Conservatory with Prof. Zakhar Bron and at the Kronberg Academy with Prof. Ana Chumachenco and Prof. Mihaela Martin. He completed his master's degree in chamber music with Prof. Oliver Wille in Hannover.

Since 2022 Niklas Liepe is working at the Musikhochschule Hamburg in the subject "Art Participation & Strings Diversity".

Booklet for Rachel Portman: Tipping Points, Vivaldi/Kerschek: The New Four Seasons