Violinist Isabelle Faust, a native of Baden-Württemberg, was only 11 when she founded a string quartet; at the age of 15, in 1987, she won the Leopold Mozart Competition. Her teacher Christoph Poppen, long-standing first violinist of the Cherubini Quartet, provided a model for whom chamber music is an integral part of musical life. Following her victory in the Paganini Competition in 1993, Faust moved to France, where she closely studied the music of Fauré and Debussy and became known for her recordings of the sonatas of Bartók, Szymanowski, and Janácek. Along with the classical and romantic repertoire, she focuses on music of the 20th century as well as of today. She has premiered works by Olivier Messiaen, Werner Egk, and Jörg Widmann; has brought André Jolivet’s neglected violin concerto back into the repertoire; and is deeply dedicated to the music of György Ligeti, Morton Feldman, Luigi Nono, and Giacinto Scelsi. Since the start of her career, Faust has collaborated with such acclaimed conductors as Claudio Abbado, Frans Brüggen, Charles Dutoit, Daniel Harding, Heinz Holliger, Mariss Jansons, and James Le-vine. She has performed as soloist in concerts with the Berlin and Munich Philharmonics, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. With her duo partner, pianist Alexander Melnikov, she has recorded the complete Beethoven sonatas, winning both the Gramophone Award and the Echo Klassik Award. Her accounts of the violin concertos of Berg and Beethoven, performed with the Orchestra Mozart and Claudio Abbado, appeared in February 2012. Faust plays on a legendary “Sleeping Beauty” Stradivari from 1704.
LUCERNE FESTIVAL (IMF) debut on 12 September 2009 in Michael Jarrell’s … Paysages avec Figures absentes … (Nachlese IV), which she played with the Ensemble Contrechamps under Stefan Asbury.
March 2012