Article published in the Manchester Evening News 13 February 2015

THOMAS Zehetmair has become a regular and welcome visitor to the Hallé in recent years.

The Salzburg-born and trained violinist is both a soloist on his own instrument and conductor, and his Hallé collaborations have included a Gramophone Award-winning recording of Elgar’s violin concerto, with Sir Mark Elder conducting. 

His next visit, though, is a special one, as he appears not just as conductor (Mendelssohn’s overture The Fair Melusine and Beethoven’s fifth symphony) – but as duo-soloist with his wife, violist Ruth Killius, in Mozart’s magical Sinfonia Concertante in E flat. 

It’s a kind of concerto for both violin and viola, and it’s often been said that there is no more perfect expression of an equal partnership between two personalities. 

The Zehetmairs have played it often, and they obviously enjoy every chance to do so. I spoke to Thomas as they were in Switzerland a couple of weeks ago on another joint engagement (they also play together in the Zehetmair String Quartet). 

“We do many things together, and many separately,” he said. “But it’s very nice to spend as much time together as possible.  

“We understand each other without words on the musical level. The Sinfonia Concertante is wonderful to play, even though we have done it quite a lot before. There are different levels in the piece which are there all the time, and somehow every time there is a new dimension to it.  

“That is the sign of a masterpiece. It has many elements of opera – like a dialogue between two lovers, their games and their feelings. There are nostalgic and even tragic emotions in it.  

“In one sense we exchange roles when we play it, because I play mainly the high-voice part! We need to be good actors, in a way.  

“Ruth plays the viola with the strings tuned higher than normal – as Mozart intended. He wrote the viola part in D, though everything else is in E flat, so the viola has to be tuned a half-tone higher. It makes a very special sound, since everything Mozart did was quite deliberate. 

“And since the orchestral violas are tuned normally and divided into two groups, you get intriguing combinations of colour, and this makes the sound incredibly rich.”

 

l Thomas Zehetmair and Ruth Killius are soloists with the Halle Orchestra, and Thomas Zehetmair conducts, at the Bridgewater Hall on February 22, 25 and 26 (7.30pm on 22^nd and 26^th, 2.15pm on 25^th).