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"The second half of the program was devoted to a single work, the Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 by Antonin Dvořák with the German cellist Jan Vogler as soloist. Vogler, who was also making his CityMusic debut, recorded the work in 2004 with the New York Philharmonic under the direction of David Robertson. To prepare for that recording, Vogler went to great lengths to understand the origins of the concerto's themes: were they truly based on Bohemian folk songs or were they inspired by American tunes such as Negro spirituals? Although he reached no definitive conclusions, Vogler said in an interview for this publication “When I finally recorded the piece I felt like I did have a new approach. I had more imagination and motivation to really play my own Dvořák.” Whatever the source of Dvořák's inspiration, Jan Vogler, the orchestra and conductor gave an inspired performance of this staple of the cello concerto repertoire.


Vogler possesses a large focused sound that sings, and he is in complete technical command of the instrument. Both qualities served him well in this performance. The opening Allegro movement had just the right amount of intensity and grandeur, then relaxed in all of the right places. Vogler kept the piece moving along but pulled back just enough in places to allow it to breathe. The Adagio ma non troppo was simply beautiful. Who cares where the themes came from: Vogler provided his own virtual lyrics and his cellistic voice ranged from a full-throated tenor to the intimacy of a mother singing to her child. He stylishly controlled the final Allegro moderato from the beginning, march-like theme to the most delicate passages played on the highest part of the fingerboard."

Read the full review on clevelandclassical.com

"The evening rose to another level altogether when Vogler arrived to play the greatest cello concerto of them all. Dvorak composed his masterpiece - a ravishing blend of New World and Old World elements – while in residence in the United States in the mid-1890s.

Vogler immersed himself in the work’s impassioned narratives, luxuriating in the luscious thematic material and moments of contemplative beauty. When Dvorak calls for forceful declamation and nimble attack, the cellist complied with playing of articulate brilliance. In the slow movement, he gave heightened definition to poetic nuances...."  Cleveland Plain Dealer, 12 October 2011.

Read the full article here

By Donald Rosenberg

Jan Vogler is a virtuoso as cellist, leader of music festivals and accruer of frequent-flier miles.

One week, he's in New York spending time with his family and practicing. Another week, he's in Europe, appearing as soloist or taking care of duties in Germany as general director of the Dresden Music Festival and artistic director of the Moritzburg Chamber Music Festival.

And this week? The Dresden-born cellist will be in Cleveland playing the Dvorak Cello Concerto around Northeast Ohio with the chamber orchestra CityMusic Cleveland.

Vogler, 47, might have made it here sooner if his schedule had allowed. He was invited several years ago by James Gaffigan, former music director of CityMusic, under whom he performed Brahms' Double Concerto (with violinist Robert Chen, concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony) at the Moritzburg Festival.

"I'm happy to come, because Cleveland is the only one of the music centers in America where I have not played," Vogler said recently by phone from New York. "Of course, I hope to be invited by the Cleveland Orchestra, but that could be in 10 or 15 years.

"I want to take the chance to see Cleveland. James spoke very highly of [CityMusic]. It's interesting to go with free concerts to many neighborhoods. It's a wonderful mission."

Vogler's mission this week centers on a work with which he's intimately acquainted. In 2004, he embarked on a project to rethink the Dvorak Cello Concerto, one of the staples of the repertoire and the piece he's most often asked to perform. But Vogler suspected there was more to discover. Working with Dvorak scholar Michael Beckerman, he delved deeply into the concerto's history and substance before recording the piece with the New York Philharmonic led by David Robertson.

"There comes a point in every cellist's life when you have to forget about how you studied it and learned it and find your own way of interpreting the piece," he said.

On the way to his new interpretation, Vogler learned that the Bohemian-born Dvorak was influenced by American music, including African-American songs, while serving as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York, where he composed the concerto in 1894 and 1895. Vogler's Sony Classical recording of the work, "The Secrets of Dvorak's Cello Concerto," contains Dvorak chamber music and songs, as well as "Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair," by an American composer who inspired him, Stephen Foster.

"People say, 'Oh, he was homesick. He composed Bohemian tunes,'” Vogler said of Dvorak. "It's not true. It's a rumor, I think."

What's certainly not a rumor is the rising success of the Dresden Music Festival since Vogler took over three years ago. This year's festival, held in May and June, included a New York Philharmonic residency and performance of Mahler's Sixth Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle.

"The Heart of Europe" is the theme of the 2012 festival, which will focus on the region around Budapest, Prague and Vienna and the marriage of folk music with aristocratic traditions.

"This is the secret of this region, which makes these composers so great," said Vogler.

One of them is Dvorak.

Read on the Plain Dealer

Laurence Vittes, Huffington Post

When I visited the charming town of Moritzburg in southeastern Germany last year, I was taken with its charm and timeless sense of beauty. Embraced by nature, Moritzburg exists in a surreal time warp, 10 miles south of Dresden, for whose kings its magnificent palace once served as a royal hunting lodge.

It would be an ideal destination place, and a jewel in the crown of what the marketing folks call Elbland for its proximity to the great river which runs through Saxony on its way to North Sea, without even one note being struck. With the annual August presence of Jan Vogler's Moritzburg Festival and Academy, Moritzburg has become a place for music lovers to refresh their souls.

The star power is as amazing as the setting. Just to name a few: Violinists Nicola Benedetti (still only 22 and beginning to flower), Mira Wang (Vogler's wife, with two adorable young daughters in tow), the brilliant young New Yorker Philippe Quint, Arnaud Sussmann (whose recording of Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata at the Menlo Park festival remains a touchstone for greatness) and the legendary stylist and technician Benjamin Schmid (whose every note and gesture is a model of classical music purity and musical intoxication).

Also on hand were violists Niels Mönkemeyer (a superstar for Sony although his CDs have yet to each North American shores) and Max Mandel (of the Flux Quartet whose premiere performance of Morton Feldman's Second String Quartet lasted six hours and fifteen minutes); cellists Julian Steckel and Eric Han (both stars of the future); double bassist Janne Saksala (solo double bass of the Berlin Philharmonic); and virtuoso pianists Andreas Haefliger (whose risk-taking artistry was a constant revelation) and Antti Siirala (whose work in a variety of combinations was breathtaking).

It was no surprise that the Festival this year began with a concert at Volkswagen's Transparent Factory in Dresden. The world's third largest car maker's presence was notable not only for its comprehensive support of the arts but for the seemingly omnipresent presence of their ultra-high end Phaetons, produced exclusively in Dresden for potentates the world over, actual and potential, who recognize its superb dynamic qualities and appreciate its sumptuous fittings and state of the art Dynaudio sound systems.

I arrived a week ago in time to hear a series of deeply moving performances in a variety of venues, loosely unified by a British theme, including Benjamin Britten's 3 Divertimenti for string quartet, John Taverner's 43-minute long paean to mysticism and Christian orthodoxy, The Protecting Veil (played in the famous Frauenkirche in Dresden by the Academy orchestra conducted by Anu Tali with Vogler lending incomparable humanity and endurance on a "new" Strad), a brilliant reading of Schubert's Trout Quintet (newly recorded as well) and a ferocious one of Dvorak's Op. 81 Piano Quintet in the palace itself.

This year, the Festival's Academy welcomed 40 young music students from all over the world. Like the Marlboro Festival in Vermont, which inspired Vogler, music and friendships in Moritzburg blossom, like any summer camp. And what a fantasy classical music experience the Festival was for the adults!

Moritzburg Festival on YouTube

"Trout Variations – the sheer spontaneity and colourful business tends to move off to the side the main work: Schubert’s Trout Quintet in A major, with his famous set of variations. The musicians involved give this work a various serious reading: the sound is transparent, the interaction well-coordinated and with moderate tempos. Produced by the Moritzburg Festival, cellist Jan Vogler and his fellow-musicians have made a CD for true gourmets – it is guaranteed well-cooked and perfectly filleted." (Norddeutscher Rundfunk, July 2011)

Read the full review in German here.

“The Brahms Concerto for Violin and Cello can be a knotty, ungrateful challenge for even the best performers, but it came off very well here as played by concertmaster Robert Chen and the young German cellist Jan Vogler, who scored an impressive CSO debut. The soloists were just different enough in style to lend a certain extra frisson to their reading -- Chen elegant and patrician, Vogler gutsy, athletic and youthfully assertive.” - Chicago Tribune

“Vogler's bright, forthright tone and highly inflected manner acted like a much-needed beacon in the piece. In the expansive, marvelously pensive slow movement, he entranced the ear with long-held notes that began with a lack of vibrato that implied emotional nakedness, but sweetened in the final nanosecond with a bit of pulsing - just as your ears insisted on it.”  - Philadelphia Inquirer

June 20, 2011…The 2011-2012 season takes internationally renowned cellist Jan Vogler around the world with performances in Europe, North America, and Asia. 

He begins at the Dvořák Festival with the Prague Philharmonic, then appears in Hannover with the Munich Philharmonic  conducted by Lorin Maazel, in recital in Paris with pianist Hélène Grimaud, on tour in Germany with La Folia Barockorchester, in Norway with the Oslo Philharmonic and Maestro Fabio Luisi, and in Saarbrücken with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie led by Christoph Poppen.

In January 2012, Jan returns to Prague for a recital with Igor Ardesev before undertaking a tour of Germany with the New York-based ensemble The Knights. He then goes on to Singapore where he performs with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Concerts in Vancouver and Philadelphia follow before he returns to Europe for concerts with the Mariinsky Orchestra led by Valery Gergiev at Dresden’s Semperoper and in Berlin with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester conducted by Manfred Honeck.


Biographical Notes:
Recognized for his “rapturously heartfelt” playing (Washington Post) Jan Vogler’s distinguished career has featured him with many internationally renowned orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago, Boston, Pittsburgh, Montreal and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Bavarian Radio Orchestra, and the Vienna Symphony. A passionate recitalist and chamber musician, he performs regularly with pianists Hélène Grimaud and Martin Stadtfeld and with violinist Mira Wang.

Jan is also a dedicated champion of new music and recently premiered new concertos by Tigran Mansurian, John Harbison and Udo Zimmermann.

A prolific and multi-award-winning recording artist, Jan currently records exclusively for SONY Classical. In December 2011, he will undertake his first collaboration with the Vienna Philharmonic in a recording of the Schumann Cello Concerto. In July, he will release a new recording with the Moritzburg Festival artists featuring Schubert’s Quintet in A Major (The Trout). Also upcoming is a CD featuring the ‘Dichterliebe’ by Schumann in a version for cello and piano with Hélène Grimaud and the complete Bach Cello Suites. A companion recording to My Tunes, My Tunes 2 features works by Saint-Saens, Paganini, Fauré, Kreisler, Wagner and Piazzolla. Other recent releases include a live recording of Elliott Carter’s 2001 Cello Concerto and Udo Zimmermann’s 2009 Lieder von einer Insel with the Bavarian Radio Orchestra on the NEOS label.

In January 2011 Jan was named the 2011 winner of the Erich Kästner Prize by the Dresden Press Club. This prestigious award is given annually to a person in the field of politics, business and/or culture who has made an outstanding contribution to further the ideals of tolerance, humanity and international understanding.

Jan Vogler is the General Director of the Dresden Musikfestspiele and founder and Artistic Director of the Moritzburg Chamber Music Festival.

On July 22, Moritzburg Festival artists Benjamin Schmid (violin), Lars Anders Tomter (viola), Jan Vogler (cello), Janne Saksala (double bass) and Antti Siirala (piano), in collaboration with the German radio station "Deutschlandradio Kultur", will release Schubert's famous Piano Quintet in A Major (The Trout) as well as five different versions of the very popular "Die Forelle"  ("The Trout"),Op.32 (D.550), also by Schubert. Each artist will create an individual approach to the song, expressing the music in a highly personal way. Additional artists on the recording include Erik Sollid (hardanger fiddle) and Stian Carstensen (accordion). The release will be featured in a concert on August 10, as part of the 2011 Moritzburg Festival.
Schubert: Die Forelle | Trout variations
Schubert: Forellenquintett A-Dur D 667
Diverse: Eigene Versionen des "Forellen"-Themas von den Mitwirkenden

Sachsische Zeitung  - June 2011
Once again, the Festival’s Intendant Vogler, along with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and the two thousand listeners in the Kreuzkirche, submerged himself in music, performing Dvořák’s Cello Concerto. He has played this piece many times and has been honored for it, yet he still created a touching dialogue with the orchestra.

Dresdner Neueste Nachrichten – June 2011
In the closing concert at the Kreuzkirche, to which he had invited the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra led by conductor Christoph Eschenbach, Vogler played the Cello Concerto by Antonin Dvořák, certainly of most popular pieces in this renowned cellist’s repertoire which demands a close interplay between soloist and orchestra.

This is important because, despite its rich instrumentation, the solo part is at the centre of the music …Vogler gave it romance without slipping into sentimentality. Tragedy and sadness were present, a reflection of the composer’s memoirs – the melody of the middle movement seemed like a sign from another world. The Finale, which Vogler played with complete assurance, lifted the tragedy offering calmness and perhaps even solace.  The result was profuse applause.

"A glance to Asia, a run over the golden bridge that the Director of the Dresden Music Festival, Jan Vogler, wished to build. He enjoyed every single moment of this amusing migration.” (Dresdner Neuest Nachrichten, May 21-22, 2011)
 
In his European debut Korean pop superstar RAIN and in his ‘pop’ debut Jan Vogler thrilled the audience of the Dresden Semper Opera. Asian fans yelling ‘it’s RAINING’ and classical music lovers together created a new audience for the opera house, mingling outside on the plaza and in the foyer. Both were totally entranced by RAIN, the 29 year-old singer, actor, pop star and fabulous entertainer who has taken Asia by storm. Joining him on stage Jan Vogler proved that classical and pop music can mix and create a fabulous musical experience. 
 
The Dresden Music Festival’s theme of Five Elements: Earth, Air, Fire, Water and the Heavens continues to create a bridge between European and Asian cultures until June 5.
 
"And then, Rain and Jan built their bridges." (Sächsische Zeitung May 21-22,2011

"Since childhood, I have studied and performed Bach’s solo suites. They have made a great impact on me and remind me of my musical home, Saxony, as well as of the real universal language of music," says Jan Vogler. Jan has released a special limited edition recording of Bach’s Solo Suites No. 1 G-Major and No. 3 C-Major to celebrate 175 years of sparkling wine production in Radebeul. This exclusive package featuring a bottle of Rieslingsekt from the Saxon vineyard Schloss Wackerbarth along with Jan’s CD of two of Bach’s famous Cello Suites represents Saxon tradition at its best.

The tradition of excellence is apparent in this project: Jan Vogler performs the Cello Suites on his Domenico Montagnana cello, built in Venice in 1721. The Suites themselves were written by Bach in 1720, just one year before the construction on the Schloss Wackerbarth began by the Saxon Oberlandbaumeister Knöffel. An amazing convergence of creative activity.

On May 6, 2011 Jan Vogler and the Schloss Wackerbarth’s Sonja Schilg presented the limited edition "Virtuos" at Schloss Wackerbarth. The sparkling wine is available at the Schloss Wackerbarth Online Shop for 34,90 €.

Check back on June 5 for Jan's full concert listing for 2011-2012

Jan Vogler plays two concerts this week with Martin Stadtfeld: On May 5th in the Lausitz Hoyerswerda and May 6th at the Thuringian Bach Festival in Ohrdruf. The program includes works by Bach and Shostakovich.
On May 8th he performs the Mansurian Cello Concerto no. 2 and Tchaikovsky Roccoco Variations with the Kammerakademie Potsdam, and Antonello Manacorda (conductor) at at Nikolaisaal.

In Seoul, Jan Vogler received an MCM-cello bag hand-made exclusively for him. It was presented by Sung-Joo Kim, Chairwoman of MCM (2nd from left).

Winner of the 2011 Erich Kästner Prize, Jan will receive his award on September 4 in a special ceremony at the Schloss Albrechtsberg. This prestigous award, conferred by the Dresden Press Club, is given annually to a person in the field of politics, business and/or culture who has made an outstanding contribution to further the ideals of tolerance, humanity and international understanding.

Founded in 1993, the Moritzburg Festival continues to seek out and embrace new experiences and collaborations. Moritzburg Festival Artists have made award-winning recordings, toured extensively in Germany, to the United States and are now taking on their first tour to South Korea.
Under the banner Jan Vogler and Friends, the ensemble includes violinists Colin Jacobsen and Hyeyoon Park, violist Lise Berthaud, cellist Jan Vogler and pianist Antti Siirala who will perform Mozart’s Piano Trio in C Major,  K 548,  Piazzolla’s Four Seasons and Brahms’s Piano Quintet in F Minor, Op. 34. The tour will take them to Seoul (April 20), Cheonan (April 21),  Busan (April 22), and Gwangju (April 23). Master-classes are also being offered in Seoul and Gwangju. The Moritzburg Festival would like to thank Volkswagen Korea for its assistance in making the tour possible.
In another new venture, Moritzburg Festival artists Benjamin Schmid (violin), Lars Anders Tomter (viola), Jan Vogler (cello), Janne Saksala (double bass) and Antti Siirala (piano), in collaboration with the German radio station "Deutschlandradio Kultur", will record Schubert's famous Piano Quintet in A Major (The Trout) as well as five different versions of the very popular "Die Forelle"  ("The Trout"),Op.32 (D.550), also by Schubert. Each artist will create an individual approach to the song, expressing the music in a highly personal way. Ideally, the listener will be able to identify the character of the musician by his/her individual interpretation of “The Trout”.  The recording, on the SONY label, will be released in July 2011 and launched as a featured concert on August 10, as part of the 2011 Moritzburg Festival.
Located close to Dresden, Germany, the Moritzburg Festival takes place August 7 – 21, 2011. Complete program details for this year will be announced in mid-March. For more information on the Moritzburg Festival, please visit: www.moritzburgfestival.de.  The principle sponsor of the Moritzburg Festival is Volkswagen’s Die Gläserne Manufaktur (The Transparent Factory).

March 18,2011…Founded in 1993 by internationally celebrated cellist and Dresden resident Jan Vogler, the 2011 Moritzburg Chamber Music Festival puts the spotlight on British composers. Works by William Byrd, Henry Purcell, Benjamin Britten, John Tavener, Frank Bridge, Arnold Bax and Edward Elgar will be featured during the 15-day festival. The composer-in-residence is German creator Torsten Rasch whose works have been performed by orchestras and opera companies in Europe and Great Britain. During the 1990’s Torsten Rasch based himself in Japan where he wrote film music, adding to his already impressive composition repertoire.

Located near Dresden, Germany, the Moritzburg Festival is all about music-making at its finest and features concerts, recitals, open rehearsals and composer lectures. The spectacular Schloss Moritzburg is the heart of this 15-day feast of music. The Evangelische Kirche in Moritzburg, the Proschwitz Wine Estate, the Volkswagen "Die Gläserne Manufaktur" (the Transparent Factory) and the famed Frauenkirche in Dresden will all host concerts. Highlights include a Gala concert and dinner on August 12 in the Schloss Moritzburg that offers wonderful music followed by a dinner prepared by starred chef Stefan Hermann and gourmet chef Olaf Seidel, the midday Proschwitz Music Picnic in the gardens of the Schloss Proschwitz as well as the chamber music concert on August 20 with violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann and pianist Alice Sara Ott.

The artists who participate in the Moritzburg Chamber Music Festival come from around the world to perform works that explore the full range of the chamber repertoire and push the concept of chamber music to its limits. For them it is a two-week intense exchange of musical ideas and for the audience, it is an occasion to hear music-making at its best.

Celebrated soloists appearing at the 2011 Festival include:

-  Violinists Kristof Barati, Nicola Benedetti, Colin Jacobsen, Philippe Quint, Benjamin Schmid, Valeriy Sokolov, Mira Wang, Frank Peter Zimmermann, Serge Zimmermann
-  Violists Max Mandel, Nils Mönkemeyer, Antoine Tamestit
-  Cellists Danjulo Ishizaka, Christian Poltéra, Julian Steckel, Jan Vogler
-  Double bass Janne Saksala
-  Pianists Andreas Haefliger, Alie Sara Ott, Antti Siirala
-  Flute Marina Piccinini
-  Clarinet David Orlowsky
-  Harp Astrid von Brück
-  Soprano Ruth Ziesak
-  Countertenor Andrew Watts

Now in its sixth year, the Moritzburg Festival Academy will once again provide young professional musicians with the unique opportunity to study with artists performing at the Festival. This year, over an intense 10-day period 40 young musicians from all over the world will take master-classes with Festival soloists, rehearse and challenge themselves to prepare for performances throughout the Festival.

The Academy participants will form the Festival Orchestra under the Estonian Conductor Anu Tali. Maestro Tali began her musical training as a pianist, graduating from Talinn Conservatory in 1991 and continuing her conducting studies at the Estonian Academy of Music and the St. Petersburg State Conservatory. In 1997, along with her twin sister, she founded the Nordic Symphony Orchestra. Anu Tali has appeared with the Magdeburg State Opera, the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, the Madison Symphony Orchestra, the Mozarteumorchester, and the London Sinfonietta at New York’s Lincoln Centre.

Hosted for the eighth consecutive year by Volkswagen’s “Die Gläserne Manufaktur” (The Transparent Factory), the Festival Orchestra under Anu Tali will open this year’s Moritzburg Festivl at 11:00 am on August 7^th with a spectacular concert featuring William Byrd’s “Agnus Dei” (from the Mass for Five Voices) and “Vigilate” (from Cantiones Sacrae), Alfred Schnittke’s Concerto Grosso No. 1 (soloists Colin Jacobsen and Mira Wang) and Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D 417 (The Tragic).

As well, participants of the Academy also appear in smaller chamber music formations for example at the Family Concert as well as the “Long Night of Chamber Music”.

Volkswagen’s “Die Gläserne Manufaktur” (The Transparent Factory) is the principle sponsor of the Moritzburg Festival.

Moritzburg Festival on Tour
The Moritzburg Festival doesn’t end with the last concert on August 21 — the success of Festival concerts e.g. in New York, Berlin, London, Cologne, Warsaw, and Wroclaw has led to the addition of regular performances ‘on tour’.  This year for the first time, Moritzburg Festival artists will undertake a concert tour to South Korea performing in Seoul, Cheonan, Busan and Gwangju. Details on their activities can be found on the Festival’s website.

Festival Recordings
This year Moritzburg Festival artists Benjamin Schmid (violin), Lars Anders Tomter (viola), Jan Vogler (cello), Janne Saksala (double bass) and Antti Siirala (piano), in collaboration with the German radio station "Deutschlandradio Kultur", will record Schubert's famous Piano Quintet in A Major (The Trout) as well as five different versions of the very popular "Die Forelle"  ("The Trout"),Op.32 (D.550), also by Schubert. Each artist will create an individual approach to the song, expressing the music in a highly personal way. The recording, on the SONY label, will be released in July 2011 and launched as a featured concert on August 10 within this year’s Moritzburg Festival.

This recording joins an already impressive Festival discography on SONY Classical featuring: Mozart’s Divertimento for Strings in E flat Major, K. 563 and an arrangement of Le Nozze di Figaro for String Quartet discovered by Jan Vogler; Mozart’s String Quintet in C Major, K. 515, Suite from the opera Die Zauberflöte (arranged for string quartet) and the Piano Quartet in G minor, K. 478; and TANGO! featuring the works of Piazzolla and Schulhoff.

Jan Vogler's CD New Worlds with the Knights (Sony) received the Supersonic Award in the January 2011 issue of Pizzicato Magazine. In addition, Jan's acclaimed recording of cello works by Elliott Carter and Udo Zimmermann with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Kristjan Järvi (Neos) also received the February 2011 Supersonic Award!

Superstar Cellist Gives Students Their Own Star Turn
Jan Vogler fosters orchestral and chamber-music training through the Moritzburg Academy 
By Laurence Vittes   January 24, 2011
On the beautiful stretches of eastern Germany, 30 miles south of Dresden and tantalizingly close to both Teplice (where Beethoven wrote to his Immortal Beloved) and Prague (where Mozart is still immortally beloved), the cellist Jan Vogler’s Moritzburg Festival Academy offers musicians, students, and music lovers an opportunity to meet, play music, and refresh the soul.
This summer, for the sixth time, the annual Moritzburg Festival Academy will welcome 40 young music students from all over the world. The Academy includes one week of orchestral training and one week of chamber music training. For successful applicants, transportation, tuition, and room and board expenses are covered by a scholarship from the festival.
Last year 250 young hopefuls applied.
Now a permanent component of the Moritzburg Festival, the Academy has evolved as a creative musical workshop along the lines of the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Vermont, where music and friendships blossom. Each August, students from all over the world are chosen to participate in the Academy and to form the Festival Orchestra through a rigorous selection process—the application requirements make fascinating reading in themselves.
The faculty is largely drawn from the performers at the festival, including Vogler himself.
As part of the Festival Orchestra, those lucky 40 students will open the 2011 Moritzburg Festival on August 7 at Volkswagen’s glass-walled Transparent Factory in Dresden. The Academy students then will play and perform in several chamber music formations through August 14. The chamber music training provides participants the opportunity to work with world-class conductors and established soloists and to perform. This year, Anu Tali will conduct the Festival Orchestra. In 2010, the orchestra was conducted by Alondra de la Parra.
In addition to his duties with the Academy, Vogler serves as general director of the Dresden Music Festival and maintains a busy recording and international concert schedule. He remains unfailingly positive about the results of making classical music available to young students in whatever way he can and hopes that his efforts, particularly with the Dresden Music Festival, will begin to have some impact on the larger issue of community building and repair.
Overlapping the Academy, the Moritzburg Festival, running though August 21, is a fine example of programming and site selection. With the beauty of the Baroque-style Moritzburg Castle, students, faculty, and visitors are transported in space and time. Even the castle’s hunting room, liberally adorned with animal heads, provides a context that only being there can offer. Featured performers in the 2011 Moritzburg Festival will include violinists Frank Peter Zimmermann, Nicola Benedetti, Philippe Quint, and Mira Wang; violist Antoine Tamestit; cellists Danjulo Ishizaka, Jan Vogler, and Julian Steckel; as well as pianists Alice Sara Ott, Kit Armstrong, Adam Neiman, and Andreas Haefliger. It’s a remarkable collection of young classical musicians who are coming together for the first time as superstars—like a summer camp for the NBA.
The music of the British Empire will be the festival’s theme, featuring works by Elgar, Tavener, and Britten. The Danish composer Torsten Rasch, whose “Mein Herz Brennt,” an orchestral treatment of music by the German band Rammstein, has provoked considerable controversy, will serve as composer-in-residence.
The Moritzburg Festival Academy will be held August 1–14. Learn more at moritzburgfestival.de.

German-born cellist to be featured soloist

Christina Hennessy
Friday, January 21, 2011

There are times when Jan Vogler doesn't put a whole lot of stock in words. Instead, he relies on a form of communication that transcends traditions and cultures.

"When you come to play with an orchestra ... whether you come to Chicago, Boston or Stamford, you have to try and build a relationship in a very few hours," the German-born cellist said. "It's a very fascinating process. You quickly learn how fast you can communicate through music.

"With words, it would take a whole week to explore what I feel about a piece," Vogler added.

With such an appreciation for the emotional depth of music, it seems natural that Vogler would be the featured soloist when Stamford Symphony Orchestra presents "Romantic Souls" Jan. 29 and 30 at the Palace Theatre in Stamford.

Featuring music from Schoenberg, Tchaikovsky and Schubert, the concert will highlight the broad range of the Romantic period, said Eckart Preu, the group's conductor and music director. The era, which covered most of the 19th century, was known for its expressive and lush music.

At its dawn stood Austrian composer Franz Schubert, whose Symphony No. 4 in C minor, D. 417, commonly called "Tragic," will be featured. At its dusk was the Austrian-American composer, Schoenberg, whose "Verklärte Nacht" (Transfigured Night) will be performed.

"With Schubert, you have an early romantic composer, while Schoenberg was the last great breath of Romanticism," Preu said. "The program ... is quite a spread in terms of when the pieces were written."

Vogler will be joining the orchestra for Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme. Tchaikovsky, a Russian, created most of his work at the height of the era.

As far as relationships go, Vogler said he has not always had an easy time with this particular piece.

"I played this a lot as a young cellist, and then I kind of deserted it for 15 years," he said, adding that in the past 18 months or so, he has forged a new relationship with it, performing it often.

"I really love it, but I needed the break," he said.

His maturity as a musician and a person has only further helped to color a composition that conveys the interplay between sadness and joy, he said. Time has deepened his appreciation, he added, since growing older inevitably brings on more melancholy moments.

"It has these very sparkling, fast passages ... extremely outgoing, virtuous passage ... and then these mellow moments," he said of Tchaikovsky's 1877 composition. "There is always a grain of happiness in the sadness and always a grain of sadness in the happiness."

About 40 years ago, Vogler first picked up the instrument for which he would soon be earning accolades. At 6, he began studying in Berlin with his father, Peter, also a cellist, and later with Josef Schwab.

By 20, Vogler had earned the principal cello position of the Staatskapelle Dresden and became the youngest concertmaster in the history of this orchestra.

"That was a dream job," he said. "I couldn't believe it myself."

But after about 10 years, he left for New York City, where he still lives with his family, to explore a solo career.

"I was really lucky," he said. "Everything worked out for me. I was fortunate in that my work paid off."

Since then, he has worked with some of the world's top conductors and fellow musicians, and appeared with many orchestras, including the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden and others.

Vogler also is working on some musical cross-pollination. About two years ago, the cellist joined with the New York City ensemble The Knights to perform the music of 20th-century composer Dmitri Shostakovich, including his cello concerto No. 1, as well as Jimi Hendrix's "Machine Gun" at a live performance at the New York City club Le Poisson Rouge. The result was a 2009 CD, Jan Vogler and The Knights "Experience: Live from New York" -- one of many recordings Vogler has made over the years.

As a young boy in East Berlin, Vogler recalled being fascinated with Hendrix's music.

"When I was 10, I had a portrait of Jimi Hendrix on my jean jacket," he said. "I thought his music was cool.

Vogler's musical education was steeped in the classics, too -- he cites such influences as the late violinist Jascha Heifetz and the late cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. But, people like Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Louis Armstrong and other top pop and jazz artists also had a strong influence on Vogler.

"They show how great and deep the other side can be," he said.

Preu and Vogler have known one another for about 10 years, and they have worked together several times in the past. However, this is their first collaboration in Stamford.

There is magic in performing, Vogler said, created by the musicians' communication with one another and the conductor, and the audience's desire to engage in that dialogue.

"What really makes music is the love for it at the moment when it is performed," Vogler said. "You go wherever the people are. That is the calling."

Fasten Your Seat Belts
Guest conductor Josep Caballé-Domenech and cellist Jan Vogler raise Cain in Fort Worth
by Gregory Sullivan Isaacs - published Saturday, January 15, 2011 

This has to be good guest conductor karma week in the Metroplex. First we got the masterful Hans Graf with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and then we get Barcelona native Josep Caballé-Domenech with the Fort Worth Symphony. They are completely different―polar opposites really―but both elicited a memorable performance. Graf is all meticulous control while Domenech, despite an unfortunate flutter in his left hand, is clear in a big gesture and big-moment kind of way.
The Fort Worth Symphony, playing in Bass Hall on Friday evening, responded in the manner Domenech’s conducting style demands. There was one big splashy moment after another as they gave memorable performances of Dvorák’s Symphony No. 8. While this writer prefers a performance that scales the dynamics in such a manner that there are only one or two biggest moments in a symphony, it was hard to argue with Domenech’s conception that the symphony is filled with them. Turned loose, the brass had a field day.
The entire orchestra had a field day as well.
The strings dug in with visible fervor, Concertmaster Michael Shin almost jumped out of his seat, and the winds made the most of all the glorious music Dvorák gave them. Even the timpanist let it fly when requested. It all careened to the finish line like a sled going downhill and Domenech, who could use a little of Hans Graf’s control, could barely hold on to the momentum he created. Overall, the symphony was a skosh overplayed but it was really quite thrilling. The orchestra sounded wonderful and inspired―as good as I’ve ever heard them play.
The program opened with an equally exhilarating performance of Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1. German cellist Jan Vogler attacked the piece like ravenous children led to a banquet. While some other cellists may take a more gentlemanly approach, this is certainly one way to look at this piece, especially the first movement. Vogler was ferocious and willing to give up cleanliness for effect, and that rough and tumble mood that permeates most of Shostakovich’s first movement music, is what we got.
The second movement retreated somewhat and its high points were more emotional than primal as the clarity that the cellist previously traded for enthusiasm returned. The extended cadenza grew organically out of the second movement, just as it should, and it gave Vogler the chance to ably demonstrate that he is a first rate player. Domenech was with him every step of the way. Better yet, he managed the difficult task of keeping the orchestra under the soloist throughout the entire concerto.
Mention must be made of the glorious contribution of principal horn Mark Houghton in the concerto. Shostakovich gives the horn co-star billing and Houghton took his cue from the soloist and conductor and played with abandon. While this is always a risky approach to horn playing, Houghton was dead-on throughout. He got a well-deserved solo bow.

Symphony, guest artists offer two very different but appealing works
Friday, Jan. 14, 2011
By Olin Chism
Special to the Star-Telegram
FORT WORTH -- The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra's program Friday night contrasted two very unlike but highly appealing works: Shostakovich's jaunty -- at times almost smart-alecky -- First Cello Concerto and Dvorak's gorgeous Symphony No. 8.
Two guests were onstage at Bass Performance Hall: Spanish conductor Josep Caballe-Domenech and German cellist Jan Vogler. Both were impressive, and here's hoping both return in future seasons.
The cello concerto represents quite a shift in mood from the Mahlerian angst of much of Shostakovich's output during the years of Stalin and World War II. This one is often downright playful and has one of the composer's loveliest slow movements. There is a touch of the sardonic now and then, but the mood seems mostly upbeat. Maybe it has something to do with the demise of Stalin a few years before the work was composed.
Vogler gave a virtuoso performance, making what sounds like a very difficult work seem reasonable, if not easy, and producing truly lovely sounds in the slow movement.
A person new to the piece might imagine on hearing the first movement that this is going to be a concerto for horn and cello. The principal horn player gets quite a workout, at times even dominating the cello. The part was in superb hands (Mark Houghton's, I presume) Friday night, zipping through an obstacle course with impressive ease.
The horn doesn't disappear later, but the cellist gets most of the fireworks, and Vogler was equally at ease throughout. Caballe-Domenech was a like-minded partner, finding subtlety as well as high spirits in the score. The orchestra was also in top form, with particularly lovely string playing in the slow movement.
The Symphony No. 8 is arguably Dvorak's greatest, although the New World is certainly a strong competitor. The orchestra gave a superb performance, with Caballe-Domenech avoiding all hint of routine in an interpretation that was full of subtle shifts in tempo and dynamics.
The allegretto grazioso, one of the great movements of any composer, was a haunting memory long after the final notes.
As usual, the Friday program was shortened by one work and an intermission. Kodaly's Dances of Galanta and a break will be added to tonight's and Sunday's performances.

Internationally renowned cellist Jan Vogler has been named the 2011 winner of the Erich Kästner Prize by the Dresden Press Club. This prestigious award is given annually to a person in the field of politics, business and/or culture who has made an outstanding contribution to further the ideals of tolerance, humanity and international understanding.

“As one of the world’s leading cellists, Jan Vogler performs on concert stages around the globe, promoting his homeland and actively pursuing the ideals of tolerance and international understanding,” said Dieter Hoefer, Chairman of the Dresden Press Club, when announcing the jury’s decision. He added that a close relationship with the city of Dresden was another important criterion in choosing the prize-winner.

To Jan Vogler, the honor signifies both encouragement and motivation to keep working towards the goals of the prize: “Dresden continues to be my musical hometown. Here, culture is part of the way of life, and it is very important to me personally to contribute to furthering understanding and encounters between different people through music in this city.”

The awards ceremony will take place at the Albrechtsberg Palace in Dresden in the late summer, before an audience of invited guests. The prize of the Dresden Press Club, which is one of the largest clubs in Germany, carries a cash value of 10,000 Euros, to be donated to a cultural, social or charitable purpose by the winner.

Previous winners include Kurt H. Biedenkopf (former Prime Minister of the Free State of Saxony), Hans-Dietrich Genscher (former Foreign Minister of Germany), Richard von Weizsäcker (former Federal President of Germany) and Countess Marion Dönhoff (Editor-in-Chief, “Die Zeit” magazine).

Another musical year is coming to an end. After playing my final concert for 2010, the Dvořàk Concerto with Carlos-Miguel Prieto and the Louisiana Philharmonic last Saturday, which I enjoyed tremendously, I have been looking back and remembering many wonderful experiences on many very different stages in the world.

Two world premieres — Ubi Est Abel Frater Tuus (Where is your brother Abel?) by Tigran Mansurian and the Double Concerto for Violin and Cello by John Harbison — inspired and challenged me and I am sure that both of these works will find a place in the repertoire. Performing John Harbison’s Double Concerto was particularly fun for me as it gave me the opportunity to share the stage with my wife, violinist, Mira Wang.  Concerts with the Boston Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony and Manfred Honeck, the WDR Symphony Cologne and Semyon Bychkov and many others gave me new perspectives on the pieces I performed with them. Two particular highlights were the tours in Germany with the Singapore Symphony conducted by Lan Shui and New York’s The Knights, an exciting young ensemble that took the country by storm. They have already been invited back for 2012!

The concertos by Schumann, Dvořàk and Shostakovich were in the focus of my performance repertoire this past year but I also had the chance to renew my relationship with Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations which I played in 11 performances this year, after having deserted this wonderful work for many years.  

Duo recitals for cello and piano have always been a big part of my musical life and in 2010 I was particularly fortunate to have the chance to perform Schumann’s Dichterliebe with my dear friend Hélène Grimaud in Bonn and Düsseldorf. In other concerts I performed with the German pianist Martin Stadtfeld, focussing on the enigmatic and fascinating ‘da gamba’ sonatas by Bach.  The summer brought me the opportunity to perform with the Baltic Youth Philharmonic, led by Kristjan Jaervi. Playing Pärt and Tchaikovsky with the youthful energy of this ensemble was fun and refreshing.

My new recording, called ‘My Tunes 2’ and released by SONY in June, continues my exploration of the wonderful world short character pieces for the cello. The recording has hit the charts in Germany. I was very happy to see that the CD has been reaching a wide audience including many people who have never listened to classical music before.

And of course, no year would be complete without the Dresden Musikfestspiele and the Moritzburg Festival. I am lucky enough to have two great teams in place to help me organize these festivals and together we found it very rewarding to influence the classical music business and to present so many wonderful colleagues to our audiences.

I am grateful for all the good fortune I had during this year and look forward to new musical ventures in 2011.

                                                                                           - Jan

Today, 12 October, Dresden Music Festival intendant Jan Vogler presented the 2011 festival program (18 May-5 June) and its motto"Five Elements" in a press conference.

In Europe, we often view Asia’s rapid development as a separate and entirely materialistic phenomenon. The 2011 Dresden Music Festival, however, focuses on the cultural values that guide people, on the philosophies of life, and the connections between Asia and Europe.

Paradoxically, it appears that the orient of bygone times was closer to us than it seems to be today. When travelers took the famous Silk Road to Asia, they exchanged not only merchant goods, but also ideas, and learned about many different cultures. Thus, they found their personal approach to the »Five Elements«.

In this spirit, the 2011 Dresden Music Festival tries to build a bridge to the Far East, touching some of the cultures along the Silk Road on the way. Asia’s cultural ambassadors, such as Cloud Gate, Rain or the artists featured in our series »Asia’s Stars of Tomorrow« are immensely important, since they tell us stories from the rich past and the fascinating future of Asia – even when they interpret Western music.

The concurrence of the German Protestant Kirchentag and the Music Festival in Dresden in 2011 has inspired the Festival’s program. Thus, the topics of religion and spirituality communicate with the »Five Elements« and open new perspectives for the future. Earth, water, fire, air, spirituality: We cordially invite you to find your own interpretation of the elements on our musical journey, and thus become part of our Festival.

http://www.musikfestspiele.com/cms/en/music_festival/motto_2011/

Recording of the Week: Financial Times Deutschland
“...But ‘My Tunes II’ – a recording with the musician’s favourite melodies has the potential to deeply affect the listener. The cellist...proves once more how closely the instrument resembles the human voice. The sound is beautiful – it creates the longing and melancholy of Wagner’s Traüme from the Wesendonk-lieder, with Mendelssohn and Paganini, it sings and with Fauré it cries. Vogler’s arrangement of Schubert’s ‘Ava Maria’ and Piazzolla’s Oblivion are excellent and Gluck’s ‘Orpheus’ melody is bitter-sweet.”

Under the Artistic Direction of Cellist Jan Vogler, the Moritzburg Festival will take place from August 8 – 22, 2010. This year the Festival will dedicate itself to the German Romantics featuring works by Johannes Brahms, Felix Mendelssohn and celebrating the Bicentennial of the birth of Robert Schumann. The Composer-in-Residence is Daniel Schnyder, whose orchestral works and chamber music compositions have been performed and recorded all over the world. His Songbook for Saxophone and Orchestra and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony, performed by the Moritzburg Festival Academy, led by Mexican Conductor Alondra de la Parra, will be featured at the opening concert of the Festival, on Sunday, August 8 at Volkswagen’s Transparent Factory in Dresden. The public will also enjoy performances by violinist Viviane Hagner, pianist Olive Triendl and the Clarinettist Charles Neidich, to name but a few. The 2010 Moritzburg Festival is under the Patronage of Dr. Thomas de Maizière, Federal Minister of the Interior. For more information about the festival, please consult www.moritzburgfestival.de. 

Spectacular concerts and record revenue draw outstanding press and public acclaim

In a fitting conclusion to 'Russlandia', the spectacular 33rd edition of the Dresden Music Festival, the public was treated to a wonderful open-air concert featuring David Krakauer's "Klezmer Madness!," a fascinating mix of Klezmer, jazz, rock, funk, soul, blues and hip-hop. The Intendant of the Dresden Music Festival, Jan Vogler, is delighted with the result: "We are very happy with the enthusiasm of the audience and the wonderful atmosphere throughout the Festival. The beautiful weather of the final weekend made parting from 'Russlandia' a little easier for us."

A dedicated champion of new music, Jan has recently premiered a piece by American composer John Harbison, and will premiere a new cello concerto by Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian.

On April 24, Jan Vogler will give the world premiere of a new work by Tigran Mansurian, to be broadcast live on radio and 3sat Television. Commissioned and performed by the WDR Sinfonieorchester conducted by Semyon Bychkov, the concert falls on the anniversary of the 1915 Turkish massacres that wiped out over a million Armenians. “Ubi Est Abel Frater Tuus” (Where is your brother Abel?) is a single movement concerto comprising the three parts of a traditional requiem – Kyrie Eleison, Dies Irae and Agnus Dei – which depicts the story of an Armenian family during those troubled times. In a recent interview for The Independent, the composer stated that “If a few words must be said about this piece, I would be content if attention were brought to the silences, especially of the silence underlying the question “Where is your brother Abel?”, as well as my feelings of respect toward this silence, and the absence of pathetic gestures, loud cries, shouts and calls in the music.” Mansurian has dedicated his work to Jan Vogler and Semyon Bychkov.

On April 8 2010 Jan Vogler premiered Pulitzer laureate John Harbison’s double concerto for cello and violin in Boston, together with violinist Mira Wang, the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of the Moritzburg Festival in August 2009 (artistic direction: Jan Vogler) have been the European premieres of two works by John Harbison (2009 composer-in-residence): Abu Ghraib for violin and cello and the piano trio No. 2.

On June 30th Jan Vogler kicks off a European tour with the Baltic Youth Orchestra and conductor Kristjan Järvi, featuring works related to the countries of the Baltic Sea region:

June 30 - Gdansk, Poland: Sala Koncertowa
Baltic Youth Orchestra and Kristjan Järvi (conductor)
Pärt: Pro et Contra
Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33

July 2 - Copenhagen, Denmark: Tivoli
Baltic Youth Orchestra and Kristjan Järvi (conductor)
Pärt: Pro et Contra
Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33

July 5 - Pärnu, Estonia: Oistrach-Festival
Baltic Youth Orchestra and Kristjan Järvi (conductor)
Eller: Prelude
Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33

July 8 - St. Petersburg, Russia: Mariinsky opera, White Nights Festival
Baltic Youth Orchestra and Kristjan Järvi (conductor)
Pärt: Pro et Contra
Tchaikovsky: Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33

Jan Vogler gave an interview for mundoclasico.com, about the Dresden Music Festival 2010. Please read it here: http://www.mundoclasico.com/2009/documentos/doc-ver.aspx?id=cf09cdad-c988-4f34-a6f6-16a708e02709

"Wang and Vogler played with lovely tonal warmth and focused commitment, but also with an easygoing poise, as though this piece had already entered their repertoire."
The Boston Globe, 9 April 2010
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2010/04/09/bso_unveils_new_harbison_for_husband_and_wife/

"Two Bach experts perform the music of the young Johann Sebastian Bach. Both Jan Vogler and Martin Stadtfeld are much the same age as when Bach composed these works and apart from their in-depth knowledge of Bach’s work, there is a virtuosic energy and sense of performance that must have been very close to what Bach intended for the time. I found this CD enthralling, they are works that are seldom heard yet you feel as though you are present at the first performance and want to applaud. (...) If you are a Bach fan this is a must. "
ClassicFM South Africa, 8 February 2010

Jan Vogler and The Knights have published their new album, "New Worlds". It is their second album for Sony Classical and features works by Copland, Dvorak, Ives, Gabriela Lena Frank, and Osvaldo Golijov. The CD was released in Germany in January 2010 so watch for international release dates soon!

I wish you a happy 2010, full of music!
It is always an exciting moment when a new musical year begins. Between christmas and New Year’s Eve I always take time for myself and try to collect the energies for all upcoming concerts and projects. Going through my calendar for 2010, anticipation rises. Antipation of concert highlights like the world premiere of the double concerto by John Harbison with the Boston Symphony and James Levine, of the world premiere of Tigran Mansurian’s cello concerto with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra and Semyon Bychkov, or of duo recitals with wonderful partners such as Hélène Grimaud or Martin Stadtfeld.
But I am looking forward just as much to my two festivals, the Dresden Music Festival and the Moritzburg Festival. Both projects inspire me greatly and give me the opportunity to influence the musical life in Germany. Being the host for colleagues from all over the world means a lot to me, and everytime very special moments arise: In the encounters with both the musicians and the audiences.

Jan Vogler and Martin Stadtfeld went to the studio together for the first time, to record Bach's cello sonatas, originally for viola da gamba and harpsichord [Sony].
Just released in North America!

After last year’s motto »New World«, the theme of the Dresden Music Festival in 2010 will now be »Russlandia«, focusing on the music of Russia. It will be the second festival under Intendant Jan Vogler.

Jan Vogler: »In 2010, the Dresden Music Festival will introduce a unique survey of Russia’s music. Especially in the 20^th century, the tension between East and West became a creative impetus for ingenious Russian composers and interpreters. Twenty years have passed since the >Iron Curtain<  came down and it is now time to approach the works by Russian composers and their modern interpreters from a different angle: from the centre between East and West.«

The program 2010 as well as a video summary of the press conference on 29 October can be found on www.musikfestspiele.com.

Cellist Jan Vogler is looking ahead to a very active new season which he started with a performance of Strauss’ Don Quixote at the Edinburgh International Festival together with the BBC Scottish Symphony and Donald Runnicles.

On 8 April 2010 Jan Vogler will premiere Pulitzer laureate John Harbison’s double concerto for cello and violin in Boston, together with violinist Mira Wang, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and James Levine. Highlights of the Moritzburg Festival in August 2009 (artistic direction: Jan Vogler) have been the European premieres of two works by John Harbison (2009 composer-in-residence): Abu Ghraib for violin and cello and the piano trio No. 2.

Also in April 2010, he will premiere the new cello concerto by Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian. The concert date is 24 April, Armenian commemoration day of the Turkish genocide between 1915 and 1917. It will be the opening concert of the MusikTriennale Cologne 2010, together with the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra and Semyon Bychkov.

Next to numerous recitals with pianists Hélène Grimaud (25 October Dresden, 28 October Munich) and Martin Stadtfeld, Jan Vogler will be guest of the Pacific Symphony (Grant Llewellyn), Cincinnati Symphony (John Storgårds) and Singapore Symphony Orchestras (Christoph Poppen) this season, among others.

Sony will release two new CDs within the next months: Bach’s gamba sonatas with Martin Stadtfeld, and Dvorak’s Silent Woods, the second CD with The Knights orchestra from New York. The Knights opened the Dresden Music Festival in May 2009, the first festival under Jan Vogler’s direction, to great critical acclaim.

The next Dresden Music Festival will run from 19 May-6 June 2010, the Moritzburg Festival 2010 from 7-22 August.

Welcome to Jan Vogler’s new homepage! On these pages, you will find not only the cellist’s detailed biography but also his discography, sound bites, current press clippings, photos, video clips, as well as selected concert dates and other news, regularly updated. We look forward to your visits!

The violin has more glamour, the viola more soul, the bass more thundering power. But the cello remains the most versatile member of the string family, and there could hardly be a more inviting introduction to its charms than "My Tunes" (Sony Classical), a new disk by the German cellist Jan Vogler. Vogler's intense and febrile sound is restrained by classical discipline and enriched by a searching musical intelligence. His accounts of short works by such disparate composers as Bach, Tchaikovsky, Elgar ("Salut d'Amour"), and Henry Mancini ("Moon River") are brisk, eloquent, and immaculately detailed. (...)

Russell Platt

CD Feature/ Jan Vogler: "Concerti Brillanti"
World premiere recordings in all their timeless glory: Vogler lends a furious and unadjusted note to the music.

"If you listen to recordings from the 1970's and 1980's", Jan Vogler told us in our interview with him, "you will be surprised how few interpretations will still convince you." It is an interesting opinion amidst the talk of how futile it is to even try to reproduce the magic of the supposedly "golden years" of classical music releases today - and a first explanation why "Concerti Brillanti" sounds so succinctly and unmistakably like a 21st century album.

If you bundle this train of thought with the always positvely critical and ever-inquisitive mind of Reinhard Goebel (conducting the Münchner Kammerorchester on this occasion), then you end up with a recording which doesn't even waste a second copying the sound of abovementioned recordings from the 1970s and 1980s, but instead sails towards uncharted waters. The combination of digital precision and thrust when it comes to production, absolute clarity in the instrumental timbres and of organic layering in the arrangements make the CD a fresh and lively statement of unfiltered energy. When Vogler travels back a full 300 years in musical history, he expects the methodes, insights and techniques of an instrumentalist to not stand still either and to go hand in hand with the most up-to-date technology in order to be able to express his inmost convictions. And then, in this particular case, there may even have been a second reason for this approach:

"Concerti Brillanti" contains three world premiere recordings and it seems as though Jan Vogler wanted them to shine in all their timeless glory, rather than present them as yet another stuffy discovery from the vaults. The elegance and romance of Friedrich Hartmann Graf, the lean splendour of Johann Adolph Hasse as well as the creative opulence of Johann Michael Haydn now seem to speak to us from our own time and as immediate as any contemporary composition. The slow second movement of the "Concerto in A Major" by Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach especially (the only previously documtened work on display here), is as brooding and halucinogenic as any movie score. Vogler is always in the centre of attention, but his interpretations are marked by a strong respect for the texture of a piece and for playing an assigned part in its overall purpose. In the Largo of the Bach-Concerto, his concrete melodic lines prevent the track from sliding down into oblivion, preparing for the upbeat resolution in the finale. Elesewhere, he lends a furious and unadjusted note to the music, lest it should turn too sweet or provides ragged edges where it risks becoming overly smooth. And just as often, surprisingly perhaps for a solo recording, he takes a step back and joins the ranks of the Münchner Kammerorchester, whipping it forward with powerful propulsion.

In his versions, it is hard to believe these concertos have never been performed in a studio before. "Concerti Brillanti" is a disc which does not need several spins before making sense, even though it does win with each listen. Jan Vogler may not hold many recordings from the past in high esteem. But this disc has a good chance of still convincing audiences in twenty to thirty years from now.

Tobias Fischer

NEW YORK - Though celebrated German cellist Jan Vogler's forthcoming series of Philadelphia concerts looks like an intelligently devised sortie - two Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia performances, a Curtis Institute master class, and a chamber music recital in the spring - it's just a less-anonymous version of visits he's made for years.
"I go to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra. Many friends of mine went to the Curtis Institute and stayed," he said the other day. "Now I hope there will be friendship between the people of Philadelphia and me."

And it's probably overdue. Vogler has been an important American presence, particularly in the Northeast, for years. His breakthrough recording - the Dvorak Cello Concerto on Sony Classics - was made with the New York Philharmonic. He has an increasingly active chamber music relationship with Canadian pianist Louis Lortie, with whom he'll play an April 13 recital presented by the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society at the Independence Seaport Museum, where he played about 15 years ago in a Music from Marlboro ensemble. More immediately, he plays the C.P.E. Bach Cello Concerto today and tomorrow with the Chamber Orchestra at the Kimmel Center.

Now 42 and the father of two children, Vogler bounces between his Central Park West apartment and his residence in Dresden. Though at a point in life when some famous musicians find practice time harder to come by because of family duties or weariness with the profession for which they've trained since childhood, Vogler discusses his cello as if it is a benevolent addiction.

"I love to play the cello so much. I need contact with it almost every day," he says. "I start my day playing one of the Bach suites. If I go for a week without playing, I'm not as even, emotionally. I try to develop sounds that go further than we expect a piece of wood would produce. I'm perfectly content to do that my whole life."

Vogler is of a generation of musicians trained in the isolation of the former East Germany, but among the few to graft that onto the ultra-American Marlboro Music School and Festival that would have been out of reach before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. It was at Marlboro, where he spent several summers through 1991, that he met his Boston-based wife, Mira. As a geographical compromise between Boston and Dresden, they moved in 1997 to New York - "a great city to find out what I like and what I feel."

The first half of his life sounds like the black-and-white portion of The Wizard of Oz. He began playing cello as a kid and performed his first solo concert at age 16. His primary teacher was his father in a family so steeped in music - and so strict about it - that he was told mistakes weren't permitted in adulthood. Any. Just recently, when recording his newest disc, Concerti Brillanti, he nearly walked out of the studio because he was so disappointed in himself. What saved him is his current belief - "perfection as an aim is important, but as a result, it is not" - that is another milieu, another hemisphere, from where he came from.

"My whole life opened up after the wall came down. But I believe that focus on one thing can be good. Most of my childhood we had no TV, few movies, no tennis, no bowling. We were going to the theater almost every night or hearing concerts, practicing a lot and discussing music. At the conservatory in East Berlin, and we had a lot of talks about [Hermann] Hesse and [Stefan] Zweig, to understand these writers, as well as music."

His young-adult turning point, one that normally would have been a catapulting experience in the West, felt more like graduate school - he became principal cellist of the Dresden Staatskapelle, one of Germany's great orchestras. Vogler was all but drafted for the coveted position: He was invited to audition, though he was only 20 and knew little more than music for cello. They loved his playing, and he got his own apartment - a big deal then.

What followed, though, were what he called "quiet years."

"Dresden was a dark city. Not much going on," he says. "I was studying opera scores. I practiced a lot. I continued my musical education. I definitely wouldn't have been a soloist if I hadn't had that time. It's impossible to understand music if you only study the cello repertoire. It's too isolated. That time saved me from a crisis. I wasn't thrown into the market like many colleagues who finish studying, play their instruments well, and then start playing concerts all over the place."

The dissolution of East Germany led him to Marlboro, where he played alongside the likes of Joshua Bell, and discovered any number of other approaches to music, all significant yet hard to single out. Now, he views any given piece through a broad set of references. Many believe their study of a piece begins and ends with the score; Vogler explores what was happening in the composer's life and all that was around him. Even in discussing his recent disc of cello encores titled My Tunes, his transcription of "Moon River" comes with a detailed explication of the film for which it was written, Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Vogler approached the rather larger Dvorak Cello Concerto with burning conviction that the Czech composer, who began it while living in New York, was absorbing all kinds of American influences, as opposed to writing from a place of nostalgic sentiment heard in his more Czech-based work. Taken together, Vogler's result is some of the toughest Dvorak on disc. Where most players linger over a phrase, Vogler turns the musical corner and is on to the next.

"We all know that Dvorak had a lot of anxieties in New York. He was scared of the the big city . . . those facts we know," he says. "If you look deeper in the piece, it's not the same mood of pieces written in Bohemia. There's more passion and fire and rhythm."

For the C.P.E. Bach Cello Concerto he plays with Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia, his research into the royal courts that composer inhabited brought him to a very different approach: passion that burns from within precision. "Even the 16th notes have to be played so that they're very alive. Very different from Vivaldi. This is like Steve Reich or Philip Glass . . . where every note has to be placed in the right timing."

The piece is on his Concerti Brillianti disc, which, curiously, shows Vogler and a cockatoo on the cover, skeptically eyeing each other. A play on his name, since vogel is German for bird? Actually, no: "It's the idea of the masked 18th century. In these [royal] courts, everybody was dressing up and pretending to be something or somebody . . . It was a big theater . . . [and] very irritating when you compare it to our democratic times now. We thought this cover looked very baroque.

"But it's not my job to do this kind of work. I do what's inside the disc."

David Patrick Stearns

The Secret of Dvorak's Cello Concerto

The title of this new CD may sound hokey at first but it turns out to be completely justified.

What the enterprising young German cellist Jan Vogler has done here is to explore the melodic and compositional roots of Antonin Dvorak's immensely popular Cello Concerto (Op. 104). In doing so, he postulates an intense secret romantic link between the composer and his sister-in-law, expressed by the inclusion of thematic material from his love song "Lasst mich allein," a particular favorite of hers.

Add to this scenario the fact that she lay dying in Prague while he was writing the concerto in New York, and you have material for both a great concerto and a romantic movie.

To illustrate Vogler's theory, the disc begins with the song itself, sung beautifully by Angelika Kirchschlager, accompanied at the piano by Helmut Deutsch, followed by rapturous performance, by Vogler and the New York Philharmonic under David Robertson, of the concerto in which melodic fragments of the song are embedded.

In case we didn't get the point, the song is then repeated in a cello-and-piano version before we hear Kirchschlager sing "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair" and "Wilt Thou Be Gone, Love," both by Stephen Foster, whose music was a substantial influence on Dvorak. As if to prove that the folkloric influences in the concerto are not entirely American in origin, the disc concludes with the song cycle, "Ziguenerlieder (Gypsy Songs)" in versions shared by Kirchschlager and Vogler, with Deutsch again providing sensitive accompaniment.

Anyone who thinks this is errant pedantry has only to listen to the way in which these technical and emotional connections are made by the music itself. In fact, one listener found hints of the "New World" symphony as his ear and brain became tuned to Vogler's (and Dvorak's) wavelength.

Richard Storm

Cellist Jan Vogler's time is divided between two very different cities: New York and Dresden. And, as he tells Dennis Rooney, that's just the way he likes it.

'I consider the day the Berlin Wall came down the luckiest of my life, because otherwise I could not lead the life I do today without leaving my family deserted in East Germany.'

Jan Vogler is speaking of having two homes, one in Dresden and the other on Manhattan's Central Park West, where he was shortly after Christmas when we met.

'I keep two places because I play so much in Germany. But I love New York. It is my passion to live here and I seem to work best here. New York is the perfect environment in which to be creative, which makes studying and practising great here.' He has led this transatlantic existence since 1997, when he decided to devote himself full time to a solo career, something unimaginable in the East Germany in which he grew up, which he describes as a trap for anyone with ambitions for a solo career. The more usual goal, he says, was to 'study hard and then get the best possible post.'

Vogler enjoyed a leg up in reaching his goal. Both his parents were musicians in Berlin, where he was born in 1964. His mother was an orchestral violinist and his father assistant principal cellist of the orchestra at the Komische Oper. At six Vogler was handed a cello. 'My father thought I looked like a cellist,' he says. 'My brother was taller, so he became the violinist.
I liked the cello from the beginning. I doubt that I would have liked any instrument more.'

Vogler's father taught him until his mid-teens. He says that being instructed by a parent is 'terrible'. 'Your parent either overestimates your abilities or the opposite. The latter was the case with my father. His intention was to give me a good foundation, but he was incredibly strict. He made me learn all the scales in thirds and octaves. He would call out: "D flat major, in thirds" and I had to respond as if he had pushed a button. Since I practised at home, he could hear all my mistakes then and in the lesson too. Later, I was able to work with people who were less strict, but my father really helped me to understand how things work, so that when something goes wrong I can analyse the problem and correct it.'

At 18, by then a pupil of Josef Schwab, Vogler made his debut in a Berlin recital. 'Of course I played an elaborate and, by my standards today, stupid programme: the Arpeggione Sonata followed by Locatelli, and in the second half, the Prokofiev Sonata and the Brahms F major.' At 19 he spent a summer in Marlboro. 'Siegfried Palm heard me in a class and said that he must get me to Marlboro. I didn't think it possible because the Iron Curtain was still in place. But he made Felix Galimir hear me during a tour. Three months later, I was in Marlboro. That's where I learned my English - I didn't speak a word when I arrived. I loved America right away and I'm very grateful to it for giving me, after my strict training, the freedom to be individual and "let it out". That was why I grew so attached to America and made a tremendous effort to live here.'
That day was still far in the future, but Vogler discovered at Marlboro that much of an older style of European music making had survived there and elsewhere in the US. 'I met Feuermann's widow and I discovered that players like Galimir preserved a style that was to an extent also preserved in East Germany, which remained connected to the old German tradition. In West Germany, cellists like Navarra and Tortelier began to teach shortly after the end of the war and encouraged students there to adapt to the French school. Now I'm happy that didn't happen to me, but at the time we were rather jealously looking over the Wall because we had only the Leipzig school of Klengel (who had taught my grandfather). We were resistant to the Russian school. Frankly, East Germans weren't exactly well treated by the Russians, so we never valued Rostropovich as highly as he was valued in the West. When we heard the younger Russian players, we were impressed but it wasn't what we were longing for. I found that when I came to Marlboro.'

Not long after his summer in Marlboro, Vogler's performing career began in earnest when, in 1984, he was appointed principal cellist of the Dresdener Staatskapelle. At 20 he was the youngest person ever to hold that position. 'Because I lived in East Germany, I had opportunities with orchestras that I would never have had in the West. I was invited to audition. There was no application, no tape. Anyone familiar with how orchestral auditions are conducted today would find it astounding. Each candidate was heard on a separate day. I was asked to perform the Haydn D major Concerto and the Dvorak, both complete, with the orchestra.

As I waited to make my entrance in the Dvorak, I listened to the horn solo being played by Peter Damm, the principal then and a celebrated musician in East Germany. "What could be nicer," I thought, "than to play this concerto once with this orchestra?" So I played very freely. It was like a concert. I had prepared all summer. My father, who had access to all of them, urged me to examine every important orchestral solo just in case. I could play them all by the time I went to Dresden but I certainly was not expecting anything. When the conductor of the audition, Hans Vonk, came to me afterward and told me that I had been given the job, I was very surprised.'

Vogler recalls his arrival in Dresden after his appointment.

'At 20, I felt very much an adult. I had been pushed hard by my teachers. After I played my debut recital when I was 18, I was told repeatedly that my student days were over and that I was now a grown-up. As principal in Dresden, I sat among grey-haired men, many of whom wore beards, but - I'm not being immodest - they didn't scare me. Now, when I look at photos from that time, I ask myself how they could have taken that matchstick-thin boy walking in with his cello at all seriously. I was very confident in my playing, maybe a little overconfident, because when I arrived I had no experience with orchestral playing. I remember playing Der Rosenkavalier for the first time; one rehearsal for each act and then the performance. I learned my part but, except for my solos, I had no idea how to integrate it with the rest of the orchestra. Having studied all those solos probably saved me in the beginning, because when I played a solo I sounded good, but when the cello section saw me, they must have realised that I needed a lot of guidance. Even so, I was devoted to mastering my new job. I cancelled all my concerts for the first year, which then seemed to me such a long time.'

Dresden in those days, recalls Vogler, was 'very dark'. 'It had a lot of buildings that still showed traces of bombing and fire. There was nothing to do but play, read, listen to records and study the cello.'

He recalls the solitude of those days with gratitude. 'I think that everyone needs such a quiet time to build up the reserves for the rest of one's life.' As principal in Dresden, he had the opportunity to perform all the major concertos with the Staatskapelle and also to tour. Once, he replaced Heinrich Schiff in the Schumann Concerto with the Berlin Radio Symphony, which led to a meeting with the elder artist. 'Someone had sent him a tape of that performance and he invited me to a masterclass. What I found most valuable about Heinrich was his freedom in individual performance. What he does with a cello nobody else does. I always felt that when he sat at the cello it was an experience to see how far a piece could be adapted to his individual physical characteristics. He had a vision about energy on the cello.'

In 1988 Vogler made his US debut in Chicago, playing the Strauss Romance with the Staatskapelle and Vonk. He toured the US again in 1996, performing the Schumann Concerto with Giuseppe Sinopoli. His growing reputation as a soloist and the demise of the East German state led to his decision to resign from the Staatskapelle in 1997 in order to devote himself entirely to a solo career. That same year he established part-time residence in New York. The following year he made his New York recital debut at Alice Tully Hall in the complete Beethoven cello sonatas. Other New York appearances within the past two seasons have included the New York premiere in Carnegie Hall of the Concerto by H.K. Gruber, with the composer conducting, and a performance with the American Symphony Orchestra under Leon Botstein in Avery Fisher Hall, playing the Adagio movement of the Burger Concerto and the infrequently heard Korngold Concerto.

European and Asian tours have been supplemented by a series of concerto and sonata recordings for Berlin Classics. In 2002 Vogler received an Echo Award (Germany's equivalent of the Grammy) as best instrumentalist, and last year he began to record for the German branch of Sony Classical. The first release was of Faure and Schumann piano quartets with colleagues from the Moritzburg Festival. Last month, Sony Classical released two works of Richard Strauss: the Romance (which Vogler premiered) and Don Quixote, with the Dresdener Staatskapelle conducted by Fabio Luisi.

Apart from his solo work, Vogler is busy with activities surrounding the Moritzburg Festival. He founded the event in 1993 to foster a collaboration between musicians and composers of international stature and gifted younger musicians from Europe and America. These collaborations continue well beyond the festival season (which takes place in Dresden in August), with concerts performed throughout the world. In New York festival artists were heard in three Carnegie Hall programmes last September. Moritzburg embodies some of Vogler's ideas about integrated aspects of performance.

'We aim to identify players with a common approach to phasing, colour or any of music's many other qualities. In that way we can build interpretative "families",' he says.

Vogler himself has a very clear idea of how he wants to sound.
'It was always in my mind what a cello should sound like. I wanted to sing on it, and I had the idea of this very transparent, singing but penetrating sound. My sound ideal was placed somewhere between Feuermann, Piatigorsky and Leonard Rose.'

He plays a 1712 Giuseppe 'filius Andrea' Guarneri. 'A friend who was principal in the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra owned it and had a love-hate relationship with it. I only loved it: it seemed to do everything I wanted. It sings, it's extremely penetrating and transparent, rather bright. My friend kept complaining about it screaming, of being scared by it. One day he told me that he had decided to sell it and had already put it with a dealer. I was horrified, but he hadn't thought that I could possibly have afforded it. Me, an East German and the Wall only recently down? But I went to the Dresdener Bank and had a long talk, telling them of my future plans. Someone there must have liked me: they lent me the money. I bought it and everyone thought I was crazy.
I was the first East German musician to do such a thing. But when I played it in Dresden for the first time, in Don Quixote, it was like a new world for me.'
The cello, says Vogler, is 'a very mature partner. It has its own life.' He admits that he talks to the cello, 'mainly when I practise. If I try something three or four times one way, the cello tells me: "try it like this." In the end, I give up maybe 20 per cent of my ideas because the cello has a strong character. I believe in teamwork; you need a partner for everything. Whatever surrounds you is stronger than you. That's why I need lots of practice time, so I know that the cello and I have talked about every bar and agreed. Then, on stage, I can just go.'

Saint Saëns violin concerto no. 3 in b-minor op. 61, cello concerto no. 1 in a-minor op. 33, La muse et le poète op. 132 Mira Wang (violin), Jan Vogler (cello) Hannover Radio Philharmonic Orchestra Thierry Fisher (Conductor) Berlin Classics 0017432BC

Jan Vogler principal cellist of the Dresden Staatskapelle at th eage of 20 has for the past five years devoted himself to a solo career, drawing critical acclaim on concert tours of Europe and North America. His account of the Saint Saëns first cello conserto includes a number of unscripted rubatos and changes of pulse, each playing an important role in shaping his affectionate view of the music.
Apart from a moment of wayward intonation at the opening of the final section, Vogler is technically immaculate; the tricky little cadenza at the score's mid point is perfectly negotiated. He is so obviously enjoying the work that at times there is a reluctance to observe the composer's pianissimo markings, through he is in the company of almoust recorded version.

Mira Wang's performance of the Third Violin Concerto is equally compeiling, the virtuos elements of the score never allowed to divert attention from the gracefulness of the music. She takes an uncommonly tender view of the slow movement and accomplishes the finale's pyrotechnics with such ease that it is the music's happiness that remains in the mind.

The two soloists come together in the delightful La muse et le poète, a title added later at the request of the composer's publisher, the violin being the muse with the cello as the poet. Wang's silvery Strad and Vogler's Andrea Guarnerie could hardly be more ideally cast.

Microphones a tittle too close to the woodwind robs them of really quiet playing, but this is a disc of clear and lucid quality. Recommended.
David Denton

Although the competition in Jan Vogler's chosen repertoire is tough, he more than holds his own with the best in the catalogue. There are, of course, differences of emphasis, partieularly in other versions of Schubert's Arpeggione: Maisky (on DG), for instance uses more rubato, opting for greater intimacy and a more obvious sense of vocalisation while Rostropovieh on Decca takes a generally more expensive view. Vogler, partnered by the fine Bruno Canino, seems to follow the latter, his greatest strength lying in an intense and eloquent shaping of the vocal melodies.

The Brahms Sonata is released swift on the heels of Schiff's outstanding Philips recording, and they are not dissimilar in approach. Again, Vogler s distinetion comes in his searing delivery of line and a compelling intensity. The finale is also a triumph, partieularly with regard to the inherent balance problems, and Vogler s part is clearly articulated with a careful pacing of the coda that loses nothing in drama. The ensuing collection of Brahms song transcriptions continues the underlying idea ofthe vocal qualities in the Arpeggione, and bears the stamp of authority, having been published in Brahms s lifetime by Simrock. Serving as an appropriateiy lyrical foil to the finale of Brahms s Sonata, these Lieder have variety and transcribe weil for the cello, particularly the poignant Minnelied op.71 no.5.