Sibelius’ Violin Concerto, says Christian Tetzlaff, captures the human heart

After nearly 45 years of public performances, the biggest change for German violinist Christian Tetzlaff is simply reaching a point where he feels completely comfortable onstage.

“For most of us that takes a while,“ said Tetzlaff, now 58. ”When you are 20, and you start this solo playing, there is quite a bit attention to how you do it, and who you are and what orchestras you’ve been with and so on. None of this applies anymore. Now I play a concert, and the feeling is that I’ve done it all the time. Some people like it, and some people don’t.”

As Tetzlaff will no doubt demonstrate when he returns Feb. 14-16 to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he becomes so engaged with the music that he enters what he describes as a “state of elation or trance,” setting aside all worries about control or how good an artist he is.

“So that’s a change that goes on continuously and is a great pleasure,” Tetzlaff said of his artistic evolution.

The violinist will join guest conductor David Afkham in Jean Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D Minor. Op. 47 (1904-05), one of the most famous and oft-played works in the form. It is one of Tetzlaff’s favorite concertos, because it contains what he calls the “wildness of the human heart.”

While there are certain “wild bits” in the concertos of, say, Brahms and Tchaikovsky, Tetzlaff believes the Sibelius is different, because it offers the element of “someone fiddling for his life,” an effect he ultimately finds quite touching. 

“It’s virtuosic but not the showy virtuosity of Paganini,” Tetzlaff said of the concerto. “It’s very deep. Especially in the last movement, it seems like a death dance — fiddling against fate. In the end, he overcomes it with the last screams. It is a huge human utterance. Everything is totally meaningful and wild in a desperate way.” 

Tetzlaff, who regularly performs on many of the world’s most important stages, said he is gratified to be invited to return regularly to the CSO. “It’s a great orchestra,” he said. “And we have done quite wonderful things. I love the hall as well.’

He also had praise for the city of Chicago, and he was very quick to say that he was not offering perfunctory compliments just because he happens to be coming back soon. For many of his visits, he has made a point of bringing one or more of his four children with him so they can experience the city and all the attractions it has to offer.

“One can be so well there and one can do such nice things,” he said of Chicago. “So that’s an added bonus.”

Many renowned soloists occasionally perform chamber music, but they devote the vast majority of their attention to higher-profile orchestral concerts and solo recitals. Tetzlaff also dedicates a major portion of his schedule to those latter realms, but he makes a point each of year of allotting considerable time to tours with his two chamber-music groups, the Tetzlaff Quartet and the Tetzlaff/Tetzlaff/Doerken Trio.

For him, performing music in as wide a range of forms as possible makes sense because it gives him access to more great music than would be possible if he just stuck to concertos or duo sonatas. He can’t understand why all his fellow violin soloists wouldn’t want to regularly play the late Beethoven quartets or Berg’s Lyric Suite.

“I try to share with my audience all sides of a composer,” Tetzlaff said. “It just a matter of joy and of a need to be so intimate. There are intimate moments in Beethoven and Brahms concertos, but to be in a smaller room and really talk with the audience and each other [as is possible in chamber music], that is a very different cup of tea. Everybody who knows how to play the violin should be doing exactly that. It’s a little less money and little less prestige, but after a while of soloing, this shouldn’t be such be such an important part of it.”

The Tetzlaff Quartet, which marked its 30th anniversary in 2024, is performing five concerts in Europe and then eight in the United States in March, including a stop at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

In addition to Tetzlaff’s sister, Tanja, a cellist, the group consists of violinist Elisabeth Kufferath and violist Hanna Weinmeister. The Tetzlaffs met the other two musicians at a chamber-music festival in 1992 and began performing together two years later.

The group typically does two tours a year, far fewer than full-time groups like the Takács or Calidore quartets, but those limited itineraries have nonetheless added up to scores of concerts worldwide across its three-decade history.

“We feel like a real group without the tensions,” he said, alluding to the stress of having to be on the road for as many as 100 concerts a year and to spend so much time with three other people. “That’s one of the reasons we are one of the longest-standing quartets that still plays in its original formation.”

He also performs with a trio that consists of Tanja, as well as pianist Kiveli Doerken. The group originally featured Lars Vogt as its pianist, but he died in 2022 of cancer at age 52 — a loss with which Tetzlaff still struggles.

In addition to performing in the trio, Vogt also served as Tetzlaff’s regular duo partner (the two performed together at Symphony Center in October 2019) and was what the violinist called his “one buddy” and “close friend.”

“Every time I see something that I find funny or sad or exciting, I still want to text and connect with him, but in music, it is possible to go on,” he said.

Doerken was one of Vogt’s students, and Tetzlaff said she is “carrying his torch” with a similar pianistic approach. “So we are happily continuing to play trios,” he said. “Of course, it is completely different, but for all of us, it feels like a continuation in some way."