Danjulo Ishizaka

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Danjulo Ishizaka
Born(1979-03-14)14 March 1979
Bonn, Germany
Other names石坂 団十郎
OccupationCellist

Danjulo Ishizaka (born 14 May 1979) is a German cellist and professor at the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber Dresden.

Life[]

Ishizaka, born in Bonn, Germany, is the son of the German piano teacher Ruth Nathrath and Japanese immigrant Junkichi Ishizaka. His sister is the pianist Kimiko Douglass-Ishizaka. He began taking cello lessons at the age of 4. He was a student of Boris Pergamenschikow in Berlin from 1998 until Pergamenschikow's death in 2004, at which point he completed his studies with Tabea Zimmermann.

Work[]

Danjulo Ishizaka has been a soloist with many orchestras, including the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, all 5 BBC Orchestras, the Orchestre de l'Opéra national de Paris, the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under directors including Gerd Albrecht, Andrew Davis, Christoph Eschenbach, Lawrence Foster, Michail and Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Roger Norrington, Mstislaw Rostropovich and Leonard Slatkin. He has further performed with artists including Gidon Kremer, Lisa Batiashvili, Viviane Hagner, Tabea Zimmermann, Julia Fischer, Baiba Skride, Antje Weithaas, Veronika Eberle, Martin Helmchen and Ray Chen. His international debut took place with the Vienna Symphony in the Wiener Musikverein under direction of Krzysztof Penderecki. The cellist Mstislaw Rostropovich described Danjulo Ishizaka's artistry with the words: "phenomenal in his technical abilities, perfect in his power of interpretation."[1]

From 2004 to 2013, Danjulo Ishizaka played the Stradivarius "Lord Aylesford", previously played by Janos Starker, and later played the De Munck-Feuermann (1730). Both celli were provided to him by the Nippon Music Foundation. Ishizaka also plays the Schnabl "Pergamenschikow" cello, provided to him by the Kronberg Academy.

Awards[]

In 2006 his debut CD recording was released by Sony, and received the Echo Klassik of the . In 2007–2008, Ishizaka was chosen for the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme. In 2012 he was awarded the Hideo Saito Memorial Fund Award,[4] one of the most prestiged music awards in Japan, given by the Sony Music Foundation in Tokyo.

Ishizaka's 2013 collaboration with the Pavel Haas Quartet was awarded a Gramophone Award for the Chamber category in 2014.[5] "In the Quintet they have the perfect partner in cellist Danjulo Ishizaka – and there’s no sense of a quartet plus one"[6]

Discography[]

Mendelssohn, Britten, Franck: Cello Sonatas (Danjulo Ishizaka, Cello; Martin Helmchen, Piano)

  • Released: 2005
  • Format: CD
  • Label: Sony Classical (Sony Music)

Schubert: String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, "Death and the Maiden", String Quintet in C Major (Pavel Haas Quartet with Danjulo Ishizaka)

  • Released: 2013
  • Format: CD
  • Label: Supraphon

Grieg, Janácek, Kodály (Danjulo Ishizaka, Cello; Shai Wosner, Piano)

  • Released: 2014
  • Format: CD
  • Label: Onyx
  • Producer: Christoph Franke

Reviews[]

"The only area in which there seems to be no contrast or conflict is over his prodigious technique, and to hear him live is to appreciate not only how free of any technical boundaries he is but also how that has translated into his performances as a disarming lack of egotism."[7]

"Ishizaka is simply sensational in Kodály’s Solo Sonata. He proves masterly in creating cogency with what can often seem quite rhapsodic material."[8]

"Ishizaka also gives us a cogent, virtuoso reading of Kodály's magnificent, soulful Solo Cello Sonata. This is a terrifying piece to play, a work which, in Ishizaka's words, “demolishes the limits of what was thought technically possible on the cello at the time.” The last movement's pyrotechnics are dazzling, but the sonata's sparer, haunted passages are equally effective – the slow movement's dark opening is marvellous in Ishizaka's hands. A superb recital."[9]

References[]

  1. ^ "Society for the Friends of Culture, Beyreuth". Archived from the original on 16 October 2014. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  2. ^ "Lutoslawski Competition". Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  3. ^ "Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann". Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  4. ^ Sony Music Foundation, 12th Hideo Saito Memorial Fund Award
  5. ^ Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2014, Chamber
  6. ^ Harriet Smith's review in Gramophone Magazine
  7. ^ Gramophone Magazine
  8. ^ "The Strad". Archived from the original on 12 October 2014. Retrieved 12 October 2014.
  9. ^ The Arts Desk

Sources[]

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