The 2026/27 season opens with a concert by Arabella Steinbacher. The world-renowned soloist will present works by Gershwin, Saint-Saëns and others.
Season opening
"La Danse, L'Opera, Le Ballet"
Arabella Steinbacher, violin
Peter von Wienhardt, piano
George Gershwin: - Porgy and Bess - Excerpts (arr. Jascha Heifetz)
(1898-1937)
- An American in Paris (arr. Jascha Heifetz)
Camille Saint-Saëns: - Havanaise op. 83
(1835-1921)
- Rondo Capriccioso op. 28
Manuel de Falla: - Danse Espagnole (arr. Fritz Kreisler)
(1876-1946)
- Fire Dance (arr. Peter von Wienhardt (PvW))
-
Sergei Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet - Excerpts (arr. PvW)
(1891-1953)
Richard Strauss: "Aber der Richtige" from the opera "Arabella" (arr. PvW)
(1864-1949)
- Waltz from "Der Rosenkavalier" (arr. Váša Přihoda)
Aram Khachaturian: Adagio from the ballet "Spartakus" (arr. PvW)
(1903-1978)
- Sabre dance from the ballet "Gayaneh" (arr. Jascha Heifetz)
Arabella Steinbacher
Arabella Steinbacher, who is celebrated as one of the leading soloists of our time, is known for her extraordinarily diverse repertoire, which includes the highlights of the Classical and Romantic periods as well as modernist concert works by Barber, Berg, Britten, Bruch, Gubaidulina, Hindemith, Korngold, Milhaud, Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Sibelius.
Arabella Steinbacher opens the 2026/27 season with works by George Gershwin, Camille Saint-Saëns, Sergei Prokofiev and Richard Strauss at the Villa Papendorf.
Further engagements take her around the world. Arabella Steinbacher has worked with the New York Philharmonic, the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. She has performed with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra London, the Orchestre National de France, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. She has also toured with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg and the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken. Arabella Steinbacher has worked with conductors such as Marin Alsop, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnányi, Christoph Eschenbach, Lawrence Foster, Marek Janowski, Vladimir Jurowski, Fabio Luisi, Zubin Mehta, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Kirill Petrenko, John Storgårds and Kazuki Yamada.
Her extensive discography impresses with a diverse repertoire. Arabella Steinbacher's latest recording for the Pentatone label, for which she records exclusively, was released in spring 2025 and features Georges Lentz's violin concerto "...to beam in distant heavens..." paired with Beethoven's violin concerto. Born into a family of musicians, Arabella Steinbacher played the violin from the age of three and studied with Ana Chumachenco at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Munich from the age of eight.Arabella Steinbacher plays the Stradivari violins Cremona 1718, known as "ex Benno Walter", and the Guarneri del Gesu "Sainton", Cremona 1744; both are made available to her with the generous support of a private Swiss foundation.
Pieter von Wienhardt
Peter von Wienhardt, born in Budapest in 1966, grew up in Germany and has traveled (almost) the whole world as a musician. He has won many prizes (including the Cziffra-Liszt, Deutscher Musikrat, Echo Klassik, etc.) and has released numerous recordings to date, both as a soloist and with orchestras and chamber music artists. Wienhardt's specialty is to constantly explore new musical horizons. Information, improvisation, recomposition and cadencing have not only become part of his life, but also of his music. Life and music are a journey and change. His technical and sight-reading skills have enabled him to build up an enormous repertoire; his artistic interest is therefore increasingly devoted to lesser-known works. Since 2006 he has held a professorship for piano and crossover in Münster and is the artistic director of the Aaseerenaden Münster.
