With Kids in Mind, Daniel Müller- Schott and Magdalene Ho dedicated an entire day to a charity that aims to offer hope and healing for disadvantaged children and young people who have escaped domestic violence.
Joining forces with Anne-Sophie Mutter’s Foundation , Daniel one of its first scholarship holders uniting us all in the shared belief in music as a powerful force for connection and humanity .
This first collaboration of a masterclass and concert opens the doors to the international classical community to champion an essential cause uniting artistic excellence with social responsibility.
Masterly music making was tinged with the harrowing testimony from someone whose life and that of her children had been saved from misery by the charity. Children born into lives of deprivation, misery and even abuse are offered specialist therapeutic services and much more besides as they grow stronger and ready to join the community on an equal level.
A masterclass all morning in which Daniel and Magdalene had coached three master students in works by Beethoven, Strauss and Schumann. It is in this intimate situation where words can combine with music, opening doors to a passionate commitment where only music can reach places where words are not enough.
Daniel is a very distinguished cellist with a career that was launched in 1992 when he was only 15 winning first prize in the Tchaikovsky competition for young musicians in Moscow. Magdalene I first heard when she was eighteen when the Royal College of Music suddenly realised they had a star in their midst . At 19 she won the Clara Haskil Competition and now at 21 her genial mastery is being shared with musicians and public worldwide.
Daniel has taken her under his wing and together they are flying high with selfless dedication to music that is their life blood .
With great humility and selfless dedication they offered the day to those whose only fault was to be born into a desperate situation. Realising how fortunate they are, not only to be born with music in their veins, but to have had the opportunity to allow this passion to grow and flower into what we heard today.
Daniel opening the concert with Bach where cleanliness is indeed next to godliness . Bach’s long lines and architectural mastery turning the song and the dance into a journey of a lifetime. Daniel played with aristocratic authority and nobility as the wonderful deep tones of his Goffriller cello of 1727 were allowed to reverberate around the beauty of what is surely one the most imposing concert halls in London.
Joining with Magdalene for a deeply contemplative Arpeggione Sonata where their mutual anticipation drew us in to their most intimate music making . Spontaneous music making where the musical intentions of Schubert had been digested and become their own as they recreated a work with ravishing beauty and beguiling innuendo .
Daniel had generously left the stage to Magdalene where her humility and mastery allowed Schubert’s sublime mellifluous outpouring, helped by Liszt, to ride on a wave of glowing fluidity, where notes became streams of sounds of ravishing beauty and considerable mastery.
After a harrowing tale from wife and mother who with courage and honesty had been saved by the Charity and even more importantly her children saved from a desperate future .
Schumann was soothing balm as Daniel and Magdalene allowed his three Fantasiesücke to pour from their souls with passionate poetic intensity .
Chopin’s Introduction and Polonaise was written by a genial pianistic genius and opens with treacherous flourishes that Magdalene threw off with masterly ease. Paving the way for Daniel’s belcanto leading into the Polonaise of sumptuous exhilaration and excitement .
A standing ovation not only for their music making but what it signifies for so many suffering children waiting in the wings .
Daniel ever generous played Saint-Saens ‘The Swan’, floating on the magic waves of sounds that flowed from Magdalene’s hands .
Music making that reached the heart of all those present and will pave the way for hope and healing for many more Kids in Mind.
Amazing to see a radiant smile on Magdalene’s face obviously very happy with their dedicated music making
ChristopherAxworthy-MusicCommentary 