CLASSICAL MUSIC ROYALTY COMES TO TASMANIA…with husband and wife team, Raphael and Elizabeth Wallfisch
Wallfisch & Wallfisch might sound like a law firm, but in fact it is the name of an upcoming Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra concert showcasing husband and wife team, Raphael and Elizabeth Wallfisch.
The internationally renowned couple – Elizabeth Wallfisch is a violinist who specialises in 18th-century music and Raphael Wallfisch is an eminent cellist – maintain separate careers and rarely appear in concert together, which is all the more reason to catch them with the TSO.
“Raphael and Elizabeth Wallfisch are classical music royalty,” said John Pugsley, Deputy CEO of the TSO.
“British musician, Raphael is the son of Holocaust survivor Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, who was a famous cellist in her own right, and pianist Peter Wallfisch. And Elizabeth, who is Australian, is the daughter of oboist Tamara Coates who herself was the daughter of Anglo-Russian composer and conductor, Albert Coates.
“So in a way the law firm connotations of Wallfisch & Wallfisch are not altogether wrong as this is also a family firm, albeit a very famous musical one.”
The family’s musical glory has been carried through to their three children, Benjamin, Simon and Johanna Wallfisch, who are all outstanding musicians in their own right.
Just recently father and son, Raphael and Benjamin, released a CD with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Schelomo, highlighting the family’s Jewish heritage and featuring music by Maurice Ravel and Ernest Bloch.
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, Raphael’s mother and Benjamin’s grandmother, played cello in the women’s orchestra at Auschwitz and only survived the notorious extermination camp thanks to her role as a musician.
Anita Lasker-Wallfisch moved to the United Kingdom after the war where she met and married pianist Peter Wallfisch.
Tragically, other members of her family, including her parents, were not so lucky and the CD, Schelomo, is dedicated to the many family members who were killed in the Holocaust.
Melbourne-born violinist Elizabeth Wallfisch (née Hunt) met her future husband as a teenager when they were both students at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
Some years later Elizabeth Wallfisch became interested in 18th-century violin technique and repertoire, and she has since become a leading authority on music of this era.
It is particularly fitting that the concert with the TSO, in which she will both play and direct the ensemble, is made up entirely of 18th-century music, with works by Joseph Haydn and two of the sons of Johann Sebastian Bach, Carl Philip Emanuel and Johann Christian.
In Wallfisch & Wallfisch, Elizabeth Wallfisch will appear as soloist in Haydn’s Violin Concerto in C and Raphael Wallfisch will appear as soloist in the Cello Concerto in A minor by Carl Philip Emanuel Bach.
“It’s not often that you get to hear two concertos in one night and rarely do you get the chance to hear two amazing soloists playing them,” said John Pugsley.
WALLFISCH & WALLFISCH
Friday 27 June, 7.30pm
Federation Concert Hall, Hobart
Buy tickets here
Saturday 28 June, 7.30pm
Albert Hall, Launceston
Buy tickets here
Elizabeth Wallfisch director & violin
Raphael Wallfisch cello
J C BACH Grand Overture in D major, Op 18 No 6
HAYDN Violin Concerto in C
C P E BACH Cello Concerto in A minor
HAYDN Symphony No 93