With this encouragement award, the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation honours outstanding, upcoming string soloists, who follow the strong traditional line of Aida Stucki and thus of the European tradition of playing and education. The future presentation of the Aida Stucki Award, which carries a cash value of 10,000 Euros, is not bound to a fixed rotation, but is decided by the Foundation.
2011: Roman Patkoló is first prize winner
On 3 April 2011, the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation bestowed the "Aida Stucki Award", worth 10,000 Euros, on the contrabassist Roman Patkoló. With this newly established promotional award, the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation honours outstanding young musicians with a special artistic traditional relationship with the violinist and teacher Aida Stucki. "No other musician than Roman Patkoló came into question as the first award winner", says Anne-Sophie Mutter. "His musicality and virtuosity on the contrabass are unparalleled. He is leading this instrument into a new era."
Roman Patkoló, born in Zilina in Slovakia in 1982, began his studies at the Munich University of Music in 1997 and completed them with the Master Class Diploma in 2005. Since February 2005, Roman Patkoló is the acting solo contrabassist at the Zurich Opera House. In 2006, he began his teaching activities at the Munich Music Academy and has held a professorship there since 2007. As a soloist, Roman Patkoló has also performed in Boston, Indianapolis, Lucerne, Basle, St. Petersburg and Moscow as well as together with the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra and the Munich Chamber Orchestra. A member of the contrabass quartet "Bassiona Amorosa", he enjoys great success worldwide with this unusual constellation.
Since 1999, Roman Patkoló has been promoted by the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation, which has meanwhile also expanded the narrow original repertoire for contrabass by three composition assignments: Sir André Previn wrote a concerto for violin, contrabass and orchestra which had its world premiere on 19 April 2007 under the baton of the composer with soloists Anne-Sophie Mutter and Roman Patkoló with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Boston (a recording of which was published on CD by "Deutsche Grammophon".
The "Duo concertante for Violin and Contrabass" by Krzysztof Penderecki was performed for the first time in Hanover on 9 March 2011, and Anne-Sophie Mutter gave life to "Dyade" by Wolfgang Rihm for violin and contrabass together with Roman Patkoló on 3 April 2011.
As part of the second “Mutter’s Virtuosi” tour, which included performances in seven cities in Taiwan, China and South Korea in June 2013, the fourth world premiere by Roman Patkoló and Anne-Sophie Mutter followed: On June 6, they performed Sebastian Currier’s “Ringtone Variations” for the first time – another work commissioned by the Foundation.
2013: The Aida Stucki Prize goes to Daniel Müller-Schott
In October 2013, cellist Daniel Müller-Schott was honoured with the “Aida Stucki Award” in Munich. By bestowing this prize, the Foundation honours “Daniel Müller-Schott for his outstanding contribution to the cello repertoire. It is not only his soloistic abilities that make him a shining role model for an entire generation of young cellists. With a complete absence of vanity, he feels beholden only to the work, and he passes this ethos on to his students as well. Thus, this musician continues a very close artistic traditional line that goes back to the violinist and pedagogue Aida Stucki, who anchored the European tradition of playing and education in the future,” thus the Foundation.
2013: Der Aidai Stucki Preis geht an Daniel Müller-Schott
Im Oktober 2013 wurde der Cellist Daniel Müller-Schott in München mit dem „Aida Stucki Preis“ geehrt. Mit der Preisvergabe würdigt die Stiftung „Daniel Müller-Schott für seinen herausragenden Beitrag für das Cello-Repertoire. Nicht nur sein solistisches Können macht ihn zum strahlenden Vorbild einer ganzen Generation junger Cellisten. Denn er fühlt sich – vollkommen uneitel – nur dem Werk verpflichtet und gibt dieses Ethos auch in der Lehre weiter. Dieser Musiker steht damit in einer ganz besonders engen künstlerischen Traditionslinie zur Geigerin und Pädagogin Aida Stucki, die die europäische Spiel- und Ausbildungstradition in der Zukunft verankerte,“ so die Begründung der Stiftung.
Daniel Müller-Schott is among the world’s best cellists today, at home on all the major international concert stages. For two decades, he has won his audience’s hearts with his “breathtakingly romantic, elegiac cello tone” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) and as “a fearless player with outstanding technique” (The New York Times). His powerful interpretations and winning personality make Daniel Müller-Schott’s concerts unforgettable experiences.
Apart from performing the great cello concerti, Daniel Müller-Schott has a passion for discovering unknown works and expanding the cello repertoire, for example by making his own arrangements and working with composers. Sir André Previn and Peter Ruzicka have dedicated cello concerti to him, both premiered under the baton of the composers themselves. The American premiere of Previn’s Cello Concerto took place at the beginning of 2014. Sebastian Currier has written a Cello Sonata for Daniel Müller-Schott. Olli Mustonen’s Sonata for Cello and Piano was premiered by him together with the composer at Hamburg’s Laeiszhalle.
11/2014