by richard stolley daniel hope will be my guest in just a moment with welcome to the show. well he's one of those musicians who can literally do it all a virtue also from early childhood daniel hope does about 130 concerts a year as a soloist and as a guest conductor he talks about music on his own radio show he writes about it he's deeply political and he even calls himself a musical activist i'm a learn a lot more about him right after this. daniel hope one of his regular concerts in berlin playing an instrument that was made in 1742. for hope history comes alive through music. at a recent concert he spoke of his german jewish grandparents. you know my family came from berlin and they had to leave poland in 1038 so for me it's about going back and say it's a history more than politics is about history i think and remembering history and

of course there are parallels between you know then and now but i think it's also important not to forget. this song from the year 938 is called kind a high much more homeland. it's a song with great relevance to hope's own story. grandparents lived in a mansion in berlin before it was seized by the nazis. the documentary the sound of life tells the pope's decision to move to berlin a few years ago. hope was born in south africa where his grandparents lived in exile. but his father was a vocal opponent of apartheid so the family was forced to move again to england. their hopes mother worked for the famed violinist you hoody men or women who took young daniel under his wing even though the boy was sometimes rebellious he was once caught secretly practicing mendelssohn when he was supposed to be playing.

today daniel hope can play whatever he likes wherever he likes he's in demand at concerts houses around the world. could keep on listening for ever but he has joined me in the studio in the flesh daniel welcome thank you for coming in and congratulations on the new album thank you very much number 17 and it will talk about that in just a moment but 1st i want to know as a self-proclaimed musical activist explain to us what you mean by that and what you what is your mission where you know i believe that music can reach people very early on when i was 13 i took part in something called live music now which you do many uncreated giving young people to go into old age homes or hospitals or to play

for people with handicaps and to learn that music can reach people has a social conscience so i believe that and i've been doing that now for 30 years putting on concerts or playing for people in certain circumstances over remembering people in history i think music has that great power remembering people in history that's literally what you're doing with the period that you've chosen to focus on for your new album benny pucks of the belly pack obviously from the end of the franco-prussian war 971 up to the outbreak of world war one in 1914 that's 40 years that have fascinated you for a very very long time tell us a bit more about. that period and how it was expressed in music i have been obsessed with for a long time and it's a is a period in history we talk about it being all that is sick and beautiful but of course there was a lot that was not there was a huge struggle of poverty rich against poor me i'm evil in your future people and

yet as i'm a great creativity in music in painting in art in science and i wanted to trace with this album some of that extraordinary music the journey that it made from the s. and seventy's until in a sense the breakdown of humanity of those will war and try to get a bit of a flavor of that atmosphere we do have a short expert excerpts and i am going to i've chosen one of your one of the ones you told me was one of our favorite so let's have a short listen to shine bags to a. i mean on her. bringing us bringing your violin. and you playing i got a nerdy violin from the 742 if i'm not mistaken and there's

a very interesting story behind how you got it yeah i got a phone call one day out of the blue from from a lady and she was looking to buy an instrument as an investment and she said if you're interested we'll buy your choice of instrument you can choose any one you want that's not the kind of offer you get every day and i was able to look around and i found this instrument that when they do jay's a 742 the x. the pinsky the face he was a great virtue as in the 19th century the rival of agony he even beat fagen in the in the violin jules in that time. and so one area but the real rival or the student of the students you know he was not as famous in the day no successful and now his instruments are even more so it's often because he didn't make as many it's a gorgeous sense really just very lucky to have it and it does sound wonderful i'd love to hear you play a short piece to see the something from the album or something just out of your out of the blue.

if you let me so i would love to sing along or personally i think i have to talk to you thank you so much for bringing that in so that we can just hear the sounds we heard in the piece about music bringing history to life and i know that you're very mindful of. can help shape this culture of remembrance that we like to monitor in germany you were awarded the federal cross of merit for that in 2017 and you're sensitized to this as a city obviously by your own background and by your great mentor you hoody men i'd like to hear how would you describe the influence that he had on you as such it from such an early age where he was an extraordinary man incredibly generous and open and of course loved music and he loved bringing music to children and so when i expressed an interest as a 4 year old encouraged to help me to find

a teacher and that encouragement i think is the most important thing you know for parents for friends nowadays if a kid is interested in playing an instrument all singing all dancing to try to encourage it if you can because it opens a whole world it opens the soul really. you are of course busy enough with your 2 orchestras your zurich obviously but also one of the guest conductors at san francisco. but you also just took up the president of the beethoven house in bonn very timely just a couple of days ago i guess for the beethoven year tell us about your connection to beethoven and why he is so incredibly important for musicians you know i think for any musician beethoven is kind of like the mount everest we we feel him we love him and we want to conquer him that's what we do and he's so much part of our d.n.a. he's inspired me since i was a little boy since i had his violin concerto when i was 4 years old and the chance

now to work with the bass over the house is the president it's the leading institution in the world 80 scholars we have the best collection of his manuscripts we have his instruments even his violin is amazing and to help take this journey with beethoven now into the next millennium he's i've heard it said a number of instruments or musicians have told me that he's one of those composers that keeps you on your toes all the time you're never really quite a master of his music. i think it's just because he was so far ahead of his time in the same way in bella polk you had these extraordinary figures that were able to break through boundaries and beethoven broke through boundaries like nobody else he was just way out there and so he takes you with him and you do your best to hang on and sometimes you feel you've had a good ride sometimes you think i could have done better always a challenge well you're touring now with the new album belly pok with serious orchestral issue all the best for that and thank you so much for coming and thank you for having us and speak with me today here daniel hope thank you. well now on

to one of the most important and most expensive living artists in fact a work by british painter david hockney just went under the hammer at sotheby's in london this week a celebrated pop art painting the splash sold for 27400000 euros it's one of a trio and considered one of the standout pop images of the 20th century buyer as yet no which is why the opportunity to see his works up close should of course be seized without delay like seeing this major retrospective currently on in hamburg. the grand canyon painted in radiant colors a panorama stretching more than 7 meters if i did into 60 smaller canvases a portrait of the artist parents. again that speaks volumes and such delicate drawings of the artist's friends david hockney paint centrals

whatever moves him and asked them so his entire life. this 1st signature and david hockney is what's fascinating in hockney's work is the never ending curiosity he's always looking for new ways of expressing himself and what occupies him so that one point it's perspectives at another it's capturing time for relationships so it's those various facets of his work are also shown in the media he uses oil paintings drawings graphic works photography. he takes us along with him in this exhibition and each room is something new showing new aspects of his work. and the young artist had a beginning of the sixty's hockney shifted between concrete and abstract art. a turning point was his 1st trip to new york in 1981 aged $24.00 endos kept. he

shows of the indirectly erotic experiences in gay clubs hockney couldn't leave open me as a homosexual because at the time it was still punishable by law was. rude. one of his means of expression is creating paintings based on photographs here his poetry 2 of his friends say a nazi hockney turns the pictures into his version of reality to 2 lovebirds to not look at each other but gaze out to tell us the artist even unloading 7 inside joke he painted one of his own pictures on the living room wall. hockney's work is crazy look at that perspective it doesn't seem right but that's intention. for david hockney all perception is composed from different perspectives and he still pains the same way even at the age of 82 but after all his moto he's only when the ice

stops moving are you dead. saying it and painting it like a season david hockney or sewing in hamburg at the would say the const form until may the 10th that's all for now so until next time all the best from myself and the team here in berlin and i think. when others give up. natalia keeps on fighting. many russian mothers are in similar situations. their sons have run afoul of the country's arbitrary justice our only hope is for the old testament. and she's not

alone. odds because of that. in 30 minutes on d w a enter the conflict zone with tim sebastian. my guest this week here it is the jesuit priest father how his solo for the media exploits closer to abuse of a mother kludgy face the vatican serious about a real challenge for wade continues to provide opportunity as cover for priests who commit these awful food clothes conflict zone. 90 minutes phone d.w. . they were forced into a nameless mass. their bodies near tools. the

history of the slave trade is africa's history. it describes how the before our entropic plummeted an entire continent into chaos and violence the slave system created the greatest planned accumulation of wealth the world had ever seen up to that moment in time this is the journey back into the history of slavery. i think will truly be making progress when we all accept the history of slavery as all of our history. our documentary series slavery routes starts march 9th on d w. m d. this

. china sees its deadliest in the corona virus outbreak health officials. in deaths and infections to new reporting methods the spike raises fears that a virus poses a greater threat to china and the blood. was it

a military necessity all the tragedy. of the most controversial chapters of the 2nd world war the bombing of dresden by the allies.