Peter Guth

Violinist & Conductor


Guth is surely the most stylish Straussian around these days“
                                                               
Gramophone, London
 

The incomparable way of sweeping musicians and audiences along, conducting in the tradition of Johann Strauss while playing the violin, has made him internationally known.

He conveys the joy of music wherever he appears. Repeatedly invited as a guest conductor and sought after specialist for Viennese music by more than hundred renowned symphony orchestras and important festivals, he has made an exceptional career in the musical centres of the world. Concert series and TV-Galas associate him in frequent cooperation with many famous top-orchestras, like the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, the San Francisco Symphony, the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, the English Chamber Orchestra, or the Moscow Virtuosi.

In his considerable number of recordings, the first CD-presentation with music by the Danish “Strauss of the North” Hans Christian Lumbye won the British Music Retailers Award and his recordings with the RSO Vienna were rated as "the best of the Marco Polo-Strauss Edition.

1978 he founded his "Strauss Festival Orchestra Vienna"and was able to establish it with worldwide tours, CD- and DVD-recordings as international top ensemble for Viennese music.

He gets acclaim with his colleagues for their annual "Strauss-Galas" at New Year in the Wiener Konzerthaus,since many years in Asia (Japan, South Korea, PR China, Taiwan) and recently with concert-tours in Russia and Eastern Europe.

Peter Guth performs frequently also with his smaller ensemble the equally successful. "Vienna Strauss Soloists", who bring this music with eighteen to twenty-four musicians, in similar formation as used by Johann Strauss, to a sweeping swing and enthusiasm."

He has accompanied many prominent vocal-soloists, was music director of the first "Vienna Operetta Festival" in Japan and conducted new operetta-productions at international opera houses. Several times he directed New Year’s Concerts in the Tokyo Suntory Hall.

In the New York Lincoln Centerand the Los Angeles Walt Disney Concert Hall he performed for the US-Canadian concert series “Salute to Vienna” who presented him as artistic director also for their TV-Galas in Vienna, in 1999 with Gregory Peck as host and in 2013 for the US TV-Company PBSwith Maximilian Schell and Frederica von Stade.


He has accompanied many prominent vocal-soloists, was music director of the first "Vienna Operetta Festival" in Japan and conducted new operetta-productions at international opera houses. Several times he directed New Year’s Concerts in the Tokyo Suntory Hall.

In the New York Lincoln Centerand the Los Angeles Walt Disney Concert Hallhe performed for the US-Canadian concert series “Salute to Vienna” who presented him as artistic director also for theirTV-Galas in Vienna, in 1999 with Gregory Peck as host and in 2013 for the US TV-Company PBSwith Maximilian Schell and Frederica von Stade.

Peter Guth’s authentic interpretation of music by Johann Strauss is appreciated also in Russia. In Moscow in the Grand Hall of the Conservatorium, in Tchaikovsky-Hall, in the International Performing Arts Center - Dom Musiki, or at the opening of the "Vienna Days". In concerts with the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia, or at the summer festival “The Grand Waltz”of the Hermitage Museum.

In2007 he was appointed as first guest conductor at the Saint Petersburg State Theatre of Musical Comedy, where he directs several new operetta-productions, as well as annual galas with international stars.
With the world-famous ensemble "Moscow Virtuosi"of Vladimir Spivakov he is invited in regular cooperation since 2012 for concerts in Moscow and other Russian cities. 

After his education in Vienna at the "Academy of Music and Performing Arts", Peter Guth studied three years with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and was internationally successful as a soloist and with the"Vienna Trio (1st prize at the ARD-Competition Munich 1961)". Educational work, publications on modern violin methodology, an active concern for new music, as well as his earlier position as first concertmaster of the RSO Vienna give a comprehensive picture of this versatile, well-known Austrian artist. In 2006 he was awarded the "Golden Sign of Merit" of the Vienna County.


In any case of publication the author of the image should be mentioned (© Nancy Horowitz).