On March 4, our student Sophie Branson (18) performed Brahms' Violin Concerto in D Major with the Bodensee Philharmonie Konstanz under the baton of its artistic director, Maestro Gabriel Venzago, on the stage of the Tonhalle Zurich. This performance marked 15 years of collaboration with her violin teacher, Liana Tretiakova, who has been teaching her since the age of three.
The Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major is one of the most celebrated and most challenging violin concertos in classical music. Known for its technical difficulty, rich orchestration, and deep expressiveness, it requires exceptional virtuosity, a profound musical understanding, and seamless coordination between the soloist and the orchestra.
Johannes Brahms composed this masterpiece in 1878 and dedicated it to Joseph Joachim, one of the greatest violinists of the 19th century and a close friend. On January 1, 1879, Joachim premiered the concerto at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Germany, performing with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra under the baton of Brahms himself.
Throughout history, Brahms’ Concerto has been performed by many legendary violinists at various stages of their careers. For example, David Oistrakh played it at the Royal Albert Hall in London, while Itzhak Perlman performed it at the Musikverein in Vienna and many other prestigious venues.
Beyond technical mastery, the concerto demands emotional maturity, which is why it has rarely been performed by teenage soloists. Even Joseph Joachim, for whom Brahms wrote the concerto, premiered it at 47.
When Alexander Aviv, founder of the Klassifest concert agency, approached the Zakhar Bron School of Music almost two years ago with the idea of 18-year-old Sophie Branson performing this masterpiece on the stage of the Tonhalle Zurich he clearly intended to create a sensation in the classical music world.
For both Sophie and her violin teacher, Liana, this was a tremendous challenge—perhaps the greatest they had ever faced. Yet, it also presented a great opportunity, and they decided to embrace it.
The preparation for this one evening’s performance took over a year. It involved 6–7 hours of daily practice at home, at least three violin lessons per week with Liana, and regular masterclasses with Professor Bron, who paid meticulous attention to even the tiniest details of the concerto. In addition, Sophie had multiple run-throughs and local concerts with piano accompaniment. The final stage of preparation consisted of rehearsals and performances with orchestras in various countries.
In May 2024, Sophie performed the second and third movements of the concerto in Moldova on stage with the National Symphony Orchestra. Six months later, in November, she played the first movement with the same orchestra. Then, three weeks before her concert at the Tonhalle, she performed the entire Brahms Violin Concerto for the first time in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, with the Sofia Sinfonietta Orchestra.
When the time came to perform on stage at the Tonhalle Zurich, Sophie was fully prepared and confident. She delivered a brilliant performance of the concerto. Despite her young age, her playing displayed remarkable maturity, characterized by deep musical understanding, masterful control of tone and vibrato, and a strong sense of musical form.
After the concert, the audience, captivated by her performance, responded with heartfelt enthusiasm, calling Sophie back on stage for an encore. She received prolonged applause, warm congratulations, and numerous flowers. In the end, even Mr. Aviv stepped onto the stage himself. Amid the continued applause, he warmly congratulated Sophie and praised her for a fantastic performance.
The day before the concert, the Swiss radio stations ‘SRF 1’ and ‘SRF 2 Kultur’ broadcast an interview with Sophie, in which she said, laughing: ‘This is really the life I want to live. I travel a lot around the world and see many things. It’s a lot of fun!’
Let’s be honest: practicing the violin for 6–7 hours a day—every day, including weekends and holidays—isn’t exactly how most people imagine a teenager’s life. There’s also school to attend, so to save time, Sophie switched from traditional in-person studies to online education at a school in England that follows the Cambridge education system.
Yet, this is what it takes to become a successful violin soloist: starting at the age of three to five, studying the violin, practicing for hours every single day for fifteen to twenty years, and performing at concerts all over the world. Shockingly enough, success is still not guaranteed. Nevertheless, Sophie chose this path, and at the Zakhar Bron School of Music, we have been doing our best to provide her with all the support possible.
In conclusion, we’d like to express our heartfelt gratitude to:
We deeply appreciate the dedication, passion, and support of everyone who contributed to making this extraordinary performance possible.
The Tonhalle Zurich is one of the most prestigious concert halls in the world—alongside the Royal Albert Hall in London, Carnegie Hall in New York, and the Musikverein in Vienna—and the leading concert venue in Switzerland. Every young musician in Switzerland pursuing a professional career dreams of performing on the Tonhalle stage. However, for only a few, this dream becomes a reality.
Sophie—along with the Zakhar Bron School of Music—made her debut at the sold-out Tonhalle Zurich with the Zurich Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Heiko Mathias Förster in December 2022, at the age of sixteen. On that day, at two Christmas Gala concerts at 14:00 and 18:00, she performed Mozart’s ‘Concerto in G Major’. The audience loved her and called her back to the stage six times.
This month, she performed on the renowned stage for the third time in her life—an achievement that is extremely rare for a musician of her age. So, what’s her next challenge? Surprisingly, Sophie already has an answer: performing on the Tonhalle stage… with the Tonhalle Orchestra!
Let’s wish her best of luck in fulfilling her next dream!
Tags: Liana Tretiakova, Sophie Branson, Tonhalle Zurich
Categories: Concerts with Orchestra
