What happened there? Our KHO members share the story behind a snapshot taken before the concert—this time with violinist Jana Krämer-Forster and tour memories.

That was last year, backstage whilst on tour in Antwerp. Together with Christoph Kulicke and Evgeny Vapnyarsky, I'm looking at old photos and we are delighted that we’re still playing together with the same line-up as a few years ago when we played there as well. So we spontaneously took another photo like that straight away. Sometimes we also take photos of the whole second violin section on stage. So that we can see later on who was there. For example, our colleagues who have since retired.

We’ve been a very stable section for years and know each other quite well by now. We also enjoy celebrating together: for example, when someone new has been offered a posistion, it’s customary for us to celebrate their induction as a section. After all, getting a position in an orchestra is a major event. And we celebrate departures in the same way. Our now-retired Associatiate Concertmaster, Stefan Markowski, always organised a big summer party for us second violins in his beautiful garden, often including our families.

As orchestral musicians, we have the privilege of being able to select our colleagues ourselves through auditions. We do this collectively and very carefully, and we place great importance on reaching a good consensus so that there is hardly any turnover within the section. 

Sometimes someone has a fixed-term contract or an academy position with us and then goes on to take up a permanent post elsewhere. When we tour and play at their new location, former members often come to the concert. We’re always delighted when that happens, and it really shows just how good the atmosphere is within the section.

Second violin memories: Jana Krämer-Forster and Narie Lee in 2013, sharing a music stand - photographed during a rehearsal by Marco Borggreve.

Many of us absolutely love going on orchestra tours; I certainly do. Among my favourites are the tours of Asia, but I’ve also found the trips around Germany and Europe in recent years to be fascinating.

Mahler’s Fifth Symphony is a special work for me. Music is like a scent – it instantly brings back memories of places or moments. We’ve performed the Fifth both at Suntory Hall in Tokyo and, just this year, at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg – two of the most magnificent concert halls in the world. In my mind, those memories are intertwined.

The fourth movement, the “Adagietto”, is a beautiful piece of music that I truly love for its delicate, intricate beauty. It is only played by the strings and the harp. As a second violinist, I am delighted that we play such a significant role, both in terms of sound and structure. We enrich the sound, blend harmony and melody, and contribute to that ethereal and intimate atmosphere that makes this movement one of the most famous slow movements in orchestral repertoire.

Jana Krämer-Forster during a rehearsal of our Horenstein Ensemble (c) Simon Pauly