Christoph Poppen

Christoph Poppen (born 9 March 1956) is a German conductor, violinist and academic teacher.

Poppen was born in Münster. As a violinist, he was awarded first prize in the Kocian Violin Competition age 14. He studied the violin with Kurt Schäffer at the Robert Schumann Hochschule, later with Oscar Shumsky, Nathan Milstein, and Joseph Gingold.

In 1978, Poppen founded the Cherubini Quartet, winning in 1981 at the international string quartet competition in Evian. He was the conductor of the chamber orchestra Detmolder Kammerorchester from 1989 to 1995. He then succeeded Hans Stadlmair as the conductor and artistic director of the Münchener Kammerorchester. In collaboration with ECM he recorded with the orchestra contemporary music of composers such as Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Tigran Mansurian, Anton Webern, Sofia Gubaidulina, Giacinto Scelsi, Valentin Silvestrov and Barry Guy. As a violinist, he recorded in 2000 works of Johann Sebastian Bach with the Hilliard Ensemble. The title Morimur (We shall die) stands for a juxtaposition of Bach's Partita for Violin No. 2, which is related to Easter according to scholar Helga Thoene, and interspersed chorales, some from his cantatas and Passions. The Partita's final Ciaconna is performed twice, once with the chorale which Bach may have had in mind, along with the violin music. The recording was described as ...