PAAVO JÄRVI direction
LISA BATIASHVILI Violin
Ludwig van Beethoven Violin Concerto in D major op. 61
Sergei Prokofiev Symphony No. 5 in B flat major op. 100
How can music proclaim visions of a better world? The Concertgebouw Orchestra provides two answers in its upcoming concert on Monday, February 20, 2023, at 8 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Alte Oper Frankfurt. For Sergei Prokofiev's fifth symphony was nothing less than a song to a free and happy man. And the music of Ludwig van Beethoven also always reflects the message of humanism, the demand for freedom, justice and self-determination is audible. For its evening at the Alte Oper, the Concertgebouw Orchestra under the direction of Paavo Järvi pairs Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony with Beethoven's only contribution to the genre of the violin concerto. The solo part in it will be played by violinist Lisa Batiashvili, who has felt a special connection with the work since she first played it at age 18. She feels, she said, such love and warmth for what she considers a "heavenly" work that she wants to play it over and over again, even though it presents its own special challenges for the violin, being both easy and difficult at the same time. How, for example, is one of the challenges of the Beethoven Violin Concerto for her, can its many simple scales be shaped in such a way that real music emerges from them?
With the Concertgebouworkest, Lisa Batiashvili has a very familiar orchestra at her side. Over the past two decades, the Georgian-born violinist has performed with the Amsterdam orchestra dozens of times, and since her artist residency in the 2016/17 season, she has once again become particularly attached to it.
