Andris Nelsons conducts Beethoven, Gubaidulina and Strauss

Andris Nelsons (photo: Marco Borggreve)

Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony is performed much less frequently than the heroic Third Symphony and the fateful Fifth Symphony. Unjustly so, because the work’s originality, humour, and spirit are truly captivating. Andris Nelsons, kapellmeister of the Gewandhaus Orchestra and music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, presents the symphony alongside Strauss’ Don Juan, a tone poem full of energy and sophisticated timbres. And Baiba Skride plays Sofia Gubaidulina’s violin concerto Dialog: Ich und Du – an intense, sometimes meditative, sometimes apocalyptic dialogue between solo and orchestra.

Berliner Philharmoniker

Andris Nelsons conductor

Baiba Skride violin

Ludwig van Beethoven

Symphony No. 4 in B flat major, op. 60

Sofia Gubaidulina

Dialogue: I and You, Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 3

Baiba Skride violin

Richard Strauss

Don Juan, op. 20

Dates and Tickets

Biographies

Andris Nelsons

Andris Nelsons is one of the most important conductors of the younger generation. He leads two of the world's leading orchestras: the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. His choice of a career as a conductor was partly due to chance. At the age of 18, the son of a Latvian family of musicians became a trumpeter at the National Opera in Riga. Then a tooth was knocked out during a taekwondo fight, prompting a change of direction. Conducting studies with Alexander Titov in St. Petersburg followed; there were masterclasses with Neeme Järvi and Jorma Panula, and an encounter with Mariss Jansons, who became his most important mentor. Nelsons' career initially took him to principal positions at the Latvian National Opera and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Today he regularly conducts orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Vienna Philharmonic. He is passionately dedicated to a wide variety of musical styles. Whether Viennese classical, romantic, modern or contemporary - Andris Nelsons conveys strong emotions through his conducting. He takes a planned approach: "My whole life as a conductor consists of finding the places where energy, technical help, or support are needed, so that the orchestra achieves the best possible musical result."

Baiba Skride

According to the New York Times, Baiba Skride masters technical challenges "brilliantly" - and does so with sensitivity, passion and a distinctive variety of tone colours. Skride traces much of her professional ambition back to the living conditions in her Latvian homeland, which was part of the Soviet Union when she was a teenager: "If you wanted to be allowed to go abroad, you had to win competitions - first the school competition, then the city competition and finally the national competition. Only then did you have the chance to get to the other side of the Iron Curtain. The desire to get out was so great that you started working towards it as a child." At the age of 14, Baiba Skride entered Petru Munteanu's class at the Rostock University of Music and Drama. Six years later, she won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels and launched her international career. Today, the musician performs with all the leading international orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, with whom she has performed regularly since her debut in 2010 - usually alongside Andris Nelsons. The violinist can also be heard as a chamber musician in the most famous concert halls, including with her Skride Quartet, founded in 2016, and her sister, the pianist Lauma Skride.

Baiba Skride (photo: Marco Broggreve)

Steinerne Wand mit Kriegerstatuen, rot einfgefärbt

History

The “Don Juan” conflict

Portrait

Composer Sofia Gubaidulina