Daniel Harding replaces Daniel Barenboim, who has had to cancel for health reasons.
Concert information
Info
“This concert will be the highlight of my life,” says Lisa Batiashvili. In the picturesque setting of the Tsinandali estate, our Artist in Residence performs Brahms’ Violin Concerto under the baton of Daniel Harding. The Berliner Philharmoniker’s concert is something very special, and not just for the Georgian-born artist: this is the first time that a top European orchestra has performed in Georgia, a candidate for EU membership. At the same time, this performance aims to initiate closer co-operation between the country’s rich classical music scene and leading orchestras and cultural institutions in Europe. Last but not least, it is a strong sign of solidarity with the country in the context of the Ukraine conflict.
Artists
Berliner Philharmoniker
Daniel Harding conductor (replacing Daniel Barenboim)
Lisa Batiashvili violin
Programme
Franz Schubert
Die Zauberharfe, D 644: Overture
Johannes Brahms
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, op. 77
Lisa Batiashvili violin
Interval
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67
Additional information
Kindly supported by: Deutsche Postcode Lotterie, Friends of the Berliner Philharmoniker e. V. and Siemens AG.
Amphitheatre Tsinandali, Georgia
Biographies
Daniel Harding
Daniel Harding has been principal conductor of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2007 – a remarkably long partnership. "It's very satisfying to build something up slowly," he says. The English conductor, who will lead the orchestra and choir of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome from October 2024, also works with top international orchestras such as the Berliner Philharmoniker and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Concertgebouw Orchestra and leading orchestras in the USA.
Harding attracted attention early in his career as assistant to Sir Simon Rattle with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. This was followed by an assistantship with Claudio Abbado and the Berliner Philharmoniker, where Harding conducted for the first time in 1996. In the same year, he made his debut at the BBC Proms in London - as the youngest conductor in the history of the festival. By the time he was 30, Harding had conducted every major orchestra in the world. In 2011, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra appointed him Honorary Conductor for Life. He was Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris from 2016 to 2019 and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra from 2007 to 2017. But Daniel Harding has another passion: he has also been working as a pilot since 2018. For him, making music and flying complement each other: "I wanted to find something that would challenge other areas of my brain."
Lisa Batiashvili
Lisa Batiashvili's playing is acclaimed for its wonderful, nuanced tone, and the praise is well-founded. She says: "Many musicians think that the beauty of the sound is less important than the expression. You need that, too. But for me, the sound of the violin - like the human voice - reflects the soul of the musician." Lisa Batiashvili, who studied with Mark Lubotsky in Hamburg and Ana Chumachenco in Munich, is without a doubt one of the world's most renowned violinists.
She regularly works with orchestras such as the Vienna Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and has also been a regular guest with the Berliner Philharmoniker since 2004. The partnership will be further intensified in the 2023/24 season when Lisa Batiashvili appears as the orchestra's Artist-in-Residence, both as a soloist and as a chamber musician. The German-born Georgian musician, who received an honorary doctorate from the Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts in Helsinki in 2018, set up her own foundation in 2021, in which she is committed to supporting young, highly talented Georgian musicians. Lisa Batiashvili plays a violin from 1739 by Joseph Guarneri "del Gesu". Her recordings - Secret Love Letters and City Lights are her most recent albums - have won numerous prizes, including the Echo Klassik and the Midem Classical Award.