Opening concert of the Czech Philhamonic

ABOUT THE CONCERT

The opening of the season is a gala event and deserves something special. The combination of works by Beethoven and Strauss with extra-musical associations meets this requirement, and with wonderful interpretations by the marvellous violinist Lisa Batiashvili and the Czech Philharmonic with Semyon Bychkov, these will be a truly special evenings.

“There is an interesting connection between Beethoven’s Violin Concerto and Strauss’s Alpine Symphony. The concerto is musically very closely tied to nature, and of course even just the title of the Alpine Symphony clearly suggests a work about nature. But that is actually a mistake because Strauss only uses nature as a metaphor for the life’s journey of a person from birth to death and for what happens to him along the way. So the Alpine Symphony is not about going through the forest or what you hear in the mountains. Everything in it operates as a story of the experiencing of human life. It is an absolutely existential work”, explains Maestro Semyon Bychkov.

PROGRAM

Ludwig van Beethoven
Violin Concerto D major, Op. 61

Richard Strauss
An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64

PERFORMERS

Lisa Batiashvili violin

Semyon Bychkov conductor

Czech Philharmonic