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.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Violin Concerto D major, Op. 61 (42')
— Intermission —
Richard Strauss
An Alpine Symphony, Op. 64 (47')
Lisa Batiashvili violin
Semyon Bychkov conductor
Czech Philharmonic
“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.
The cameras in the auditorium record the first opening concert for a live broadcast on the Czech TV art channel and the second opening concert for a live broadcast on TV Mezzo Live HD.
