“It is heavenly music that carries us away to another world,” violinist Lisa Batiashvili says of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major, a description that neatly captures her performance of the piece with the Czech Philharmonic at the orchestra’s season opener. With Semyon Bychkov on the podium, the concerto cast a spell. The conductor brought the audience back down to earth in the second half with Strauss’ An Alpine Symphony, a different sort of journey – variegated, rugged and in its best moments, exhilarating.
For the soloist, Beethoven’s sole violin concerto makes great demands in both skill and sensitivity. Gauzy, ethereal passages alternate with lightning runs, most of which happen in the highest registers of the instrument. Just playing them without sounding squeaky is a challenge. Batiashvili pushed the limits on both ends, showing fierce technical brilliance in the cadenzas while maintaining a solid tone, and evoking ultra-fine textures in the atmospheric interludes that had listeners holding their breaths. The pianissimo passages were spun out like golden threads, delicate and captivating.
Bychkov matched that with a gentle approach in the orchestra, letting the music unfold and the nuances blossom, in particular the pastoral elements that prefigure the Sixth Symphony. The signature characteristics of Beethoven’s work were in place – the buoyancy, nobility and heroic overtones – but balanced nicely with moderate volume and emotional restraint. Those proportions preserved the spirit and depth of the music while giving it a light, transportive quality.
With the many pauses in the solos and fine gradations in the sound, this concerto does not work unless the violinist and conductor are perfectly in synch, and in that respect Bychkov and Batiashvili were outstanding. Her passion and his control, the fiery arpeggios framed by the refined melodic flow, created a tightly woven, richly detailed tapestry. The natural elegance in Batiashvili’s style added a fine gilding to the edges.