Name: Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Lisa Batiashvili
Start: 2016-06-23T00:00:00.000Z
End: 2016-06-23T00:00:00.000Z
Location: Berliner Philharmonie

Organization

Conductor

Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Bass

Mikhail Petrenko

Orchestra

Berliner Philharmoniker

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Lisa Batiashvili

Berlin

Germany

Berliner Philharmonie

At this concert, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, encounters Lisa Batiashvili – a both virtuoso and sensitive violinist, and thus the ideal interpreter of Bartók’s yearning Violin Concerto No. 1, in which the composer came to terms with an unrequited love. Following this, the orchestra performs Shostakovich’s 13th Symphony: a staggering accusation against anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union.

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Lisa Batiashvili: Symphony 13 Shostakovich

Public

Symphony 13

Approved

Instrumentalist

Pianist

Violinist

Cellist

Violist

Flutist

Clarinetist

Guitarist

Organist

Percussionist

hornist

Oboist

Bassoonist

Trumpeter

Contrabassist

Trombonist

Harper

Saxophonist

Harpsichordist

Bassist

Accordionist

Tuba Player

Recorder Player

Lutenist

Tenor Violinist

Timpani

Mandoline Player

Baroque Flutist

Baroque Oboist

Baroque Trumpetist

Violino Piccolo Player

Viola da gamba

Musette de cour Player

Viola Pomposa Player

Archlutenist

Vibraphonist

Cornettist

Viola d’amore Player

Theorbist

Composer

Stage director

Librettist

Set designer

Costume designer

Choreographer

Lighting designer

Dancer

Actor

Chorus master

Video designer

Dramaturge

Translator

Sound designer

Repetiteur

Makeup artist

Executive producer

Hairstylist

Other

Stage Manager

Choir

Poet

Vocal coach

Teacher

Photographer

Broadcasting

Illustrator

Writer

Writing and performance

Chorus Director

Wig & Makeup Designer

Orchestra Operations

Extra

Baritone

Singer

Soprano

Tenor

Mezzo-soprano

Countertenor

Bass-baritone

Contralto

Spoken

Child vocalist

Silent

Alto

Continuo

When Yannick Nézet-Séguin, music director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic, first guest conductor of the London Philharmonic and chief conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, debuted with the Berliner Philharmoniker in October 2010, the press wrote that it had been a “memorable evening” with a “rising star in the conducting firmament”. At this guest appearance with the Philharmoniker, the effervescent Canadian conducts Béla Bartók’s First Violin Concerto. The soloist is Lisa Batiashvili, who gave a “brilliant debut” with the Philharmoniker in 2004: The young Georgian found her way – free of all technical troubles – to a “luminous inward quality; it is gripping and inspired, virtuosic and intelligent” (Der Tagesspiegel).

After the interval, Yannick Nézet-Séguin takes on Dmitri Shostakovich’s 13th Symphony together with the bass Mikhail Petrenko and the male voices of the Rundfunkchor Berlin. The work was composed in 1962, and is a confessional work against anti-Semitism, which was increasingly gaining ground in the USSR in the 1960s. The textual basis of the symphony is Yevgeny Yevtushenko’s 1961 poem Babi Yar, in which the poet recalls the mass murder of 34,000 Jews by the SS in September 1941 and in the last stanza identifies himself with the victims. “At the premiere,” the Russian music historian Boris Schwarz writes, “the government’s box remained empty, and the planned television broadcast did not take place. […] There was spontaneous applause after the first movement; when the work, an hour in length, was over, an enthusiastic storm of applause broke out in the audience such as one experiences only rarely.”

Shostakovich’s 13th Symphony was officially hushed up. The Soviet press wrote that the “content of the ideas contains fundamental errors”; in addition, the composer had “lost his feeling for the time”. A score was published in the USSR only in 1971, but with the vocal text changed in places. Today Babi Yar, a vocal-symphonic masterpiece of the 20th century that since then has lost none of its shattering impact, is among Shostakovich’s best-known compositions.

English

Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Lisa Batiashvili by Shostakovich, From (2016/2016), Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Berliner Philharmonie, Berlin, Germany

Performance credits (Cast & Crew )

Cast

Ensemble

Programme, About & Synopsis

Photos

Further reading

Performance Dates & Venues

Venues