Schubert • Beethoven / Kavakos • Mehta
Zubin Mehta conducts with Leonidas Kavakos on violin
Franz Schubert
Symphony No. 3 in D major (00:26:09)
Béla Bartók
The Miraculous Mandarin, suite (00:22:57)
Ludwig van Beethoven
Violin Concerto (00:54:43)
Leonidas Kavakos Violin
The legendary violin professor Josef Gingold did not believe his ears the first time he heard a recording by Leonidas Kavakos. He could hardly imagine anyone being able to play Paganini so quickly and so perfectly without there being some sort of technical trickery used in the recording. However, for the Greek violinist, truthfulness of expression takes precedence over virtuosity, something which the Berliner Philharmoniker audience had been able to hear for themselves when Kavakos made his début with a soulful interpretation of the Sibelius concerto in 2003. Now he is in Berlin again, making a guest appearance with Beethoven’s Violin Concerto.
It is particularly appealing that Kavakos, who has been familiar with classical Greek culture since boyhood, now turns his attention to the works of the First Viennese School. For him, both periods are closely connected in their desire to strive for timeless perfection – which also inspires Kavakos in his work: “Classical antiquity represents an aesthetic standard that has never been achieved since and will perhaps never be achieved again. This aesthetic standard drives me on – as a human being, violinist and musician.”
Conductor for the evening is Zubin Mehta, who performs with the Berliner Philharmoniker with a regularity virtually unmatched by any other podium guest. The evening opens with Schubert’s Third Symphony – a work which formally still harks back to the world of Haydn yet in which a subliminal Romantic yearning can be discerned. Second comes the suite from Bartók’s arresting pantomime ballet
The Miraculous Mandarin.
Back
