In L.A. Phil’s First Concert of 2025, Violinist Batiashvilli Makes a Forceful Case for Beethoven, and Democracy
/By Truman C. Wang
1/4/2025
After the gargantuan Gurrelieder in the final weeks of 2024, the Los Angeles Philharmonic started off the new year on Friday, January 3, with modest forces and many new faces, including new Assistant Principal Second Violin Isabella Brown (a Colburn alumna). Since it’s a ‘casual Friday’ concert, only the first half of the program was played; the second half was filled with free drinks and bubblies in lieu of Dvořák’s Eighth.
Another ‘Casual Friday’ tradition is starting the concert with a short speech by one of the orchestra musicians. Last night was Associate Principal Second Violin Mark Kashper’s turn and he was quite the comedian (diaper joke, food joke, and a funny intro to Ms. Brown), drawing waves of laughter from the audience and orchestra alike. It was a good way to build rapport with a new audience by putting a human face on an art form that is often perceived (in America) as dour and irrelevant.
Appropriately, the first work played in the new year was a waltz – not a Viennese waltz, but a Bohemian waltz by Antonin Dvořák (Prague Waltzes). Robin Ticciati, the conductor from UK, had a graceful but forceful podium manner, his lanky physique swaying and rocking infectiously to the earthy rhythms of these rustic dances, more likely to be seen at a Bohemian autumn harvest than in a royal Viennese court. The orchestral seating was the now-familiar stereophonic layout of the first violins and second violins on either side of the podium. But there was no rivalry between the string sections, just superb ensemble playing of very high spirits.
Lisa Batiashvilli was the soloist in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto. She, too, had a graceful and forceful manner about her playing. Her violin tone had the needed richness and fullness, but she could play it lightly, conversationally, to etch a beautifully nuanced singing line, and her two cadenzas – in the first and third movement – were both very impressive technically and musically. I was less sure, however, of the chosen tempi between the soloist and the orchestra, which were often halting, deliberate, with unexpected rubato and rallentando, impeding the momentum and flow of the music (the second movement, while beautiful in its chamber music qualities, was especially egregious in this regard.) The orchestral playing and soloist were in perfect rapport, for better or for worse. The casual Friday audience burst into applause after the first movement, and again after the finale. For an encore, Ms. Batiashvilli played a patriotic song from her native Georgia, proclaiming her support for a recent failed pro-Democracy movement in Georgia.
Looking ahead to the January LA Phil calendar, there are big names galore: pianist-activist Igor Levit (1/8), conductors Eun Sun Kim (1/26) and Philippe Jordan (1/18), pianist Sunwook Kim (1/11). At least musically in the new year, we are off to a great start!
Truman C. Wang is Editor-in-Chief of Classical Voice, whose articles have appeared in the Pasadena Star-News, San Gabriel Valley Tribune, other Southern California publications, as well as the Hawaiian Chinese Daily. He studied Integrative Biology and Music at U.C. Berkeley.