8th December 2022
Royal Festival Hall, London, United Kingdom
SIBELIUS Violin Concerto
MAHLER Symphony No. 6 (scherzo-andante)
Lisa Batiashvili (violin)
Philharmonia Orchestra
Lahav Shani (conductor)
Lisa Batiashvili has everything. The technical prowess, the grace, the lyricism in her playing, the tone. The tone, the tone, the tone. It is a sound to behold. It was Sibelius' birthday and she returned to the RFH to perform the "Violin Concerto" with the Philharmonia Orchestra and "the next big thing" Lahav Shani. She has practically owned the work since teenage years, and we have all heard it way too many times in the concert hall, yet a performance this elegant is still incredibly hard to come by. Forget all the fancy double-stopping and octave jumping - who cares these days? Instead, let's go on an introspective soul-searching journey to look for beauty, in sound and in the world. Let it sing. The high registers, oh it's transcendental. The solo line was so captivating you just wanted the over-zealous orchestra to shut up entirely. The syncopated tectonic shifts perfectly ruined the mood, but it was Sibelius' doing, not Shani's, I suppose. Second half was Mahler 6 and, man, it was difficult to sit through. It was tasteless, brash, superficial and relentless. Philharmonia players were on top form, of course, but it was basically a violent block of sound from I to II (scherzo) throughout which started way too fast and never really stopped. Technical display devoid of substance. Anyone looking for deeper philosophical meaning from this darkest of Mahler symphonies should go elsewhere and, indeed, a number of people stood up and left after the second movement. I was hoping for some relief in the pseudo-song andante, but it wasn't given enough breathing space before he launched straight into the cataclysmic finale. Credits where it's due, I actually rather enjoyed the density and pacing of the finale and I think the "climax after climax" was very well executed. Overall not quite a Mahler I enjoyed, but I am sure it worked for those who came for the hammer blows.
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