a most delightful debut

July 29, 2005 performance, reviewed by Dave Conlin Read

We were attracted to this program primarily because it included the Sibelius Violin Concerto, which was one of the first symphonic pieces we heard live when Itzhak Perlman played it with the Springfield Symphony twenty-five or so years ago. Henceforward, we'll be attracted to any program that includes Lisa Batiashvili, the young violinist from Georgia (not the one Ray Charles had in mind), who gave a stunning, singing performance in her Tanglewood and Boston Symphony Orchestra debut.

The concerto, which Sibelius (1865–1957) sabotaged by having an inadequate violinist debut it in 1905, didn't become popular until the 1930s, when Jascha Heifetz championed it and made the classic 1935 recording on EMI. (available for download on eMusic). It has since become the most recorded 20th century violin concerto.

Elegant in a shiny red gown, Ms. Batiashvili displayed a serene countenance, betraying none of the profound emotions evoked by her bravura performance, until it was over and the audience let loose with wave after wave of applause. Then she fairly beamed with a smile warm enough to boil a fjord.

The globe-trotting conductor Charles Dutoit, just a quick commute from his summer gig with the Philadelphia Orchestra at Saratoga, wrought a sublime performance on the Sibelius from the B.S.O., with great noisy syncopated rhythms and airy melodic echoes.

Making for a program with some measure of geographic logic, the concerto was preceded by Wagner's Overture to The Flying Dutchman and followed by Stravinsky's Le Sarce du Printemps, Pictures from pagan Russia.

This was a perfect Tanglewood evening, the air cooling after a hot day, a program of music familiar even to the casual fan of the symphonic repertoire, a celebrated guest conductor leading the brilliant Boston Symphony and the local debut of a violin virtuoso, who one hopes will join the stellar cast of regular visitors to these harmonic environs.

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