Lisa Batiashvili in spotlight as Rheingau Music Festival artist in residence
Lisa Batiashvili will perform for the audience at the German event and offer them her thoughts in a discussion event. Photo: Sammy Hart/DG.
Tweet 
Share
Violinist Lisa Batiashvili will be artist in residence for this year's Rheingau Music Festival in Germany's west, making four appearances during the wide-ranging event that has attracted a raft of performers and audience since the 1980s.
Held in a locality nestled amidst picturesque views and vineyards, the festival will bring Batiashvili - an award-winning artist praised by music critics - will enjoy the status throughout the programme running all summer and perform at three different venues.
The Georgian artist shared her reaction to the residency to her social media followers on Friday and responded to the theme of the 33rd edition of the festival by saying she was ready to join the celebration of the "freedom to rethink music, courage to risk, desire for change and fun in novelty".
She will make her first appearance in the programme on June 25, joining the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich orchestra and conductor Paavo Järvi for a show involving works by Beethoven, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky.
In his joint work [of Järvi] with Lisa Batiashvili, the violin concerto by Sibelius has a special status. Both of them understand their dark, mysterious colours brilliantly" - Rheingau Music Festival
Moving on from the Kurhaus Wiesbaden venue where the concert is set to run, the violinist will next be seen at the kING Culture and Congress Hall in Ingelheim, where a group of musicians will bring Schubert's Piano Quintet on July 3.
[In this] famous variation set [...] there is a serious thought [...]. When Lisa Batiashvili and a friendly chamber music group interpret the quintet, Katja Riemann's recitations set a counterpoint that stimulates further thinking" - Rheingau Music Festival
Switching away from the performing mode, Batiashvili will then meet audiences of the festival on August 26, sitting down with artist Katharina Eickhoff for a conversation on subjects within and outside music.
The talk will come a day before her final on-stage duty for music enthusiasts at the event, with oboist and conductor François Leleux and Camerata Salzburg performers coming together with her in a programme ranging between classical and contemporary composers.
Batiashvili joined conductor Paavo Järvi at the Berlin Philarmonie venue in 2018 for a performance of Sibelius:
Bach, Haydn and Dvorak will be heard along with Arvo Pärt and Charlie Chaplin at the evening dedicated to musical works on the theme of cities.
Lisa Batiashvili and François Leleux, together with Camerata Salzburg, have been searching for traces in music history and have found numerous musical works that throw their special light on a city" - Rheingau Music Festival
The appearances at the 1987-founded event will mark the latest festival role for the violinist. Last year she began working as artistic director of the high-profile Audi Summer Concerts series in Germany, developing "concept and planning” for the classical music festival and performing in shows herself.
A recipient of two ECHO Klassik awards among other prizes, Batiashvili has received international acclaim for live performances and recordings, including a 2017 nomination for Artist of the Year award by a leading classical music review magazine Gramophone.
Bringing the classical music celebration to the region between Frankfurt, Wiesbaden and Lorch, the Rheingau festival will run between June 20-September 5.