Batiashvili, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra & Mäkelä

Lisa Batiashvili maintains a special relationship with the Violin Concerto by Sibelius. In 1995, at just sixteen years old, she won second prize at the Jean Sibelius International Violin Competition, and since then, this work, one of the most demanding and beloved in the violin repertoire, has accompanied her throughout a career that has placed her among the great violinists on the international stage. At the Palau de la Música Catalana, she reunites with this score alongside the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, one of the world's great orchestras, and Klaus Mäkelä, a reference of the new generation of Scandinavian conductors. Following the success of their joint performance at the Palau in early 2025, the Concertgebouw and Mäkelä return with a high-flying symphonic programme. Schumann's Overture to Manfred gives way to the virtuosity and expressive power of the Sibelius Concerto, before leading us into Dvořák's Symphony No. 7, one of his great mature works. In this score, the Czech composer combines the folk roots of his homeland with the great references of Western art music, in a masterful symphonic exercise that finds in Mäkelä and the Concertgebouw privileged interpreters.