HE: I believe in God in every respect, but I don’t expect to understand His will. God is in music. I believe that the great composers speak to us about their experience of God. This is not nonsense. For me, Bach is a constant.
SHE: But you used to have doubts?
HE: Not about Bach.
Lisa Batiashvili, the 35-year-old Georgian violinist who is this season’s artist in residence with the New York Philharmonic and will perform Barber’s Violin Concerto with that orchestra this week, is an eloquent musician. In concert and on award-winning recordings, she has captivated critics and audiences with her natural elegance, silky sound and the meticulous grace of her articulation. There is a laserlike directness to her playing that enables her to transmit concentrated emotions without a trace of affectation or theatrics: the musical equivalent to laparoscopic surgery.
In conversation, Ms. Batiashvili exhibits many of the same qualities. Soft-spoken but determined, she speaks as openly about the political responsibilities of an artist as she does about her personal relationship to Bach’s music — the subject of her latest recording and of coming performances with the Philharmonic — and the unhealthy obsession of the violin world with the instruments of Antonio Stradivari…
Ms. Batiashvili said it took time and experimentation for her to feel ready to record Bach. When she did, she said, “something spiritual happened to me — people are religious or not, but Bach makes you believe in something for sure.
~ Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim on Lisa Batiashvili on Violins, Ukraine and Valery Gergiev
Lisa Batiashvili, 35, is a Georgian violinist, the daughter of a violinist father and a pianist mother. Her father was her first teacher from age 4. In 1995, she was a prize winner in the International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition. Batiashvili and her oboist husband François Leleux, reside in France with their two children. She plays the 1709 Engleman Stradivarius on loan from the Nippon Music Foundation.
After a long absence,
I put on a record of Bach,
inhale the fragrant earth in the garden,
I think again of poems and novels to be written
and I return to the silence of the morning rain.
— Pier Paolo Pasolini
Notes: Pier Paolo Pasolini Bio. Poem Source: YourEyesBlazeOut. Photograph: Jordi Gual via Yama-bato
Viktoria Yurievna Mullova, 53, is a Russian violinist. She is best known for her performances and recordings of a number of violin concerti, compositions by J.S. Bach, and her innovative interpretations of popular and jazz compositions by Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, The Beatles, and others. She won various prestigious violin competitions (first prize at the 1980 International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki and the Gold Medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1982). During a tour of Finland in 1983, Mullova and her lover, defected to the West. She currently resides in London. (Source: Wiki)
Source: Thank you Rob @ HammockPapers
Wednesday. January 16, 2013. 5:35am.
I flip on the weather channel for a read on the highway conditions. (Like it matters, right?)
The weather woman warns that roads will be treacherous – – wet and slippery with snow accumulation. (A call to arms for the Snowman. Need to get to the office to get a jump on God’s work.)
I’m out the door. Dark. Gloomy. Damp. Shivering. Seats are cold. Steering wheel is frigid. Frozen ice on windshield. (Where are my gloves? I miss Miami. Soft, warm, gentle breezes. Palm tree fronds rustling.)
No point sitting here, let’s get this engine firing so we can blow heat into this beast. I back out of the driveway, skidding backwards. (Not a good sign. I’m a mere 20 yards from the house.)
I arrive at I-95. Early morning traffic trying to beat rush hour and the interminable snarls later in the day. Cars, SUVs, hulking Semi-trailers – all lurching ahead in a conga line. (It’s looking a lot like Gotham City, except I’m 40 miles away from Gotham.) [Read more…]
Courtesy of Cultural Offering. A Bach selection beautifully played by David Qualey.
Live & Learn 