Lisa Batiashvili in conversation with Andreas Ottensamer (17 min.)

The Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili is at once one of the most virtuoso and sensitive musicians of her generation. Since her debut in 2004, the popular artist has regularly performed with the Berliner Philharmoniker – and also at the Easter Festival in Baden-Baden in 2017, when she performed Antonín Dvořák’s Violin Concerto under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle. The violinist feels a connection to the work not only because of its unmistakably Slavic elements, but she also sees it as being in the tradition of symphonically-conceived concertos such as the one by Johannes Brahms. In this interview with Andreas Ottensamer, principal clarinet of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Batiashvili, who is a staunch supporter of the European ideal, also talks about the question of whether and how musicians should express themselves on political issues.