A violinst recommends: Isabelle Faust’s Highlights

The fact that Isabelle Faust is one of the leading violinists of her generation is due not only to her nuanced tone, which can be as energetic as it is gentle. She is just as versatile an interpreter as the sound of her instrument, driven by insatiable curiosity to explore the entire range of the violin repertoire. Here, Isabelle Faust has compiled her personal highlights from the Digital Concert Hall into a multifaceted playlist.

From the Baroque to the avant-garde – when asked whether she prefers to play early or new music, Isabelle Faust answers: “Both!” In doing so, the violinist approaches each work with a deep understanding of its music-historical context and time and again sets benchmarks with her performances. She made her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker in January 2009.

For Isabelle Faust, compiling a playlist from the “great treasure of the Digital Concert Hall” was actually “an impossibility” – too many concerts would have been included in the selection, also because the musician’s artistic interests go beyond any particular period. Of course, concerts with outstanding conductors the violinist herself has worked with had to be included: Claudio Abbado with his trademark La Mer by Claude Debussy, Franz Schubert’s Third Symphony with Herbert Blomstedt and Anton Bruckner’s Seventh with Bernard Haitink. Also included: Kirill Petrenko’s “fantastic inaugural concert” (Faust) with Alban Berg’s Symphonic Pieces from the opera Lulu, sung by Marlis Petersen, and Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto with András Schiff as the soloist. And Isabelle Faust is also fond of the Late Night concerts: Hans Werner Henze’s cantata Being Beautious with Barbara Hannigan and Simon Rattle, and a surreal Dada and Fluxus evening with Patricia Kopatchinskaja (with the resonant title Nonsense in Residence), which should not be missed under any circumstances.

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