The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is a real utopia. The idea of unit­ing young mu­si­cians from Israel, Pales­tine and var­i­ous Arab coun­tries into a mu­si­cal en­sem­ble still seems in­cred­i­ble to­day. Yet the or­ches­tra or­ches­tra proves every day, that peace in the Middle East is pos­si­ble. Found­ed in 1998, the or­ches­tra un­der the di­rec­tion of Daniel Barenboim, has ma­tured into a first-class en­sem­ble and reg­u­lar­ly hosts the Salzburg Fes­ti­val. In 2018, there are three key works from late ro­man­ti­cism and im­pres­sion­ism on the pro­gram.

Tchaikovsky’s pow­er­ful con­cer­to re­ceives an en­er­getic read­ing from Barenboim and the un­can­ny West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, but the true star here is Lisa Batiashvili, who treats the mighty work’s lan­guid lines and tow­er­ing cli­max­es with mov­ing rev­er­ence and tran­scen­den­tal skill. The range of her col­ors and her phras­ing are sub­sumed in­to the in­trigue of her mu­si­cal sto­ry­telling.

"La Mer" pre­miered in 1905 in Paris. Claude Debussy's "three sym­phon­ic sketch­es" are ex­em­plary for mu­si­cal im­pres­sion­ism. In three move­ments, De­bussy, who orig­i­nal­ly want­ed to be­come a sailor, evokes the mood of dif­fer­ent times of the day by the sea. He re­solves him­self con­sis­tent­ly from the for­mal re­quire­ments for a sym­pho­ny in fa­vor of a freely flow­ing, as­so­cia­tive phras­es.

Alexander Scrjabin com­posed "Le Poème de l'Extase" be­tween 1905 and 1908. Burst­ing with cre­ativ­i­ty, the sym­phon­ic poem which Scriabin him­self liked to call a "sym­pho­ny", is one of the most col­or­ful com­po­si­tions from the late phase of mu­si­cal ro­man­ti­cism.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Polonaise from the third act of the opera Eugen Onegin, Op. 24

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Concert for Violin and Orchestra in D, Op. 35

Claude Debussy
La Mer – Trois esquisses symphoniques

Alexander Skriabin
Le Poème de l’extase, Op. 54

Lisa Batiashvili, violin

West-Eastern Divan Orchestra
Daniel Barenboim, conductor