Lisa Batiashvili, The Philadelphia Orchestra – Secret Love Letters (2022)

“What would human life be like,” asks Lisa Batiashvili, “without this range of emotions and feelings which we feel cannot be shared with anyone?” Her new album celebrates the fine art of concealment, of holding private passions just beneath the surface until they erupt. Secret Love Letters, set for release by Deutsche Grammophon on 19 August 2022, sees the Georgian-born German violinist explore some of the most romantic music ever written. In this, her first recording with a US orchestra, she is joined by The Philadelphia Orchestra and its inspirational Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin – with whom she has performed live many times – as well as by young Georgian pianist Giorgi Gigashvili. Together they embark on a journey that spans everything from forbidden love to romance seen from the perspective of old age.
“There are so many hidden messages in music, things that cannot be put into words,” notes Lisa. “Something very obvious unites the four pieces I’ve chosen for the album, by Chausson, Debussy, Franck and Szymanowski. It’s the message of love that is there in the music, in many different facets and colours, and so much of that message is secret and intimate.” Her long-time collaborator Nézet-Séguin is on the same wavelength: “One of my favorite quotes in life is that music starts where words stop. What’s so special about music is that it allows us to say things that sometimes we can’t even express to ourselves.”
At the heart of Secret Love Letters is Karol Szymanowski’s First Violin Concerto, the Polish composer’s dream-like meditation on the imagery of Noc majowa (“May Night”), a poem by Tadeusz Miciński and the starting point for the creation of a score bursting with passion and sensuality. The composition was written in Ukraine during the First World War and first performed in Warsaw in November 1922. “It’s a piece full of love and pain deriving from the restrictions experienced by a man who was in love with another man at a time when this was outlawed both legally and morally”, Lisa explains. “It’s a dance between eroticism and compassion, between a dream world and tough reality.” Paul Kochanski, for whom the work was written, gave its US premiere with The Philadelphia Orchestra in 1924 at the historic Academy of Music in Philadelphia, the venue at which Lisa’s performance was recorded almost a century later.

Track List:
1 I. Allegretto Ben Moderato - Lisa Batiashvili/Giorgi Gigashvili
2 II. Allegro - Lisa Batiashvili/Giorgi Gigashvili
3 III. Recitativo-fantasia. Ben Moderato - Molto Lento - A Tempo Moderato - Lisa Batiashvili/Giorgi Gigashvili
4 IV. Allegretto Poco Mosso - Lisa Batiashvili/Giorgi Gigashvili
5 Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 35 - Lisa Batiashvili/The Philadelphia Orchestra
6 I. Lento E Misterioso - Molto Animato - Animato - Poco Lento - Lisa Batiashvili/The Philadelphia Orchestra
7 II. Poco Meno Lento - Allegro - Tempo I - Tranquillo - Lisa Batiashvili/The Philadelphia Orchestra
8 Beau Soir - Lisa Batiashvili/Yannick Nézet-Séguin