The Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili will play the Sibelius concerto at the opening concert of the BBC Proms series tonight.
Ariane Todes asks her the unanswerable question:
So did you ever think you might give up?
‘When I was 14, before I’d even started my heavy concert life! One has so much respect for the arts and it’s so refined and fragile somehow, that it is very hard to be self-confident. It is something that is bigger than us. All these master works – Mozart concertos, Brahms, Beethoven, everything else – there have been hundreds of wonderful performances. When you are a young artist, you have to deal with that. On one hand you have to understand this music and on the other, to have your own thing to say, without becoming an artificial kind of musician who says, ‘Okay, I’m going to do this to be different from everybody else.’ You have to do in such a way that you have your own voice. How does every talented artist do that? It’s almost a Utopian thought, because we keep repeating the same repertoire, and we are all aware of that, which is why it’s difficult. It’s a very big mission.’
What are the challenges for young musicians trying to make a career?
‘It’s even more difficult now because of the internet, and because the general level is so much higher. There are so many very good musicians, and not everybody can be a soloist or have the career of a star. There are some fantastic instrumentalists who have a hard time finding concerts. I started the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation to support young talented personalities in the right way. When a young musician is brilliant and receiving so much praise from the audience, it can be very harmful to overpraise them right away. It’s the worst thing you can do to an artist who already knows they are very good. You have to give this young artist the space to develop as a person and personality – and as a human being – before putting so much pressure on them by overpraising. It is important to support and motivate, but also not to overcharge them with too much success and positivity, because they will have to go through difficulties at some point.’
Full interview here.
The post Question to a BBC Proms opener: Did you ever think of giving up? appeared first on Slippedisc.
