It may have taken about 14 years for violinist Lidia Baich (pictured left) to return to South Africa, but the wait will be worth it! She will perform the Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3 with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra on 23 January 2025, two months after performing Mozart in Vienna on the violin that Mozart used to compose his concertos and to perform them, says PETA STEWART:
It came about because the beautiful theatre close to Vienna, where Lidia Baich lives, the very theatre where Mozart’s Requiem had its premiere, was being reopened at a prestigious concert. The management decided to bring Mozart’s Italian-made violin from the Mozarteum in Salzburg for the event. They asked Lidia to perform on it at the glittering function and she is still recovering, she says, from the honour. “It was unreal, unforgettable.”
The concerto, though, is also unforgettable and she says she always gets goosebumps during certain unexpected magical moments in the violin concerto. She will perform the concerto on her Jean Baptiste Vuillaume dating from 1860.
Lidia’s parents are both musicians – her mother is a pianist; her father a cellist – but it is her grandfather who inspired her. He worked in the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg where she was born and even before she was three she was attending rehearsals and concerts.
“I grew up on Swan Lake and The Nutcracker and knew that I wanted to play them and all the beautiful music I heard. I was four and a half when I had my first lesson,” says Lidia. From then it was studying, winning competitions, earning accolades like the European Musician of the Year and the Golden Decoration of Honour for services to the Republic of Austria; and making a career as a performer with orchestras, in chamber music, as a teacher and as a recording artist. Her most recent achievement was establishing her own orchestra of exceptional and vibrant young musicians, the Vienna Art Nouveau Orchestra. These young musicians accompanied her on her latest album, The Other Seasons, which will be on sale at the CPO concert.
Who is the greatest musical influence on her life?
This question floored Lidia because she believes that music and nature are so closely connected. “Mahler, Schumann and Strauss all had country cottages or visited mountains where they composed, drawing inspiration from nature. I visit nature as often as I can.”
Multidimensional music
Not that she has that much time … with two children of 12 and six and a husband who is an opera singer, managing schedules is an art, ensuing that chaos doesn’t reign! This includes planning repertoire to suit her schedule, but being flexible has to be part of her makeup.
You would think that violin repertoire would be top of mind, but actually Lidia enjoys listening to what she calls more multidimensional music – symphonic music, opera and ballet, as well as the old masters like Solti, Karajan and Kleiber. Add Heifetz and Oistrakh, Richter and Horowitz into that mix and her listening is complete. Well almost – she also enjoys Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, music she calls timeless.
Before she comes to Cape Town, she will be making a television show in Cologne, and when she returns it will be into concerts in Bulgaria and Vienna and planning a concert to launch her new CD.
Lidia has beautiful memories of her time in Cape Town and is so glad that finally her agency and the CPO managed to secure a date. “I still have photographs and look forward to making new memories, like visiting the Cape of Good Hope this time, I hope, and fitting in a master class with musicians of the Cape Town Philharmonic Youth Orchestra.”
Also on the programme, which will be conducted by Jonathan Lo, are Serenade in E minor by Elgar and the Ninth Symphony by Shostakovich.
What: Lidia Baich with the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra
Where and when: Cape Town City Hall | Thursday 23 January 2025 | 11am for the dress rehearsal | pre-concert talk at 6.45pm | 7.30pm for the concert
Tickets: Dress rehearsal: Quicket | Concert: Artscape Dial A Seat on 021 421 7695 and Webtickets
WS
