Live from Paris: Strauss & Shostakovich — missed the live broadcast? Watch the concert on-demand on Adella.
Oct 19
violin
Lisa Batiashvili is a Georgian-born German violinist, widely admired for her virtuosity, musical depth, and artistic integrity. An award-winning artist, she has built enduring relationships with many of the world’s leading orchestras, conductors, and musicians, earning the respect of audiences and colleagues alike.
In 2021, she founded the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation, fulfilling a lifelong commitment to supporting exceptionally talented young Georgian musicians and helping them thrive in international musical careers.
During the 2026–27 season, Batiashvili will open the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia with the Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. She will then present a variety of programs and artists as part of a residency at the Beethovenfest Bonn and in the Georgian Spotlights series at the Dresden Philharmonic. She will also bring her story to the stage in City Lights: Follow Your Dreams, tour with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Klaus Mäkelä, perform with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Salzburg Easter Festival, and appear with other orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra.
An active chamber musician, she tours extensively with Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Gautier Capuçon, and with Georgian composer-pianist Giorgi Gigashvili.
Recording exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon, her recent releases include Secret Love Letters (2022) with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and The Philadelphia Orchestra, City Lights, and Visions of Prokofiev. Her discography has earned major awards including an Opus Klassik Award and international critical acclaim.
Batiashvili lives in Berlin and plays a Joseph Guarneri “del Gesù” violin from 1739, generously loaned by a private collector. For selected projects, she plays a violin by Philipp Augustin, a copy of her “del Gesù” made for her in 2026.
cello
Gautier Capuçon is one of the foremost cellists of the 21st century, celebrated for the depth of his interpretations and his dazzling virtuosity. Alongside performing, he created the Fondation Gautier Capuçon (FGC), dedicated to supporting outstanding young musicians, which today counts 45 laureates from around the world.
Capuçon works with the most renowned orchestras and conductors across the globe, recently performing with the Berliner Philharmoniker — in Berlin and on tour. He has also appeared with the Vienna Philharmonic and Christian Thielemann, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich with Paavo Järvi, and the hr-Sinfonieorchester with Alain Altinoglu, among others.
Highlights of the 2026–27 season include a return to the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra followed by appearances with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko, Filarmonica della Scala and Riccardo Chailly, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Simone Young, and Boston Symphony Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki, to name a few.
Capuçon also embarks on major international tours this season with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Gewandhausorchester, Netherlands Philharmonic, and Orchestre de Paris. A highly sought-after chamber musician, he tours North America with Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Lisa Batiashvili, Europe with Frank Braley, and performs Beethoven piano trios with Evgeny Kissin and Maxim Vengerov at Chicago Symphony Hall and Carnegie Hall.
An exclusive recording artist for Erato (Warner Music), Capuçon’s extensive discography has earned numerous awards. An autumn 2024 release featured the Elgar and Walton concertos with Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra. In November 2025, he released Gaïa, an album of world premieres emblematic of his deep love of nature.
Born in Chambéry, Capuçon began learning cello at age 4 with Augustin Lefèbvre, later studying in Paris with Annie Cochet-Zakine and Philippe Muller, and in Vienna with Heinrich Schiff.
piano
Through elegant musicality and an insightful approach to contemporary and established repertoire, Jean-Yves Thibaudet has earned a reputation as one of the world’s finest pianists. He is especially known for his diverse interests beyond the classical world, including numerous collaborations in film, fashion, and visual art. He is the first-ever artist-in-residence at the Colburn School, which awards several scholarships in his name.
This season, Thibaudet will appear with orchestras worldwide (including multiple concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra) and continue presentations of Two Pianos: Who Could Ask for Anything More?, his acclaimed project with Michael Feinstein. In addition to his orchestral dates, Thibaudet embarks on a fall trio tour with Lisa Batiashvili and Gautier Capuçon and a May tour with Itzhak Perlman. He also continues his multi-season focus on Debussy’s Préludes, performing both books in their entirety at recitals around the world.
A prolific recording artist, Thibaudet has appeared on more than 70 albums and six film scores. His extensive catalog has received two Grammy nominations, two ECHO Awards, the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the Diapason d’Or, the CHOC du Monde de la Musique, the Edison Prize, and Gramophone Awards. Recent recordings include Khachaturian, a celebration of the Armenian composer including his Piano Concerto and several solo piano pieces; and Gershwin Rhapsody, a selection of Gershwin pieces recorded with Michael Feinstein, including four newly-discovered ones.
Thibaudet is the soloist on Dario Marianelli’s recently reissued score for Pride & Prejudice, which was certified Gold by the RIAA in 2025. His playing can also be head on Marianelli’s Academy Award–winning score for Atonement, Alexandre Desplat’s scores for The French Dispatch and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, and Aaron Zigman’s score for Wakefield. Among numerous other awards and commendations, Thibaudet was named a Chevalier of the Ordre de la Légion d’honneur in 2025; President Emmanuel Macron personally presented him with the title.
Thibaudet’s concert wardrobe is designed by Dame Vivienne Westwood.
Composer
Dmitri Shostakovich composed his First Piano Trio in 1923, when he was just 16. Originally entitled Poème, it was dedicated to Tatyana Glivenko, a fellow student who he had met the previous year and with whom he was deeply in love. Although his earnest pursuit of her never came to fruition, they remained close, corresponding for several years.
The trio is a compact, one-movement work. The haunting opening andante theme, with its two descending half steps, is seen by some commentators as an expression of the young composer’s yearning. This motive is the germ for several themes that follow, taking us through a variety of moods that always lead back to the initial andante theme. Eventually, a brighter impressionistic passage introduces a theme that replaces the half steps with whole steps, perhaps signaling the hope of fulfillment. The music that follows is at times troubled and agitated, at others giddy with anticipation until, after a brief pause, we arrive back at the initial andante theme. A brief coda reintroduces one of the agitated allegro passages from earlier in the work before leading to an enthusiastic close.
The many sudden tempo and style changes in this work might remind one of early film music, as we journey through the many shifting moods and passions of young love. With its eclectic mix of styles, the trio reveals some of Shostakovich’s early influences while offering hints of the acerbic and aggressive music that was to characterize so many of his later works.
— Michael Strasser
In 1880, the 18-year-old Claude Debussy was engaged to serve as the house pianist of Nadezhda von Meck, a wealthy Russian widow who was an important patron of Tchaikovsky. During the fall of that year, while residing in Florence with the von Meck household, Debussy composed a piano trio, undoubtedly motivated by the imminent arrival of a Russian cellist, Pyotr Danilchenko, who could perform it with him and the other resident musician, Władysław Pachulski, a Polish violinist. The manuscript was lost for many decades, but scores to the four movements gradually came to light and were eventually assembled. Long dismissed as a forgettable piece of juvenilia, the Piano Trio is increasingly recognized as an important early example of Debussy’s genius at incorporating and synthesizing the various influences that would shape his musical personality, combining the stylistic tendencies of contemporary French composers with elements from Russian music and beyond.
The first movement alternates between passages in triple and duple meter, with a gently flowing character. Labeled “Scherzo-Intermezzo,” the second movement reflects the three-part form of a scherzo with delicate balletic outer sections surrounding a longer and more lyrical interlude. The slow third movement features the interplay between the two string instruments, with a middle section that incorporates all three musicians. The finale sounds like the music of Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann reflected through a French lens. In a lilting 6/8 meter throughout, the music swells and recedes, propelled along by the relentless rhythmic energy of the initial theme.
Antonín Dvořák’s Third Piano Trio, written in 1883, is considered a major milestone in his compositional career and one of the most important works in the genre. His mother’s recent death may have contributed to the relatively somber mood of the work, but Dvořák was also heavily influenced by the music of Brahms, who had promoted the young Czech composer’s music to Viennese publishers and critics. The first three movements of the work certainly reflect the serious tone of the older master’s music, with the fourth more clearly influenced by the folk styles of Dvořák’s homeland.
The first movement is almost unrelentingly grave, with only a handful of brighter moments. The piano imposes its presence throughout, resulting in an unusually dense texture. In a sharp contrast of mood, the scherzo begins with a fascinating juxtaposition of triplet eighth notes in the strings and an irregular duple-meter melody that combines Brahms’s penchant for syncopation with the uneven phrasing of Czech folk music. The lyrical middle section returns to a more serious tone before the return of the scherzo.
The heart of the work is the slow third movement. Written in A-flat major, this movement exudes an atmosphere of wistful nostalgia, with a quicker passage briefly introducing a note of happy tranquility. The rhythmic energy that pervades the finale hints at the influence of Czech dance and folk music. Just before the exuberant ending, Dvořák turns inward with a reminiscence of the first movement’s main theme to bring the piece full circle.
Michael Strasser is professor emeritus of musicology at Baldwin Wallace University. He has published numerous articles and reviews and presented papers at international conferences on fin-de-siècle
Three world-class soloists — violinist Lisa Batiashvili, cellist Gautier Capuçon, and pianist Jean Yves Thibaudet — join forces to explore the expressive possibilities of the piano trio. Pieces by Shostakovich and Debussy radiate youthful optimism and hint at the composers’ budding musicality. Capping the program is Dvořák’s Third Piano Trio, a darker, more mature work that showcases the composer at the height of his talents.
The Batiashvili, Capuçon & Thibaudet Recital is generously sponsored by Dr. Michael Frank and Patricia A. Snyder*.
We offer a variety of concessions before the concert, as well as during intermission.
*Donor exclusive lounge areas. Learn more about becoming a donor
Download The Cleveland Orchestra App, and explore upcoming concerts, purchase tickets with seat selection, and manage your tickets digitally. You’ll also get access to performance updates and helpful notifications.
Below is a list of the features and services available at Severance for this concert. You may also request assistance in advance of a concert by calling the Severance Welcome Desk at 216-231-7300 or create a request using the button below.
Jump to: