After winning the Queen Elizabeth Competition in 2001, Baiba Skride was hailed as one of the greatest talents since Itzhak Perlman’s debut. Today, critics see her as a successor to 20th-century violin legends: Jascha Heifetz and Fritz Kreisler. However, she keeps saying that a musician must always put the music first, not themselves. What delights in her playing, is her naturalness, spontaneity and directness – and we will find out for ourselves, as the Latvian violin virtuoso will be a guest at the Kraków Philharmonic. We will hear her in Lonely Angel, where Pēteris Vasks ordered the solo instrument to sing in an almost human or even superhuman – angelic – voice, and in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major. She will be accompanied by the Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Alexander Humala, who will also perform Franz Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 in C major in the second part of the concert.

Pēteris Vasks Lonely Angel, meditation for violin and strong orchestra
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5 in A major K. 219
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Franz Schubert Symphony No. 9 in C major D 944

Baiba Skride – violin
Kraków Philharmonic Orchestra
Alexander Humala – conductor

photo by Marco Borggreve