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20
May

City Lights with Lisa Batiashvili

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Wed, 20. May 2026 | 19:30 Uhr
KKL Luzern, Konzertsaal
Event Prices:
  • CHF 160
  • 130
  • 100
  • 65
  • 30
  • Individual ticket sales start in July 2025


Program

  • Swiss premiere

    • The program is presented without an intermission and lasts approx. 70'

Symphony Concerts

Event Description

Lisa Batiashvili and Nikoloz Rachveli take the audience on a sonorous journey through eleven cities that are particularly close to Batiashvili’s heart. From Chaplin to Legrand to Piazzolla – classical music meets jazz, tango and film music. The performance is accompanied by an impressive screen projection that brings the stories of the cities to life on film.
The following works represent selected locations:

 

«City Memories» – A suite based on Charlie Chaplin’s film scores, symbolizing cities such as London and Los Angeles.

«Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ» – Johann Sebastian Bach (BWV 639), for Munich.

«Paris Violon» – Michel Legrand, for Paris.

«Ich hab’ noch einen Koffer in Berlin» – Ralph Maria Siegel, arranged by Nikoloz Rachveli, for Berlin.

«Evening Song» – Oskar Merikanto, for Helsinki.

«Furioso Galopp, Op. 114» – Johann Strauss (son), adapted by Nikoloz Rachveli, for Vienna.

«Love Theme from ‘Cinema Paradiso’» – Ennio Morricone, arranged by Nikoloz Rachveli, for Rome.

«Adiós Nonino / Vuelvo al Sur / Buenos Aires Hora Cero» – Astor Piazzolla, arranged by Nikoloz Rachveli, for Buenos Aires.

«Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, ‘From the New World’: II Largo» – Antonín Dvořák, adapted by Tamas Batiashvili, for New York.

«No Better Magic» – Katie Melua, for London.

«The Lark» – Romanian folk song, for Bucharest.

 

Teo Jorbenadze, screenwriter/director

 

“City Lights” inspired by Charlie Chaplin with violinist Lisa Batiashvili 

The Luzerner Sinfonieorchester is always on the lookout for new concert formats to appeal to music lovers beyond its regular classical audience. Artists who devise individual programmes play an important role in this. Following multimedia projects with the pianists Alice Sara Ott and Hélène Grimaud and pop symphonies with Herbert Grönemeyer, the orchestra continues this series with the Georgian-born German violinist Lisa Batiashvili. The starting point for her album and concert “City Lights” was actor, film-maker and composer Charlie Chaplin, who for Batiashvili embodies “the beauty and creative imagination of the 20th century”. Inspired by Chaplin’s music and his films, she has put together works that present key cities in her life. “City Lights” brings together a wide variety of genres on the journey between Tbilisi, Berlin, Paris and Buenos Aires, ranging from classical music by J.S. Bach and Giya Kancheli to film music by Charlie Chaplin, and jazz, pop and even tango by Astor Piazzolla. The music from “Cinema Paradiso” and an arrangement of Dvořák’s symphony “From the New World” with solo violin show the depth and breadth of Batiashvili’s “love of music, culture and the people of these places”.


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