Roberto Sawicki

Roberto Sawicki, violinist and orchestra conductor, received his musical education in his birthplace, Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he also won several prestigious contests. Outstanding amongst these are the Santa Fe Competition - performance of Dvorak’s Concerto for violin and orchestra - and the Beethoven prize for his interpretation of the German composer's Violin Concerto in D-major.

Between 1970 and 1975, Roberto Sawicki was first violinist in the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. In 1975 he founded his own musical ensemble, the Orchestra of Lancy in Geneva (Orchestre de Lancy-Genève). This marked the beginning of a long and fruitful enterprise. Two years later, in 1977, he initiated the “Estivales Océans” on the French Atlantic coast, a festival at which he and his orchestra would play the leading role for more than twenty years.

His involvement in Concerts for Peace led Roberto Sawicki to include works by composers Abdel Rahim and Ernest Bloch in a programme he performed at the Cairo Opera in 1989 as well as in several cities in Israel. Since 2002 he has played annually for the International Music Festival at the Colón Theatre in Buenos Aires. Roberto Sawicki also teaches at the Geneva Conservatory of Music.

The Concept

Roberto Sawicki’s interpretations emphasize the quality of sound and the richness of shades and timbres, but they are also characterised by a scrupulous respect for the composer’s intentions, bent on uncovering the authenticity of a piece with both fervour and humility. Even though the orchestra may adopt modern instruments for its repertoires, the conductor is attentive to the need for the phrasings and vibrato to be in keeping with the composer’s period and style.

This attentiveness is equally evident in the conception of Roberto Sawicki's programmes. The conductor endeavours, above all, to achieve coherence between the pieces he conducts and to find the elements that will contribute to creating a privileged moment between the musicians and their audience –seeking to bring about what might be called a "state of grace".

Roberto Sawicki himself expresses the orchestra's approach to the music they play in the following terms:
“During rehearsals I try to lay the foundations in such a way that inspiration will come to us. I suggest to the musicians that they should approach the scores without preconceptions, without vibrato, without resorting to volume, just as a painter would begin work on a blank canvas. In this way, little by little and with total purity and transparence, the notes reveal their full meaning to us.

“During concerts we do not necessarily try to reproduce what we have worked on in rehearsal; rather, we attempt to re-improvise the music, allowing ourselves to be carried away by a common impulse. A performance that has been perfectly executed on a technical level is unsatisfactory if we do not reach the essence: to receive that marvellous resonance coming from another world, which is music, and to communicate it to the public in a state of shared happiness.”