Vineta Sareika

Vineta Sareika is a violinist appearing as soloist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in an all-Beethoven program led by Anna Handler. The evening pairs Beethoven's variations on a comic opera tune with his famously virtuosic "Kreutzer" sonata, giving listeners a chance to hear both Beethoven's playful and fiercely dramatic sides in one sitting.

The program centers on two very different faces of Beethoven. The Variations on "Ich bin der Schneider Kakadu" take a light, almost silly tune from a popular singspiel of the day and put it through a set of inventive transformations, alternating moods from comic to unexpectedly searching. The Violin Sonata No. 9, nicknamed the "Kreutzer," is one of the most physically demanding works in the violin and piano repertoire, opening with a slow, searching introduction before launching into fast, combative exchanges between the two instruments that treat them as equal partners rather than soloist and accompanist. Listeners should expect a performance that leans into the sonata's sudden shifts in temper and its long, driving finale, alongside the wit and warmth of the variations.