Lisa Batiashvili

“… Lisa Batiashvili's triumphant account of the Brahms Violin Concerto. She played with a ravishing and varied tone, supple phrasing, firm rhythm and a close regard for the developmental logic of the music. With her leonine bow arm she drew a bright, penetrating yet wonderfully flexible sound from her instrument. Moreover, her rubato was placed entirely at the service of the music, especially in the slow movement. The crowd went wild at the end. (John von Rhein, Chicago Tribune, April 2013)

“The great D Major Violin Concerto brought a third eloquent partner, Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili, for as fine a live performance of the work that I can recall. Her playing arose from the orchestra sound and was never imposed upon it. She had a combination of strength and intimacy that brought David Oistrakh to mind. That she plays a 1715 Stradivarius that belonged to Joseph Joachim, the dedicatee and first performer of the concerto, added yet another line of underscoring to the pervasive sense of continuity. There was constant listening and communication between soloist, conductor and orchestra and details, and Romantic emphases often brushed past emerged clearly. Even the odd little Busoni cadenza, a dialogue with timpanist Thomas Kaeppler, fit perfectly. A 1990s alumna of Ravinia’s Steans Institute (then using her given name, Elisabeth), Batiashvili made her CSO debut in Highland Park 13 years ago with Christoph Eschenbach. She needs to be a part of our lives here again.” (Andrew Patner, Chicago Sun-Times, April 2013)

“Lisa Batiashvili, the excellent soloist in the concerto, played with refined tone and lively temperament and offered a nice surprise, replacing the usual cadenza by Brahms’s friend Joseph Joachim with one by Ferruccio Busoni, complete with timpani accompaniment.” (James R. Oestreich, The New York Times, April 2013)

“This performance is lively and warm, partly thanks to Batiashvili [the concerto's electrifying soloist on this CD], who sets the dominant tone in her darkly sensuous opening line. Throughout Batiashvili remains herself: less showy than some but deeply responsive to the music's inner workings and its colours. The range of hues summoned within her long phrasings is wondrously wide, each one delicately applied. The slow movement, the concerto's singing heart, is tender without being sentimental... Here is the sort of thoughtful reading that makes you fall in love with the concerto all over again.” (Geoff Brown, The Times, January 2013)

“Commanding a dazzling technique at the service of profound sensitivity, she took telling liberties with tempo and line yet always sustained rhythmic tension. Exploring vast dynamic extremes, she soared in dramatic outbursts, whispered in lyrical indulgences and lingered poignantly over subtle nuances. She was inspired, and inspiring, even when breezing through Fritz Kreisler’s fiendishly anachronistic cadenzas.” (Financial Times, August 2012)

“Ms. Batiashvili played with pure, gorgeous tone and fabulous technique. She made child’s play of Fritz Kreisler’s cadenzas, even in double-stopped counterpoint. Could you have fairly asked for more? The audience, to judge from its standing ovation, was fully content.” (The New York Times, August 2012)

“Lisa Batiashvili is one of the most fabulous violinists of our time: the warm and radiant sound she draws from her Stradivarius, combined with her lyricism – intense but never forced – mark her out as a truly great artist.” (Le Figaro, October 2011)

"The results were spellbinding. Batiashvili chained herself to the writhing melody, her expressive style seamlessly matched to the collision between public and private emotion at the heart of the work...Batiashvili went on, with an encore from Shostakovich's Dances of the Dolls, further confirming the seamless expressive marriage she has formed with Salonen and the Philharmonia." (The Guardian, August 2011)

"Esa-Pekka Salonen and Lisa Batiashvili have already recorded Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto, and the bond between them was evident in a delicate yet deeply searching performance of this melancholy, epic work with Salonen's orchestra, the Philharmonia...Batiashvili decisively re-injected the tension in her taut playing of the great Cadenza, and she has every bit of the technique required for the lethal difficulties of the last movement." (The Arts Desk, August 2011)

“The soloist was the immensely gifted and accomplished young violinist Lisa Batiashvili. All the impressive attributes of her playing were present here: a plush, shimmering, beautifully focused sound; impeccable intonation; rhythmic integrity; a winning combination of elegance and impetuosity.” (The New York Times, March 2011)

“Her playing is often breathtaking – she has a hugely adaptable sound, a well-judged and flexible vibrato, immaculate phrasing, and a piercingly precise sense of intonation. Even better, she knows how to use all these in the service of the music…There’s a real sense of a story being told, and a deep and touching sincerity to these performances.” (The Strad, March 2011)