A superlative performance by the young Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili. There was no vanity in her playing, just an elegantly expressive virtuosity which went to the heart of this work, and her sound was ideally focused for the difficult acoustic. Her encore made a welcome break from the usual Bach/Kreisler routine: a Georgian song-and-dance by Sulkhan Tsintsadze, charmingly arranged for violin and orchestra by her father Tamas Batiashvili.

The Independent

“An outstanding performance of the Violin Concerto by Lisa Batiashvili, wonderfully controlled and tautly focused.”

The Guardian 08/2013

“No doubt, though about [Sakari Oramo’s] firm partnership with Lisa Batiashvili in Sibelius’s violin concerto. Their first notes shone like morning light breaking through mist. Batiashvili masterfully varied her tone and dynamics, and probed the concerto’s sometimes anxious emotions without melodrama. She’s the complete musician: Heart balancing head; ego placed at the music’s service”

The Times 08/2013

“The soloist was Lisa Batiashvili, outstanding even among the very many fine violinists of her generation.
This cadenza — a sudden freeing of the individual voice from its dark orchestral environment — was, in the hands of Batiashvili, a searing portrait of the creative soul inwardly screaming in anguish. … Batiashvili compressed the D-S-C-H motif tightly within both the cadenza and a Scherzo that seemed both to thumb the nose to authority, and to turn in on itself in grotesque self-mockery.
The sheer stamina, intensity of focus and perfectionism of pitch and voicing in Batiashvili’s performance was remarkable. And her encore — Shostakovich’s droll little Dance of the Dolls — was a perfectly judged release of tension.” –

The Times 01/2011

„There are many star female fiddlers, but Lisa Batiashvili is special, a violinist of ever-riveting depth and range.“

Listen (New York), 02/2011

„The true star of the evening, however, was the [Beethoven] concerto’s soloist, Lisa Batiashvili. The youngest competitor in the history of the Sibelius Violin Competition, Batiashvili delivered  an exceptionally nuanced and elegant performance of the work, with her color choices adding many sublime moments to the performance. Along with the orchestra, the soloist moved between Beethoven’s stormy outbursts and resplendent chorales with great ease—her tone never losing its beauty even in the highest of passages. Playing Fritz Kreisler’s cadenzas, Batiashvili brilliantly voiced the double-stopped counterpoint lines, adding an extra sense of drama even to the solo moments. The sold-out crowd ate it up, never relenting in its ovation until Batiashvili had taken three separate bows.“

 www.feastofmusic.com, 08/2012

„The Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili managed to ride the old warhorses to victory. The musicians ignored hand-me-down clichés, defied interpretive traditions and, most important, performed as if communal lives were at stake. […] 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, 08/2012

„Batiashvili left no question about why she is considered one of her generation’s finest violinists.“

Philadelphia Inquirer, 08/2012

„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.“

New York Times, 08/2012

„The exquisite centerpiece of the evening, however, was the Violin Concerto by Beethoven with the soloist Lisa Batiashvili. The astonishing ease with which the unpretentious Georgian violinist masters even the most extreme technical demands – her enticing tone a given – one already knows to expect from her. Yet, the performers brought together two different styles of music making without it feeling like a patchwork: on the one hand Batiashvili’s noble, discreet, more conventional playing style – expressive shifts included – and on the other Hengelbrock’s more direct approach. It succeeded because they listened and responded to each other in a seismographic way. The way everyone introduced and kept the intensity in the soft passages until the listener was brought to tears, was, after all unforgettable.“

Hamburger Abendblatt – 10/2012

„From her first entry, Lisa Batiashvili was heart-stopping. If you’re in Britain, she will be visiting next year, and whatever happens, do not miss her. Rearrange your holidays, pawn the Steinway, sell the family silver if necessary – whatever it takes, you must get a ticket. Since coming second in the Sibelius Competition as a 16-year-old in 1995, she has had a glittering career. She also possesses a phenomenal technique and a legato that could convince you the circular bow has finally been invented. Batiashvili’s talents were firmly at the service of the music, however, and every aspect of her performance showed focus and concentration.“

Bachtrack.com, 10/2012

„She impeccably made her fingers dance, fly, jump on her Stradivarius, and thereby got the utmost of what Prokofiev embedded in the score when writing his violin concerto: Initiative, exhilaration, excitement and zest for life. The sparkling violinist gave it all. […]Lisa Batiashvili entered the spotlight in her fiery red evening dress, playing with an irresistible radiance and desire to “win,” and became – in this fashionably insinuated “Jeu de cartes” of the violin – the “winner” of the evening with good margin.“

Berliner Morgenpost, 11/2012