“Batiashvili can always justify revisiting a popular work such as the Brahms Violin Concerto. Her reading of this tough masterpiece is more lyrical than combative, but there is a tensile quality throughout. Speeds are well judged and the Dresden band play winningly. It was a brilliant idea to fill the disc with the Three Romances, Op 22, by the woman with whom Brahms became infatuated. Lush and poignant, they make one regret that Clara’s career as a composer became subordinate to her husband’s.”

The Sunday Times, 01/2013

“Batiashvili maintains a firm line and a sweetly singing tone throughout, again coaxing from Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Dresden an intimate veil of sound, expressive and dreamily impassioned . . . . Batiashvili manages to impress her own stamp upon a performance that balances the intimate gesture with the heroic impulse.”

Audiophile Audition, 01/2013

“From her very first entry until the last note she played, I was in some kind of trance caused by the exquisite, rich, silky tone which emanated from her 1709 Stradivarius. Not only was her sound beautiful, but she commanded the stage, seemingly feeling completely at ease in front of the orchestra. There was some great virtuosic playing too, most notably in the cadenza, where Batiashvili elected to play her own adaption of Fritz Kreisler’s cadenza, rather than the more common one by Brahms’ colleague Joseph Joachim.”

Bachtrack 02/2012 — (concert with Sydney Symphony Orchestra)