Lisa Batiashvili - Sibelius / Lindberg: Violin Concertos (2007) [Repost, upgrade]

“It's been said that Magnus Lindberg forges his works more from harmony and rhythm than from unfolding melodic lines, and the celestial acrobatics of this neatly constructed Violin Concerto, a real star-burst of a piece, tend to bear out that theory. It was premiered last year in New York, the soloist, as here, Lisa Batiashvili, whose agility and tonal sweetness serve as an ideal foil for the blinding colours on Lindberg's constantly shifting canvas. The work opens like a bright light descending, the soloist a first among equals who, beyond her brief cadenza, witnesses a gradual darkening of orchestral texture.
The harmonic complexion can be either ravishing or dissonant, and the range of musical gesture, from ethereal reverie to Bartókian dance is consistently gripping. The breathless stream of invention recalls Lindberg's similarly hyperactive Clarinet Concerto – anyone who enjoyed that work should relish this one too.
Sibelius's Concerto provides a comforting disc companion, especially as the performance so memorably focuses on the dreamier elements of the first movement. Batiashvili bows a seamless, sensual line, her tone smooth as silk. Sakari Oramo conducts a cleanly detailed and warmly articulated accompaniment, stronger on pulse than on drama, and at times sounding almost like chamber music. Those who like their Sibelius flinty or rough-hewn might find this reading just a little too civilised, though for me the joy of hearing everything so considerately thought through and 'joined up' more than compensates for a lack of elemental drive. In any case it's the Lindberg that makes this disc unmissable.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide

Artist Biography by Robert Cummings

Violinist Lisa Batiashvili has developed a highly successful career both as a soloist appearing with the world's leading orchestras and as a chamber player performing in duos or larger groups. A major recording artist, her vast repertory encompasses works from J.S. Bach and Beethoven to Prokofiev and Shostakovich and contemporaries. Batiashvili has given the world premieres of several important works, including the Magnus Lindberg Violin Concerto, written specifically for her, which she recorded to great acclaim. Batiashvili has appeared with the major orchestras of New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, London, Berlin, Leipzig, Amsterdam, and Tokyo and with such artists as pianists Hélène Grimaud and Till Fellner, violinists Christian Tetzlaff and Isabelle Faust, cellist Adrian Brendel, and oboist François Leleux, who is also her husband. Batiashvili has recorded for EMI, DG, EuroArts, and Sony.

Lisa (Elizabeth) Batiashvili was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 1979. Her father was a violinist and her mother a pianist. Before age three Batiashvili was playing a miniature violin. She also studied piano in her childhood. From age eight, she studied music at a Tbilisi music school for gifted children.

Her family emigrated to Munich, Germany, when she was 11. Batiashvili studied music at the Hamburg Musikhochschule with Mark Lubotski and at the Munich Musikhochschule with Ana Chumachenco. At 16 Batiashvili captured second prize at the Helsinki-based Sibelius Competition. In 1999-2001 she was a BBC New Generation Artist, debuting at the 2000 BBC Proms.

In 2001 Batiashvili appeared in a recording premiere of the Olli Mustonen Concerto for 3 violins, with fellow violinists Jaakko Kuusisto and Pekka Kuusisto, on the Ondine label. Over the next few years her career blossomed with major concert dates across Europe and the U.S. In August 2006 she premiered the Lindberg Concerto at Avery Fisher Hall, with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, Louis Langrée conducting.

Batiashvili signed a recording contract with Sony in 2007 and went on to record the Beethoven Violin Concerto for that label and a disc of works by Mozart and Britten. In 2008 Batiashvili gave the premiere in London of the Kancheli double concerto Broken Chant, for violin, oboe, and orchestra, with her husband François Leleux and the BBC Symphony Orchestra. After living in Munich for 15 years (from 1994) Batiashvili, her husband, and children moved to France. Her later recordings include the 2011 Echoes of Time, a CD on DG that includes works by Shostakovich, Kancheli, Rachmaninov, and Pärt. allmusicguide