Lisa Batiashvili at the Proms 2011

“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, August 2011)

“Like Oistrakh, Batiashvili intuits the power of the sweet, small voice to stand up in the face of massed ranks, and with her 1709 Stradivarius she spun out long yearning songs over the darkness of the orchestra's basses and horns, touching on unknown images and shuttered parts of the soul. Salonen reined in the Philharmonia’s volume to let her serenely mellifluous sound float those cantilenas high, ideally audible as it threaded through the Albert Hall resonance. If occasionally I felt he removed some of the tension with his careful volume control, Batiashvili decisively re-injected it 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.” - (Theartsdesk.com, August 2011)

“The results were spellbinding. From the Nocturne's snaking opening statement, 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. This conflict is at its starkest in the exhausting cadenza, where the soloist's musical personality breaks itself down to nothing before re-emerging in rampaging gestures, with a force derived from a fragile hold on despair. Like Beckett's narrator, the violinist must go on, can't go on, goes on.

So 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 (5 stars), August 2011)

“Equally tremendous, if not more so, was Lisa Batiashvili’s all-encompassing account of the same composer’s First Violin Concerto. Lisa Batiashvili projected her plangent line above it perfectly, eminently audible yet retaining the music’s underlying intimacy.” - (Seenandheard, August 2011)

Erste Geige in Georgien
Welt am Sonntag | von Manuel Brug | 08.05.2011

Neue Ostfront: Wie die weltberühmte Violinistin Lisa Batiashvili ihre Heimat wieder zu einer großen Musiknation machen will. Ein Reisebericht

“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)

“Lisa Batiashvili is special, a violinist of ever-riveting depth and range. Batiashvili realizes Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with an intensity both emotional and dynamic. Her phrasing in the Passacaglia and cadenza is fantastically subtle, her purity of tone like a blade to the heart.” (Listen Magazine, February 2011)

“This DG debut disc confirms Batiashvili as a powerful musical voice with an exciting future.” (The Observer, February 2011)

“It's a marvellous performance." (The Independent, February 2011)

“Her move across to DG brings with it a stunning label debut of quite a different order of power than anything she has given us before...With well-chosen fill-ups, this whole, unmissable disc is Lisa Batiashvili’s first great recording. More to come, one hopes." (Gramophone, February 2011)

“In the plaintive, halting phrases of the first movement she played with a shimmering, delicate tone and conveyed all the mystery of the music... but once the movement took off on its episodic, vehement explorations, Batiashvili was all arresting command and incisive attack. In the pensive Adagio movement, she played with aching tenderness and melting sound. The rousing finale had rustic vigor galore… She seems to have everything it takes for a major career: thorough musicianship, virtuosity, charisma and a lovely stage presence. The ovation was enormous” 
(The New York Times, June 2010)

"Batiashvili’s response was as poised as it was chaste, an almost wilful reluctance to succumb to the enticement of the melody. Then the beast within surfaced in the gruffly overworked G-string and we began to realise that appearances can be deceptive. The scherzo had a devilish glint and ear-pricking clarity – indeed it would be hard to imagine an exposition of the orchestral part more subtly tailored to a soloist. Enchantment, when it finally came in the aerial flutterings of the closing pages, felt earned – and all the more satisfying for it." (The Independent, April 2010)