Gramophone Names Batiashvili Album Finest Recording of Jan 2017

Leading British classical music review magazine Gramophone has named a new album featuring Georgian violinist Lisa Batisahvili the finest recording of January 2017.

The recording features violin performance by Batiashvili, playing with the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra and led by the renowned conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim.

The album itself was released by German label Deutsche Grammophon and has been named Recording of the Month of January by Gramophone magazine (unaffiliated with the release label). The magazine lauds the album for "concerto-playing of the very highest order from Lisa Batiashvili and Daniel Barenboim.”

“This striking set, bringing together the luminous playing of Batiashvili and the Staatskapelle Berlin under Daniel Barenboim, is a delight from start to finish,” writes Martin Cullingford, editor and the publisher of Gramophone.

The Georgian violinist's artistry in playing these classical works was also praised by Barenboim.

“I am very happy to do [the recording] with Lisa Batiashvili because she has a feel for it, and she plays it with a deep understanding of the vastly different elements in this piece,” said the conductor.

Gramophone magazine’s website further adds: “There is no violinist currently playing the high end of the international circuit that I would sooner go out of my way to hear than Lisa Batiashvili.”

The review concludes by simply tagging the recording as "full of beautiful and inventive violin-playing from one of the world’s most mesmerizing talents.”

Germany-based Georgian violinist Lisa Batiashvili gained international recognition at the age of 16 as the youngest-ever participant of the prestigious Sibelius Competition for classical music performance. Her family had settled in Germany after leaving Georgia in 1991. She studied at the Hamburg Musikhochschule, and in 1995 was a prize winner in the aforementioned International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition.

Batiashvili was one of the first of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists, from 1999 to 2001. Among other international prizes, she has been awarded two ECHO Klassik awards and the MIDEM Classical Award for her performances and recordings.

She records exclusively with Deutsche Grammophon.