Elisabeth Batiashvili is a major talent with a huge future, as those who
heard last year's Proms performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto may
remember. On this EMI Debut CD she performs an enterprising programme of
German classics, and performs it with assurance.
The EMI recording gives her the utmost support, atmospherically capturing
the rich and firm tone of her violin, so that the slower music in Bach's
unaccompanied Partita in B minor is tonally satisfying. Her performance is
magisterially phrased, and sounds as if the music could not possibly be
otherwise, with musical judgements of the highest order. Occasionally she
is inclined to opt for slower tempi, as in the Double (variation) following
the Sarabande, but since her tone is so secure this simply adds to the character
of her playing.
In Schubert's little known Rondo Batiashvili's attention to details of dynamic
nuance is nicely captured by the EMI engineers, allowing the momentum of
the quicker music to emerge with a real sense of classical proportion.
Brahms's great G major Sonata is a wonderfully lyrical and tuneful composition,
requiring the most subtle of relationships between violin and piano. Here
Batiashvili and her accompanist Milana Chernyakavska make an excellent team,
as confirmed, for example, by the natural unanimity of approach in the delivery
of the glorious first theme of the Sonata. Their maturity and insight belies
their years, and is the product of true artistry. This disc is strongly
recommended.
Terry Barfoot
Elisabeth Batiashvili
(violin)
