Lisa Batiashvili & Friends

Violinist Lisa Batiashvili has been at the top of our wanted list for a long time. A natural talent from Georgia, she gives only a limited number of concerts each year. So each of them is a great occasion. When Alfred Brendel heard the then twenty-two-year-old violinist for the first time, he praised her in terms that every young musician dreams of: "She allows every note to sing and speak, and she is proof once again that great violinists already manifest themselves at an early age". Ten years later, all superlatives still fall short. Batiashvili's sound is warm and full, her intonation rock-solid. She is equally at home in Bach as in Beethoven and Brahms, and is avid in hunting out new, contemporary works. The programme that she and her friends are presenting is typical of her: Beethoven's well-known First String Trio and Mozart's Oboe Quartet tucked in among little-performed works by Britten and Dohnányi, and a contemporary work by the Frenchman Nicolas Bacri.