The Week in Reviews, Op. 449: Lisa Batiashvili, Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider

May 14, 2024, 6:01 PM · In an effort to promote the coverage of live violin performance, Violinist.com each week presents links to reviews of notable concerts and recitals around the world.

Violinist Lisa Batiashvili, performing at the Berliner Philharmoniker's 2024 Europakonzert in Georgia. Photo by Stephan Rabold, courtesy of the Berliner Philharmoniker.

Lisa Batiashvili performed Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major with the Berliner Philharmoniker in its 2024 Europakonzert at Tsinandali Estate in Georgia.

Billboard: "The prominent violinist Lisa Batiashvili, who comes from Georgia and is now an artist in residence at the Berliner Philharmoniker, performed the solos in Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D Major with power and exquisite sensitivity....Musicians seldom solve international disagreements, and it’s not their job to do so, but shows like this bring countries closer together in a way that shows what they have to offer one another. "

Nikita Boriso-Glebsky performed music of Ysaÿe and Joachim The Orchestra Now and with Leon Botstein.

New York Classical Review: "Boriso-Glebsky made his entrance with a formidable passage in tenths, and continued to impress thereafter with passionate surges, bold double- and triple-stops, and flashing scales. His cantabile passages sang sweetly and soared high (in Ysaÿe's Violin Concerto in D minor)."
The Millbrook Independent: "...the performance (of Joseph Joachim's "Variations for Violin and Orchestra") by young Nikita exceeded my expectations and the performance of the work was thrilling and memorable. There is an exciting and exuberant daring in the showmanship of the lead violin (the work was written as a showcase for what a great violinist may achieve). This was an interesting rarity that stamped the character of the concert as a whole."

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider performed and conducted Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 2 in D Major with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

WTTW: "Not only did he lead and play along with the musicians who revealed the golden sound of works by Mozart and Stravinsky, but he also joined the string section that captured the full beauty of the fabled violinist Fritz Kreisler’s very brief but irresistible 'Liebesleid' (Love’s Sorrow)."

Pekka Kuusisto and composer Gabriel Kahane performed works from their new project, "Council," in Minneapolis.

Twin Cities.com: "The two composer/musicians dazzled the audience with playful experimentations, absorbing melodies, a bit of improvisation and an off-the-cuff style."

The Viano Quartet performed a recital for Chamber Music San Francisco.

San Francisco Classical Voice: "'Viano' is a word these young artists coined to represent their coming together as one instrument. Certainly, the ensemble’s unison passages were flawless in Haydn’s Quartet in D Major, Op. 64, No. 5. Still, this is a first violinist’s piece, and Wang, steering the group with silvery sound, rose to the occasion and dazzled, especially in the marathon passagework in the hornpipe finale."

Karen Gomyo performed Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto with the National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland).

The Arts Desk: "No soloist gets to perform Shostakovich’s colossal First Violin Concerto without mastery of its fearsome technical demands. But not all violinists have the imagination to colour and inflect the Hamlet-like monologue of its withdrawn first movement, or the madness of a 20th century Lear in its poleaxing cadenza, a movement in itself. From her first, deeply eloquent phrases, Karen Gomyo told us that she was one of the few who could."

Benjamin Baker performed Barber's Violin Concerto with BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Nation CYMRU: "New Zealand violinist Benjamin Baker offered a superb interpretation of the work, making even the most technically challenging passages seem effortless."

Violist Tabea Zimmermann and cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras the Belcea Quartet performed sextets at Wigmore Hall.

The Guardian: "The closing moments were almost pointillistic as all six musicians hurled themselves through one more turn on Brahms’s harmonic merry-go-round – a collective effort, joyously unbuttoned."

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The Week in Reviews, Op. 449: Lisa Batiashvili, Nikita Boriso-Glebsky, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider

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