Octo_Russ

Sibelius - Violin Concerto [Batiashvili/ Oramo-Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra]

Here's yet another Sibelius Violin Concerto, last month i spoke about having Fifteen versions of this work [27 September 2010], well here's the sixteenth!, and a great addition, the coupling is a world premier recording of Lindberg's Violin Concerto, hmmm interesting, i've only listened to it once, and i need to listen to it more to form an opinion, the Sibelius is a live recording, but i only discovered such when it got to the end and everyone started clapping!, and not coughing during the performance!.

Lisa Batiashvili is Georgian / East European, she was born in 1979, and she made these recordings in 2007, the booklet / back insert are exceptional, some superb photography [by Mat Hennek], virtually monotone pictures, apart from of course the violin itself, which nicely stands out, especially that lovely wood grain that Liza shows off on the front cover.

I so much enjoyed this middle movement, one thing i notice about this disc, is the superb sound coming from Batiashvili's violin, really well caught, the initial entry of the violin [0:40+] is lovely, a nice husky sound, like a mezzo-soprano, about a third of the way through, the low strings turn to forte [3:12+] with double bass 'beats' in the background, and then the three trumpet blasts come [3:25, 3:42 & 3:50], with timpani growing in volume throughout, i love these trumpet blasts, an excellent use of brass from Sibelius, and straight after the Batiashvili's violin pleads over sorrowful double strings [3:56+], while the bass continues to chug in the background, towards the middle end of the piece, the violin starts to soar [5:00+], and reaches its climax [5:19], and thereafter slowly floats back down to earth, this disc is a great addition to my growing collection, and it's good to have Batiashvili's account in there too.

Here's Lisa Batiashvili playing the second movement on YouTube.