The Week in Reviews, Op. 235: Lisa Batiashvili, Joshua Bell, Baiba Skride

By Laurie Niles: 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.Lisa Batiashvili performed the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with West-Eastern Divan Orchestra at the BBC Proms.

• The Guardian: "There was more Tchaikovsky when the Georgian virtuoso Lisa Batiashvili joined them for the quicksilver violin concerto, her seamless phrasing and golden tone, particularly in the runaway finale, marking this out as the evening’s highlight."
• Financial Times: "This is a partnership well tried in recordings and Batiashvili used the time Barenboim gave her to find a wealth of intense lyricism. He was a sensitive accompanist, keeping the orchestra light on its feet whenever she was playing."

Joshua Bell performed the Bruch Concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

• The Daily Gazette: "Bell exceeded anyone’s expectations. His fabulous, precise technique, strongly nuanced melodies and the sensitive arch he gave to his phrases were riveting. Every note had meaning. Nezet-Seguin followed him phrase to phrase watching him closely with an energetic orchestra that was totally supportive. The audience, which had been spellbound, responded with thundering applause and a standing ovation."

Baiba Skride performed the Bernstein Serenade with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood.

• Berkshire Eagle: "Sensitively accompanied by Nelsons and the orchestra, Skride's genuine musicianship and virtuoso flair emerged, rising to the occasion and doing more than justice to this 1954 quasi-violin concerto."
• Vulture: "In a performance supercharged with fervor and nuance, the piece can be effective. Delivered lukewarm, as Nelsons and violinist Baiba Skride did, it has a tendency to congeal."

Augustin Hadelich performed the Beethoven Violin Concerto with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

• Dominion Post: " the wonderful playing continued through the lovely slow movement, into the jaunty finale....The encore - Paganini's 24th Caprice- gave us more dazzling violin playing."

Simone Porter performed the Barber Violin Concerto with the Colburn Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival.

• Edinburgh Guide: "Simone was totally confident and totally secure in her performance. There can be no doubt she has a wonderful career ahead of her."

Kam Ning performed Chen Zhangyi's Violin Concerto "Vanda" with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra.

• The Strait Times: "The first two botanically inspired movements were slow and the fast finale, titled A Renaissance, included a virtuosic jazz-inflected cadenza by London-based soloist Kam Ning. Her encore relived the raucous sounds of Chinatown, a Paganinian movement from her father Kam Kee Yong's 1976 sonata Huai Ku."

Pamela Frank performed in recital with pianist Emanuel Ax at Tanglewood.

• Hudson Valley 360: "These violin sonatas are a tour de force for the piano, but are much more interesting because of the interplay between the two instruments and the repetition of the beautiful themes as they repeat answering each other."

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