When the new CD of Lisa Batiashvili playing the Beethoven violin concerto arrived, I wondered why on earth I had ordered it, since I already have no less than three off-air recordings of Batiashvili in this concerto. But no regrets with the newcomer; for me, this is a version of the Beethoven concerto to shelve with those of Erich Röhn, Georg Kulenkampff and Adolf Busch.

As usual, Batiashvili avoids all showing off or reveling in the joys of her 1709 Strad. She just absorbs herself in the music; I have never heard a performance of this concerto with so much piano and pianissimo playing. She also directs the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Dresden herself; a daring task, but the performance is remarkable for the way the (small) orchestra and the soloist really listen to each other. The concerto, for once, sounds almost like large-scale chamber music and one is suddenly conscious that a piece of music written in 1806 just does not need a large symphony orchestra fresh from playing Brahms and Bruckner.

The absence of a conductor leads to a couple of fluffs (mainly concerned with balance between orchestra and soloist) but the pluses far outnumber the minuses. The recording, too, is exemplary and one of the best concerto recordings I know in terms of naturalness of sound and balance between orchestra and soloist. A triumph all round. And, not least, the "coupling" is highly enjoyable: six pieces by Sulkhan Tsintsadze (arranged for violin and orchestra by Daddy Batiashvili). Novel, interesting and so much better than yet another Mozart concerto as filler.