I am often criticised (particularly by members of my family) for having multiple versions of the same piece of recorded music. Things become even more ridiculous when one has multiple versions of the same piece of music by the same artist. For the record, I have FOUR recordings of Lisa Batiashvili playing the Beethoven violin concerto.

Until yesterday, I had two of the same Lisa playing the first Shostakovich violin concerto; now I have three, having recorded off-air her performance on Wednesday evening at a Promenade concert in London (with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen). Happily, there is a point in having three; this latest version is absolutely superb, and the 32 year old Batiashvili has really grown into the music and underlines the fact that, often, live performances give 15% more than a comparable studio one (Batiashvili recorded this same work with Salonen in a studio last year).

Batiashvili sounds very “Moscow school” and has Oistrakh's smooth, seamless tone. But she has retained her gift of being totally involved in what she is playing, in concentrating hard on the music, and in keeping a long line to the music. I loved this latest performance even though, a bit like the Elgar violin concerto, the first Shostakovich does not lack for superb recorded performances (Julia Fischer, Vadim Repin, Maxim Vengerov and Leila Josefowicz spring immediately to mind). In Wednesday night's performance, Lisa Batiashvili sounds entirely believable and comes over as a great artist. Salonen, as before in the studio, is an admirable partner.