Elisso Wirssaladze is much better known on the continent that in Britain, perhaps due to her few appearances in this country. Her last three concerts in London were great successes; a 1993 recital at the Wigmore Hall, a Brahms Quintet with the Borodin Quartet and Prokofiev’s Third Concerto at the Festival Hall, all sold out. She records exclusively for the German label Live Classics, which has released numerous CDs of core repertoire ranging from Mozart to Prokofiev. In fact the CD today includes these two composers, the programme being Mozart's Variations on "Lison Dormait", the Fantasy and Sonata in C Minor and Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 8, recorded live in Munich in 1995. It must be one of her best recordings the little known Variations being an incredible lesson on the possibilities of C Major, the Fantasy and Sonata dramatic, strident and exciting but always modest and smooth, and an explosive Prokofiev, as compelling as any other recording I have heard. Wirssaladze has an exceptionally forceful sound and incredible pianism, developed as she says by playing plenty of Mozart as a little girl!

Aion Newsletter 3/00