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"Outstanding through and through": On 26 August, Miriam Batsashvili's second album was released on the Warner Classics label, centred on Liszt's piano transcriptions from the opera, lied, and organ repertoire.
In September 2017, Mariam Batsashvili was on concert tour in Mexico. News of the devastating earthquake on 19 September reached the pianist shortly before her first concert in Monterrey.
We talked to Mariam Batsashvili in 2017 – at a particularly exciting time in her career.
Her technical prowess and ability to negotiate Liszt’s showy grandeur is a given, but her sense of his inner world, his wistful, nonchalant poetry (…) sets her apart as one to watch.The Observer, Fiona Maddocks, 18/09/2019
The pianist Mariam Batsashvili gained international recognition at the 10th Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht 2014. Her musicianship seems to connect directly with one’s heart and her colours of sound, thoughtful interpretations and stupendous touch move and delight her audiences. As BBC New Generation Artist, she made her debuts at the Cheltenham Festival, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and with the Ulster Orchestra at the BBC Proms. The summer of 2019 saw the release of her first album for Warner Classics, her second album “Romantic Piano Masters” will be released in August 2022.
She already gained her first experiences with leading symphony orchestras, including the Dutch Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of James Gaffigan in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam (Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1), the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under Rafael Payare (Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1) and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Alexander Shelley (Liszt Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2). A regular guest at London’s Wigmore Hall, she has also given recitals in more than 30 countries – among these China, South Korea, Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa, France, Spain, Norway, the Baltic countries, Benelux and Germany. She has been the guest of many international festivals, such as the Beethovenfest Bonn, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, the Piano City festival in Milan and the Piano aux Jacobins festival in Toulouse.
Mariam Batsashvili was nominated by the European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) as ‘Rising Star’ for the 2016/17 season, and performed in the most significant concert halls throughout Europe. Last season, she gave performances at the Philharmonic Hall of St Petersburg, the Tonhalle Zürich, the Mozarteum Salzburg and the Wigmore Hall and made her acclaimed debut at the Philharmonie Berlin as part of the series “Debüt im Deutschlandfunk Kultur”.
Special highlights of the 2021/22 season were her recital debuts at the Wiener Konzerthaus, Rheingau Musik Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the Klavier-Festival Ruhr, the Schumannfest Dusseldorf, the Fundación Juan March Madrid and the De Bijloke Muziekcentrum Gent as well as orchestral concerts with the Orchestra of the Staatstheater Cottbus (Clara Schumann Piano Concerto), with the Filharmonia Opolska (Clara Schumann Piano Concerto and Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1), with the Duisburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Robert Schumann Piano Concerto) and with the Munich Symphony Orchestra (Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1).
Born 1993 in Tbilisi, Georgia, Mariam Batsashvili first studied with Natalia Natsvlishvili at the E. Mikeladze Central Music School in her hometown, before continuing at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt in Weimar with Professor Grigory Gruzman. In 2011 she won First Prize at the International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists in Weimar, and received the prestigious Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli Award in 2015. Mariam Batsashvili is a scholarship holder of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben and is supported by The Keyboard Charitable Trust. She has been an official Yamaha Artist since 2017.
Season 2022/23
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“[...] one thing is certain: through Batsashvili Liszt speaks to a new generation.”
Pianist UK, Peter Quantrill, Aug/Sept 2020
“Her technical prowess and ability to negotiate Liszt’s showy grandeur is a given, but her sense of his inner world, his wistful, nonchalant poetry – in the Grande études in A flat or the Consolations (Pensées poétiques) or the Polish Songs after Chopin – sets her apart as one to watch.”
The Observer, Fiona Maddocks, 18/09/2019
“Mariam Batsashvili began Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B minor powerfully – but not with violence, rather with grandeur. […] The young pianist has a superbly clear attack, and technically speaking plays perfectly, without being interested in perfection or making a show of it. No, she is interested in something quite different: in maintaining intimate contact with the accompanying orchestra, for example, not only with her playing, but also physically, with looks and gestures. She understands music making as concert-giving in the best sense – together.”
Süddeutsche Zeitung, Egbert Tholl, 13/05/2017
“With its extreme technical challenges, the work [Liszt’s Sonata in B minor] is not easily accessible for a wide audience. The night before last, however, these difficulties didn’t seem to be a hindrance, rather an incentive for the young star pianist from Georgia, who knew to emphasise to the full the expressive moments in the distinctive thundering ostinato passages.”
Heraldo de Aragón, Luis Alfonso Bes, 26/04/2017
“he competition can consider itself fortunate with a winner like Mariam Batsashvili. For her natural and poignant interpretations, charismatic appearance and a tone quality rarely heard among virtuosos.”
The Pianist UK
“Batsashvili is a brilliant and imaginative musician who infuses her playing with a suggestive tension.”
Eindhovens Dagblad (The Netherlands)
“One of the pianists that I am looking forward to hearing again. Her performance was very sensitive. It felt as if she could transmit her musical thoughts very well.”
Chopin magazine (Japan)
“She send out so many otherworldly aesthetic moments in her playing, and all come naturally. The spirit of Liszt gracefully immersed in her interpretation.”
Piano Artistry (China)