Romantic Piano Masters Mariam Batsashvili

• César Franck (1822 - 1890): Prélude, Fugue et Variation, Op. 18, CFF 30B:
• 1 Franck: Prélude, Fugue et Variation, Op. 18, CFF 30B: I. Prélude (Andantino) 03:24
• 2 Franck: Prélude, Fugue et Variation, Op. 18, CFF 30B: II. Lento + III. Fugue (Allegretto ma non troppo) 03:22
• 3 Franck: Prélude, Fugue et Variation, Op. 18, CFF 30B: IV. Variation (Andantino) 03:54
• Sigismond Thalberg (1812 - 1871): Grand Caprice sur des motifs de "La sonnambula" de V. Bellini, Op. 46:
• 4 Thalberg: Grand Caprice sur des motifs de "La sonnambula" de V. Bellini, Op. 46 12:29
• Franz Liszt (1811 - 1886): Isoldens Liebestod, S. 447:
• 5 Liszt: Isoldens Liebestod, S. 447 (After Richard Wagner) 07:16
• Die Loreley, S. 532:
• 6 Liszt: Die Loreley, S. 532 06:45
• Lieder aus Franz Schubert's "Schwanengesang", S. 560:
• 7 Liszt: Lieder aus Franz Schubert's "Schwanengesang", S. 560: No. 7 Ständchen 06:07
• 8 Liszt: Lieder aus Franz Schubert's "Schwanengesang", S. 560: No. 3 Aufenthalt 03:10
• Frédéric Chopin (1810 - 1849): Valse No. 5 in A-Flat Major, Op. 42:
• 9 Chopin: Valse No. 5 in A-Flat Major, Op. 42 03:49
• Franz Liszt: Valse de l'opéra "Faust", S. 407:
• 10 Liszt: Valse de l'opéra "Faust", S. 407 (After Gonoud) 09:37
• 3 Caprices-Valses, S. 214:
• 11 Liszt: 3 Caprices-Valses, S. 214: I. Valse de bravoure 07:34
• Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828): Waltz in G-Flat Major, D. Anh. I/14, "Kupelwieser Walzer":
• 12 Schubert: Waltz in G-Flat Major, D. Anh. I/14, "Kupelwieser Walzer" 01:52
• Total Runtime 01:09:19

Info for Romantic Piano Masters

The Georgian-born pianist leaves nothing to be desired with the generous warmth of her interpretations," wrote the music magazine Gramophone about Mariam Batsashvili's reading of works by Chopin and Liszt. The Romantic Piano Masters recording also revolves entirely around Franz Liszt and his contemporaries.

However, the pianist does not focus on Liszt's own works, but on his piano arrangements, which the famous keyboard artist made to compositions by his colleagues. Among them are songs by Franz Schubert as well as works for large symphonic ensembles, for example the waltz from Gounod's opera Faust. Liszt's ability to transfer the sound of an orchestra to the piano keyboard is unsurpassed for Mariam Batsashvili. He evokes "the energy of the whole universe" with his transposition of Wagner's Isoldes Liebestod, the pianist enthuses. But Liszt's then artistic (and now almost forgotten) rival Sigismund Thalberg is also represented on the album with his highly virtuosic arrangement of themes from Bellini's opera La sonnambula. Harold Bauer's piano arrangement of César Franck's organ work Prélude Fugue et Variation, on the other hand, creates a completely different mood.

"It's a piece to meditate on and ponder - for me it opens the doors to spirituality," says Mariam Batsashvili. And with the right touch technique, the pianist even has the ability to "create the illusion of an organ in a church acoustic", she adds.

"With virtuosic, yet clearly structured playing, she shows that Liszt often condenses, expands or illuminates the originals in a new way. (...) Piece de resistance for dreaming away: Liszt's keyboard version of Wagner's "Liebestod" from the opera "Tristan und Isolde", delicately nervous and yet celebrated with overwhelming grandeur by Batsashvili - pure ecstasy of sound." (AUDIO.de)

"Batsashvili fortunately does not read Liszt's sometimes highly virtuosic versions as an unrestrained keyboard storm throughout - as they were still mainly interpreted in the 1980s and 90s - but impressively works out the romanticist's extremely significant shifts in accent." (Journal Frankfurt)

"Mariam Batsashvili has breathed in the Romantic piano and sound world like a magic fragrance. On her third album, her playing gushes forth as if from a blissful spring. With flawless technique, grandiose soulful sympathy and her ability to translate every twist and turn of her sensibility into sound, she creates a colour palette of glowing poetry and fascinating variety in every piece. As a result, she achieves both brilliant interpretative performances and touching emotional moments. All interpretations reveal a multi-layered, touching sound world, making this album one of the most important piano releases of this year, both interpretatively and in terms of repertoire value. Piano fans should not miss it." (Michael Stange, ioco.de)

Mariam Batsashvili, piano

Mariam Batsashvili
The 26-year-old pianist Mariam Batsashvili already ranks among the most promising artists of her generation. She gained international recognition at the 10th Franz Liszt Piano Competition in Utrecht 2014. With the start of the 2017/18 season, she became a BBC New Generation Artist and continues to perform at major festivals and concert venues across the UK as part of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme. She has already made her debuts at the Cheltenham Festival, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Ulster Orchestra, with which she will play for the first time at the BBC Proms in 2019. The summer of 2019 sees the release of her first album for Warner Classics.

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), the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra (Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 2), the Düsseldorf Symphony under Alexandre Bloch (Clara Schumann Piano Concerto) and the MDR Symphony Orchestra under Dmitry Liss (Mozart Piano Concerto No. 23 K.488). 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.

She 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”.

Her debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under Alexander Shelley, in which she played Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in 2018, resulted in an immediate re-invitation for the season of 2019/20 with his 2nd Piano Concerto. She also received great acclaim for her debut concerts in China and Japan and will soon make her debut with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra under Sylvain Cambreling (Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1). Other highlights of the new season include her debut at the Musikverein Vienna with the Württembergische Philharmonie Reutlingen under Fawzi Haimor (Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 2), in Brussels’ Flagey with Le Concert Olympique under Jan Caeyers (Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 K.466) as well as recitals in the Allerheiligen-Hofkirche Munich, Philharmonie Essen, St. George’s Hall Liverpool, Opéra de Dijon, the Robert-Schumann-Gesellschaft Düsseldorf and BASF Ludwigshafen.

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.

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 (…) She understands music making as concert-giving in the best sense – together. "Süddeutsche Zeitung, Egbert Tholl)

This album contains no booklet.