To judge from the large and hugely enthusiastic audience for Mariam Batsashvili’s Wigmore appearance, the Georgia-born pianist, who was a BBC New Generation artist in 2017-19 and is now in her early 30s, has already established a faithful following in London. At initial encounter the reason for all that enthusiasm is not immediately obvious; on the platform she seems a contained, almost austere figure, and similarly her playing has no unnecessary frills. But a pianist who is just as convincing in both Brahms and Liszt, the twin poles of late Romantic piano music, clearly has something special, and as her concert went on, the more compelling an artist Batsashvili seemed to be.
She began with a Haydn sonata, No 50 in D major, making the grace notes and trills that decorate its opening theme as crisp as possible, and ensuring its unexpectedly intense minor-key slow movement had all the weight it needed. A run through of Beethoven’s Rondo a Capriccio Op 129, Rage Over a Lost Penny, followed that brilliantly exploited the silvery top register of her Yamaha instrument (rather than the Wigmore’s standard Steinway). But it was Batsashvili’s account of Brahms’s six Klavierstücke Op 118, that took her recital on to another level. Every one of those concentrated miniatures seemed to encapsulate its own distinctive world, all expressive bones laid bare, their poise only occasionally threatened by cluttered textures, perhaps too generously pedalled.
On paper, the second half of the programme seemed quite lightweight by comparison – two of Schubert’s Impromptus D935, followed by a pair of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies. But the flair with which she dispatched the Liszt was rewarding enough. It was the Liszt piano competition in Utrecht in 2014 that first brought Batsashvili international recognition, and it was obvious from the brilliance of these performances, and the fearlessness with which she attacked the rhapsodies’ most extreme technical challenges, that she really does have a special affinity with the composer, as much as with Brahms too.
• Available on BBC Sounds until 21 February.
