Mariam Batsashvili entices with jewel like brilliance in Haydn’s D major sonata and astonishes in Liszt as she conquered Olympian heights with fearless abandon at the limit of what only Liszt himself would have made possible .
Haydn played with wit and charm as Liszt spoke with demonic seduction. A perfectly equilibrated Haydn of jewel like precision, where the composers restrained brilliance of his age was a marvel of characterisation.
Liszt on the other hand was played without the restraint of bar lines as this is a personal interpretation of a great artist with a vision of monumental proportions.
Mozart’s innocuous D minor Fantasia was given an operatic performance where the characters entered with larger than life declamations . The simple chiselled opening melody was played with extraordinary luminosity as Mariam played with sounds like icicles on a bed of barren desolation. Whispered palpitations were played with quite extraordinary sensitivity to sound as the Allegretto opened like a breath of fresh air on such a torrid scene.
Schubert’s F minor Impromptu was also given a platform on this operatic stage . With the commanding opening flourishes giving way to a heart rending duet between soprano and tenor.
Of course this was just the preparation for Liszt’s rarely heard Fantasy on Mozart’s Figaro and Don Giovanni S.697.
Here I must admit that I thought I was going to hear something like the Don Giovanni paraphrase which is a recognised masterpiece of this genre much lauded by Busoni, Arrau, Rosen and many others . Alas this was certainly not the case today and one can understand why it has been abandoned so long to oblivion . A hotch potch of melodies pinched from Mozart and joined together by string where it was only the tour de force of this Piaf of the Piano that it managed to survive its over lengthy outing .
As an antidote Mariam offered a magical account of Chopin’s Nocturne op posth in C sharp minor where her extraordinary sense of balance created a sound world that is quite unique. She and Vikingur Ólafsson have both created extraordinary sound worlds by a sense of touch and balance and listening so sensitively to every sound they create.
La Campanella that followed showed off Mariam’s refined tonal palette and the same mastery of the great pianists of a Golden era, when pianists were not afraid of having something to say and stamping their unique personality and mastery on performances that became legendary.
