MARIAM BATSASHVILI: MORE THAN LISZT

 

Let’s first go back to the beginning. You were born June 1st 1993. Was that in a musical family?

 

I was not born in a family of professional musicians , but everyone around me liked music and there was always a piano standing in the living room. My elder 2 cousins have had  private lessons on it, and I kept listening to classical music nearly everyday, since I was ten month. 

 

At five you startet to have private piano lessons with Natalia Natsvlishvili. Was that your own wish or was it on order of your parents?

 

It was my grandmother’s wish, as she always wanted someone from our family to become a pianist, and also because I was always trying to so something at the piano, and as I watched my cousins play. Well, it seems I have congratulated my grandmother for her 80th birthday with the first prize at the Utrecht competition, as she had birthday lately. I remember somehow from far away, how my cousin Marika played the first movement of the Moonlight sonata by Beethoven and I (4 years by then) just sat down on the sofa, closed my eyes and asked/said, “O I feel I am going up and up, I am flying somewhere high”, but then I opened my eyes and I was there in the room; what a special feeling, sensation was that? 

 

When did you start your professional study with Grigory Gruzman at at the Tblisi Mikeladze Conservatory?

 

Prof. Gruzman teaches in Weimar at the Franz Liszt Musikhochschule, so I started working for my bachelor there with Mrs. Natsvlishvili, who accompanied me here in Utrecht during the entire competition, she is teaching on the E. Mikeladze music school in Tbilisi. For the finals prof. Gruzman joined as well.

 

 You surely sailed through in fast tempo through the bachelor and also master exams or?

 

I have accomplished my school final exam I my hometown in May, when I was 18 and have passed the entrance exam in Weimar that same month.

 

Is there anything special you remember about your study there? Seemingly you were a natural piano talent, born for the instrument. Striking during all competition rounds was how ‘complete’ a young pianist you are, having a perfect technique and always the right musical expression at your disposal. The one you can study and learn to a certain degree is the other a feeling, a gift of nature?

 

I don’t know how to answer this question. The only thing I can say is, that Music makes me feeling fulfilled, I love to perform, to learn, to go to the details on a very, very microscopic level. To understand the music and the period in which it was composed and then try to get the right ideas about it and the morality of the piece. 

What made you go to Goethe-Liszt city Weimar of all possibilities? Was it the teacher you got there? Who was (is) he or she?

 

I have chosen for a study in Weimar, at the HfM Franz Liszt because I could carry on with the teachers I wanted and I’m glad they accepted me. I was very happy I was accepted! Firstly I was lucky to be able to study with  wonderful prof. Gruzman, who is so friendly and stimulating. Then there is the kindest president Prof. Stoelzl and I got nice friends. Weimar indeed is the town of Goethe and Liszt, but also of Wagner, Schiller, Hummel and Bach. You meet them quasi everywhere with every step you put in town. What could be better? I am totally happy in Weimar!

You are an experienced competition candidate, for starters participating in Ettlingen, then having won the first prize at the Weimar Liszt competition. Did you play there mainly the same works as in Utrecht? What was the difference? Do you remember the commentary of the jury?

 

The competition in Weimar included pieces from Bach, Chopin, Rachmaninov and modern composers as well. I had to prepare a very broad program. So that competition had nothing in common with the competition here in Utrecht. Here I had to learn a 3 hours Liszt program. A wonderful many-sided one with works that were chosen by the organisers! I enjoyed learning each new piece and felt more and more in love with Franz Liszt.

Can you formulate your pianistic intentions, your ideals?

 

It is now my first goal to bring Liszt's intentions fully out. As I always say Liszt is just misunderstood by many, many people. And that is, because mainly pianists play Liszt as it would be something extremely virtuosic, a pianistic circus - like, showing foremost off the technical abilities of the performers. But then my question arises: why not playing every composer then from the viewpoint of the way that such Liszt is played? Imagine hearing Beethoven’s Appassionata with loud chords and brilliant passages only?  If we go into details (and Liszt really gives us a free master class, writing out everything he wants to be done) we will see a real Liszt, real deep music!

Which pianists are your idols?

 

I don’t have any yet.

Are you intending to focus your career on Liszt (like some others did on Chopin after winning the Warsaw Chopin competition)?

 

Well, perhaps I could give you an answer by showing you and letting you listen to Schubert’s B-dur sonata on my I-pad. I love music generally and have a broad taste, so I am playing nearly every composer with great pleasure and conviction.

I remember asking that same question when I interviewed Enrico Pace before he won the Utrecht competition in 1987. He had a little book with him, and showed that to me. It was the pocket score of Bach’s Art of the Fugue. A clear answer.

Do you have favourite composers apart from Liszt?

 

I really like nearly every classical composer, but Liszt is somehow someone special, I will always have him as my idol.

You already concertized worldwide from Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Russia, Israel and S. Africa to China. So you gained a lot of podium experience already. Did you feel great differences in the reception of your playing, say between France and China?

 

I always have had a nice reception from the listeners; that makes me double motivated and free to tell them what I want to say with music. 

As a winner in Utrecht you will be kept busy during next year. Do you look forward to that? Won’t you be fed up a bit with exclusively Liszt? And then, after that, are you settling down. Any idea where?

 

I can’t wait for the concerts to start! I look forward to them and I hope to learn a new repertoire meanwhile! Traveling, learning, playing! 

To finish: is there any question you always wanted to be posed because you have an answer burning on your tongue?

 

No, I can’t think of one at the moment.

 

Do you have time for hobbies, sports? If so which?

 

It’s necessary to have other activities for a good health and I am delighted to do a regular fitness training. Reading books is my second priority after music. As literature serves and functions just the same ways as music does!