Batsashvili, Hallé, Wong, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a star in the piano universe

Mariam Batsashvili, the young virtuosa pianist from Georgia, is a star. No doubt about that. Trained at the Liszt Academy in Weimar and winner of the International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists in that city in 2015, she should know something about how to play Liszt’s music.

Her performance of his Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Hallé and Kahchun Wong – and her solo encore after it – proved that she does. It’s not just that she can play all the notes, all in the right order, and at times with phenomenal speed: it’s her portrayal of the music’s essential characteristics in its kaleidoscopically changing moods, and her gloriously liquid and bell-like touch, that impress as she does it. Everything is precise, but there’s freedom, too. In the opening of the concerto, she hammered out the grandiose opening octaves and fistful-of-notes chords with ease, but brought passion and warmth to the lyrical passages that conveyed more than just relaxation and contrast.

As the Quasi Adagio began, her playing was suitably restrained in the initial reverie, then an explosive change as the dramatic recitative breaks in – but still a willingness to let others occupy the spotlight, giving the wind soloists their moments. As the music merged into scherzo mood, all was crispness and life, and by the end it was sheer pleasure to hear the greatest piano showman’s writing delivered with such adroitness, and even a sense of fun.

For good measure, she followed that with a glorious canter through the second Hungarian Rhapsody, as if that’s what she does for relaxation. Maybe it is – she is a remarkable star even in a universe of piano luminaries.

Wong was a sensitive and sympathetic accompanist, revealing more of his undoubted skills as orchestra maestro as he explores relatively novel ground in his first Hallé season as principal conductor. He opened the concert with a UK premiere: Akira Ifukube’s Japanese Suite for Orchestra. Though it carries the date of 1991, that was when the Hokkaido-born composer, known principally for his scores for 300 films (including the Godzilla series), put into orchestral form what was originally his Piano Suite of 1933 – published when he was still a student. It has four movements, each titled with reference to Japanese traditions and history, and using simple, four-square themes recognizably in the style of Japanese folk melodies, with dance or march rhythms.Wong is making it a feature of his opening season with the Hallé to offer East-meets-West contrasts and relationships: in this case the real excitement of the Ifukube suite comes mainly in the final section, whose dotted opening figure and alternation of dance-style tunes incorporates several changes of tempo and finishes with a combination of accelerando and increasing rhythmic complexity to build a pulse-racing climax. The large orchestra, with plentiful percussion, makes for vivid effects in the orchestral realization of these early piano pieces – some strident, some tender, with interesting solo roles for (among others) bass trombone and tuba, and the finale is suitably bold and brassy.

Kahchun Wong (pictured above) further burnished his credentials as interpreter of the western European classical tradition in the second part of the concert, through his reading of Brahms’s Symphony No. 1. The deployment of strings numbers was a significant basis of the qualities he found in it: with almost equal numbers in each of violas, cellos and basses, there was never going to be any lack of meatiness (and the basses have moments of their own in this score), but the Hallé trademark of transparency, with Emily Davis leading, kept the textures clear. He shaped the phrases of the first movement’s grim and destiny-laden introduction eloquently, and the Hallé responded to his sense of rise and fall there, as also in the wistful gentleness that follows.

Once into the Allegro, there was life in the rhythms throughout, with clear emphasis and attack, and even drama to finish. The opening of the Andante brought a contrast, the horns’ stopped sound brief but telling, and growing passion. Oboe and clarinet solos (Stéphane Rancourt and Sergio Castelló López) were outstanding, as the playing of Amy Yule (principal flute) and Laurence Rogers (principal horn) were notable later. Wong uses subtle variations in speed to mould the effect of his music, and at this point kept the trumpets’ sound firmly in the background.

The intermezzo-like third movement seemed deceptively simple at first, but its central section worked up an emotional pressure of its own. The finale of this symphony is what everything else is designed to lead to, with its tantalizing opening and magical horn call – revealed in magnificent splendour by Rogers and colleague. Still the trombones and trumpets were holding their fire, and again there was a little touch on the accelerator to bring the big C major tune back with extra excitement. The approach to the coda was skilfully controlled, and then all was glorious assurance for the big brass chorale – a consummation devoutly to be wished and very satisfyingly achieved. 

• · More classical reviews on theartsdesk