Lisa Batiashvili and Giorgi Gigashvili

Overview

Two astonishing players, the award-winning violinist Lisa Batiashvili and the rising piano star Giorgi Gigashvili, join for a thrilling programme that encompasses Beethoven, Bartók, Franck and a new work by Joseph Bardanashvili. The bold grandeur of Beethoven contrasts with the wild brilliance of Bartók, while Franck’s violin sonata is filled with shimmering colour and graceful lyricism.

Programme

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) – Sonata for Violin and Piano, No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 12 No. 3

Béla Bartók (1881-1945) – Sonata for Violin and Piano, No. 1, Sz. 75

Interval

Josef Bardanashvili (b. 1948) – New work for Violin and Piano

César Franck (1822-1890) – Sonata for Violin and Piano in A major, FWV 8

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Artists

Lisa Batiashvili, Violin

Lisa Batiashvili, the Georgian-born German violinist, is an award-winning artist who has developed long-standing relationships with the world’s leading orchestra, conductors and musicians. In 2021 she formed and leads the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation, which serves her dream and commitment to supporting young, highly talented Georgian musicians to thrive in their musical careers. Batiashvili was the Artistic Director of Audi Sommerkonzerte Ingolstadt from 2019-2022. In 2025 she was honoured with the Kaiser Otto Prize of the city of Magdeburg for her commitment to opposing war and anti-semitism and for promoting the European idea.  

Recent engagements have included Sibelius’s violin concerto with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Antonio Pappano; concerts with the Boston, Minnesota, Philadelphia and Chicago Symphony Orchestras; recitals with her trio partners Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Gautier Capuçon; and performances with the Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra.  

Recording exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon, Batiashvili’s latest album, Secret Love Letters, was released in August 2022, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, as well as the Franck Sonata with Giorgi Gigashvili. Her previous recording, City Lights, marks a musical journey that takes listeners around the world to eleven cities with which she has an autobiographical connection, with music ranging from Bach to Morricone, Dvořák to Charlie Chaplin. A twelfth city was added in 2022 with the release of her single Desafinado, celebrating Rio de Janeiro. At the Concert de Paris on Bastille Day in 2020 she performed the title track ‘City Memories’, which was broadcast internationally. Her recording Visions of Prokofiev (Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Yannick Nézet-Séguin) won an Opus Klassik Award. Earlier recordings include the concertos of Tchaikovsky and Sibelius (Staatskapelle Berlin/Daniel Barenboim), Brahms (Staatskapelle Dresden/Christian Thielemann) and Shostakovich No.1 (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Esa-Pekka Salonen).  

There are DVD releases of live performances by Batiashvili with the Berlin Philharmonic/Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Bartók Violin Concerto No.1) and with Gautier Capuçon, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden/Christian Thielemann (Brahms Concerto for Violin and Cello). She has won a number of awards: the MIDEM Classical Award, the Choc de l’année, the Accademia Musicale Chigiana International Prize, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival’s Leonard Bernstein Award and the Beethoven-Ring. Batiashvili was named Musical America’s Instrumentalist of the Year in 2015, was nominated as Gramophone’s Artist of the Year in 2017, and in 2018 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Sibelius Academy (University of Arts, Helsinki).

Batiashvili lives in Berlin and plays a Joseph Guarneri ‘del Gesu’ from 1739, generously loaned by a private collector.

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Giorgi Gigashvili, Piano

Born in Tbilisi, Georgia in 2000, Gigashvili studied the piano without ever thinking about a professional career as a pianist. He is passionate about the folksongs of his country, which he likes to arrange and sing, participating in the Georgian version of The Voice and winning the competition at the age of thirteen. Continuing his musical training at the Zakaria Paliashvili Central Music School, he then studied at the Tbilisi State Conservatory with Revaz Tavadze.

In 2019 he won First Prize at the Vigo International Piano Competition, with Martha Argerich as president of the jury. In 2021, she received the Hortense Anda-Bührle Special Prize at the Fifteenth Géza Anda Piano Competition in Zurich. This was followed by an invitation to take part in the KlavierOlymp in Bad Kissingen, where he won First Prize and the Audience Prize. In 2023, he won the Second Prize at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition and was also awarded the Junior Jury Prize. Additionally in 2024, he received the Terrence Judd-Hallé Award.

His debut album, Meeting my Shadow, was released in 2023 with Alpha Classics. The album has been highly acclaimed and reveals his full palette of colours, featuring Scarlatti, Beethoven, Scriabin and Messiaen.

In the past season, Gigashvili has performed with the Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester, the Munich Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. Chamber music highlights of the season included recitals at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Konzerthaus in Vienna and the Wigmore Hall in London.

Gigashvili is combining his career as a classical pianist with his passion for electronic and experimental music. Georgian on my mind is a programme featuring the singer Nini Nutsubidze and connects Georgian folk songs with classical pieces by e.g. Chopin or Bartók. Serious Music featuring the musician Nikala is a one-of-a-kind stage experiment where classics meet modernity, a synthesis of academic and electronic music. Both projects, as well as the world premiere of Gigashvili’s own work for orchestra, piano and electronics was heard as part of his fellowship at the Beethovenfest Bonn in 2024.

Since autumn 2023, Gigashvili has been studying with Kirill Gerstein at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin. Before that he studied with Nelson Goerner in Geneva for two years. He is supported by the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation and the Géza Anda Foundation. Since 2023, he has been supported by Bayer Kultur’s Art Academy and the Orpheum Foundation for the advancement of young soloists. He was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2023-2025 and was nominated European Concert Hall Organisation (ECHO) Rising Star for the 2025-2026 season.