Royal Conservatory of Music: Lisa Batiashvili, violin & Giorgi Gigashvili, piano. April 26, 2026, Koerner Hall.
Lisa Batiashvili is one of the true powerhouses of our time. She is a fearless performer with absolute mastery of her instrument; her concerto performances are widely regarded as the best in the world, so to see her with the intimate violin-piano repertoire was a true joy.
And, pianist Giorgi Gigashvili, not yet familiar to us, but with potential to become one of the best of his generation, also packed serious punches, as a truly equal musical partner to Batiashvili.
This Koerner Sunday afternoon concert was one of the best duo recitals of Toronto this season.
Beethoven: Violin Sonata No. 3
Opening with Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 3, the duo started the concert with effervescence, sincerity, and playful humour.
Written by young Beethoven to showcase himself as a pianist and composer to the Viennese public, the Op. 12 sonatas are full of brilliant technical passages (especially demanding for the pianist, along with plenty of lyricism). Many musicians jokingly refer to them as mini piano concertos with instrumental obligatos.
Gigashvili, born in 2000, just about Beethoven’s age when he composed Op. 12, had technique and musical ideas galore, making the Batiashvili-Gigashvili duo, which began as a mentor-mentee relationship through Lisa Batiashvili’s foundation, a true partnership of equals.
Batiashvili, with maturity, impeccable intonation and technical freedom, was at ease in leading and responding, and the duo’s physical gestures and sharing of spaces made it quite a spectacle. Flexible in her position to the pianist, Batiashvili was the master of creating and shifting physical focus for the duo, whether it be of two equals, or letting one person be at the centre.
As we so often forget the other half in the presence of string superstars, their focus on equality, and generously shared stage presence produced a great chamber music experience.
The first movement, full of Apollonian jubilance, never had a moment of carelessness, or brutality. The open lyricism of the second movement, and the chains of good humour and comedic elements of the Rondo: Allegro molto were executed with light-footed humour, beautiful melody, and true synchronicity.
Prokofiev: Violin Sonata No. 1
The second piece, Prokofiev’s first violin sonata, is a masterpiece that took 10 years to craft. Prokofiev started to compose this work well into Stalin’s regime of terror, and by the time it was completed, the world that Prokofiev once knew was a completely different place, post-Gulag, and after the brutality of WW2.
The horror of the past, the vitality of life, the fantasy and phantasms of the dream state, and back to the end — looking back to the beginning — the drama and gigantic scope of the work was executed superbly by the duo.
The duo first transported us into a strange place as both instruments created a dark, ominous, shapeless world made out of fragments and growls. When they synched into the violin’s very first soaring melody against the vast openness of the piano in the lower range, the contrast was mesmerizing. Batiashvili’s resonant mid-register against Gigashvili’s powerful low octaves were especially beautiful.
Prokofiev’s howling wind in the cemetery passage was full of pathos and unspeakable sadness, as Batiashvili’s scalic passages and pizzicatos texturized over Gigashvili’s low registers — a depthless grief.
The second movement was full of vitality and extreme dynamics. Shifting from the tease — sometimes coy, sometimes brutal to the point of pain — to abruptly breaking out in rapturous melody from the heart, and all things in between, the duo navigated this fiery moment in true quick-silver manner.
The third movement, perhaps the most beautiful of the entire program, shimmered with enchantments of slightly strange harmonies, impeccably in tune. The duo’s beautiful organic phrasing was unrushed and daring, often creating a real gasp from the house — in beauty, awe, and surprise. It was hypnotic.
The fourth movement, its beginning somehow close to the last movement of Beethoven in its virtuosity and unrelenting energy, started with a beautiful sense of elan and jubilance. Batishvili’s long-lyricism, the heavily physical ballistics between the duo, and Gigashvili’s amazing sound — especially in the lower register of the piano — was brilliant.
However, when the howling winds returned after such joy, the duo somehow transformed that great sorrow into a stoic beauty; their absolute technical mastery and synchronicity made this ending a true standout moment. All dimensions of human life and its drama were explored through great depth and breath of musical and physical expressions of the duo — this was easily the best of this four-piece program.
Bardanashvili: In Memory of Giya Kancheli & Franck: Violin Sonata
The flexibility and freedom between Batishvili and Gigashvili was further demonstrated in Bardanashvili’s ‘In Memory of Giya Kancheli’, a piece evocative of Eastern European Cabaret where the duo’s flexible time play and phrasing created a real thespian joy, and in the most improvisatory Franck Sonata I’ve heard in recent years.
The duo’s extreme dynamic range and use of time flexing to near pauses, unchained the Franck sonata from the usual technical runs pegged in the rigidity of downbeats; similarly, their lyrical passages, especially in the third movement, were flexible and breathing entities — each idea existing in its own time, and allowed to start, unfurl, and disappear without a sense of the usual forward moment. It was magical.
Final Thoughts
The concert ended with an improvisatory, jazz-influenced encore from the duo; once again, playing with extreme dynamics and daring time flexing, the duo left us crossing fingers for their next return to the city. Many came out to hear Batiashvili, and we all left with true joy in our hearts, after hearing Batiashvili-Gigashvili in this duo act.
It’s always lovely to leave the hall with another name to keep in mind for the future — Gigashvili is young and superbly talented, and it would be a real joy to hear him play anything, anywhere.
What a great afternoon.
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