Giorgi Gigashvili Plays Prokofiev: With All My Breath and All My Blood

For his second recital, With All My Breath and All My Blood, pianist Giorgi Gigashvili chose Prokofiev, a composer he has been playing intensively for ten years. Nicknamed the ‘War Sonatas’, these three masterpieces are, for him, “battles in themselves”, sonatas to which one gives “heart and soul”. “There is something almost inhuman in the writing. Sometimes it felt like Prokofiev wasn’t asking me to play the piano, but to wrestle with it.” The very personal title of the album - With all my breath and all my blood – reflects the voice of this young Georgian pianist, who has experienced the recent history of his country with great pain. “This music became the place where I poured my rage.” His distinguished guest is his compatriot and friend Lisa Batiashvili, with whom he recorded a transcription for violin and piano of the famous “Dance of the Knights” from Romeo and Juliet, as well as a new work written especially for the duo by Josef Bardanashvili: To Giya, a tribute to Giya Kancheli.

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Giorgi Gigashvili, Piano Lisa Batiashvili, Violin (Tracks 11 and 12)