Mariam Batsashvili (piano)

Liszt: Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude (Harmonies poétiques et religieuses, S. 173 No. 3)
Liszt: Chants Polonais after Chopin (6), S480
Liszt: Consolations, Six Pensées poétiques, S. 172
Chopin: Étude Op. 10 No. 1 in C major
Liszt: Douze Grandes Etudes, S137 (1837), No. 9 in A flatLiszt: Douze Grandes Etudes, S137 (1837), No. 10 in F minor

On her first Warner Classics album pianist Mariam Batsashvili combines solo works by Franz Liszt – a figure of special significance for her – and his contemporary Frédéric Chopin. She left her native Georgia to study at the Franz Liszt Conservatory in Weimar and gained international recognition in 2014 when she won the 10th Franz Liszt Piano Competition. Chopin was just a year older than Liszt and the two became good friends in Paris. The two pianist-composers are, as Batsashvili explains, “very, very different in the way they express themselves, but I can hear in their music that they respected each other greatly.”