Ofra Yitzhaki, Piano

"Yitzhaki plays Bardanashvili" - A premiere recording of the complete piano music of Georgian-Israeli composer Josef Bardanashvili

"I was born in Batumi, a Georgian port town on the coast of the black sea. I now live in Bat-Yam, an Israeli coastal city on the Mediterranean. The topography of these cities shows itself in my works as a long, imaginary horizontal shoreline, with layers of musical events above and below it."
This shoreline that Bardanashvili describes – be it in Batumi or Bat-Yam – is always there for the listener to follow in his music, be it a highly ornamented melodic line or a film-like dramatic narrative (drawing upon his decades of work in film and theater).
Georgia has been, for many centuries, a place where different ethnicities have resided side by side: Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Jews, Kurds, Persians, Christians, Muslims, and others. According to Bardanashvili, living in a Jewish family in such a culturally affected his style in leaning towards pluralism, eclecticism, and tolerance of all musical cultures. This love of diverse musical styles is evident in each of the works in this collection.
The music of Josef Bardanashvili has been performed by the Israel Philharmonic, Berlin Symphony, and Mariinsky Theater Orchestras, conducted by Zubin Mehta and Valery Gergiev. Bardanashvili’s solo works have been heard in performances by Giora Feidman, Tabea Zimmermann, Natalia Gutman, Alexander Korsantia, and Shlomo Mintz.

Known for her emotive power, clarity of interpretations, and captivating programming, pianist Ofra Yitzhaki has performed for audiences at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, the Taiwan National Concert Hall, Berlin’s Museum of Musical Instruments, and at the Vilnius Palace of Arts. With this new album, she presents the complete piano works of the contemporary composer Josef Bardanashvili as premiere recording.
A spectacular journey between music theater and Jewish prayer, Sephardic tunes and jazz, Puccini and Alban Berg, baroque, romanticism and film music.

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