Giorgi Gigashvili Plays Prokofiev - With All My Breath and All My Blood Giorgi Gigashvili & Lisa Batiashvili

• Sergei Prokofiev (1891 - 1953): Piano Sonata No. 6, Op. 82:
• 1 Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 6, Op. 82: I. Allegro moderato 08:26
• 2 Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 6, Op. 82: II. Allegretto 04:33
• 3 Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 6, Op. 82: III. Tempo di valzer, lentissimo 08:37
• 4 Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 6, Op. 82: IV. Vivace 07:14
• Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 83:
• 5 Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 83: I. Allegro inquieto 08:31
• 6 Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 83: II. Andante caloroso 06:47
• 7 Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 7, Op. 83: III. Precipitato 03:24
• Piano Sonata No. 8, Op. 84:
• 8 Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 8, Op. 84: I. Andante dolce 15:08
• 9 Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 8, Op. 84: II. Andante sognando 04:30
• 10 Prokofiev: Piano Sonata No. 8, Op. 84: III. Vivace 09:39
• Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, Act I:
• 11 Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet, Op. 64, Act I: Dance of the Knights (Transcr. for Violin and Piano by David Grjunes) 03:44
• Josef Bardanashvili (b. 1948): To Gia Kancheli (P. S. ):
• 12 Bardanashvili: To Gia Kancheli (P. S. ) 03:58
• Total Runtime 01:24:31

Info for Giorgi Gigashvili Plays Prokofiev - With All My Breath and All My Blood

For his second recital, 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.

Giorgi Gigashvili, piano
Lisa Batiashvili, violin

Giorgi Gigashvili
Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, in 2000, Giorgi studied the piano without ever considering pursuing a professional career as a pianist.

Passionate about the folksongs of his country, he likes to arrange and sing this music - he even participated in the Georgian version of ‘The Voice’, taking home the top prize at the tender age of thirteen. Alongside, as another one of his many creative pursuits, he attended the Paliashvili Central Music School for Gifted Children and entered the Tbilisi State Conservatory in the class of Revaz Tavadze.

In April 2019 he won 1st Prize at the Vigo International Piano Competition, with Martha Argerich as president of the jury. In 2021, he received the Hortense Anda-Bührle Special Prize at the Fifteenth Géza Anda Competition in Zurich; this enabled the Géza Anda Foundation to recommend him for participation in the KlavierOlymp in Bad Kissingen, where he won First Prize and the Audience Prize. In March 2023, Giorgi celebrated another great success: He won the 2nd Prize at the Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition and was also awarded the Junior Jury Prize, the Prize for the best chamber music and 5 out of 6 audience prizes. In spring 2024, he received the Terrence Judd-Hallé Award; in autumn 2024, he was awarded the Musikpreis of the German Economy and the Audience Prize of the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

His debut album “Meeting my Shadow” was released in April 2023 with Alpha Classics. The album has been highly acclaimed since its release: It reveals his full palette of colours; featuring Scarlatti, Beethoven, Scriabin and Messiaen. His next solo album with works by Prokofiev will be released by Alpha in early 2026.

As part of his nomination as an ECHO Rising Star 2025/26, he will perform in the most important European theatres, including Barbican Centre London, Bozar Brussels, Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, Philharmonie de Paris, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Het Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Kölner Philharmonie, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Palau de la Musica Barcelona, Müpa Budapest, Philharmonie Luxemburg, Wiener Konzerthaus, and many more.

Furthermore, he has engagements with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Kammerakademie Potsdam, Hamburgisches Staatsorchester, Münchener Philharmoniker and Israel Philharmonic. A special highlight will be the recital tour with Lisa Batiashvili in Europe and North America in spring 2026.

Giorgi fuses his career as a classical pianist with his passion for electronic and experimental music: “Georgian on my mind” is a program featuring singer Nini Nutsubidze and is connecting Georgian folk songs with classical pieces by e.g. Chopin or Bartók. “Serious Music” featuring 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 Giorgi’s self-composed work for orchestra, piano and electronics were premiered as part of his fellowship at the Beethovenfest Bonn in September 2024.

Giorgi studied with Kirill Gerstein at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin and with Nelson Goerner in Geneva. He is supported by the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation, by Bayer Kultur’s stArtacademy and the Orpheum Foundation for the advancement of young soloists. Giorgi was selected a BBC New Generation Artist 2023-2025 and has been nominated ECHO Rising Star for the season 2025/26. Since 2025, he has been a Steinway Artist.

Lisa Batiashvili
Lisa Batiashvili, the Georgian-born German violinist, is praised by audiences and fellow musicians for her virtuosity. An award-winning artist, she has developed long-standing relationships with the world’s leading orchestras, conductors and musicians.

In 2021 Batiashvili formed and continues to lead the Lisa Batiashvili Foundation, which serves her lifelong dream and commitment in supporting young, highly talented Georgian musicians to thrive in their musical careers.

She will begin her 2025/26 season on tour alongside the Munich Philharmonic and Lahav Shani. Afterwards, she is set to continue her successful collaboration with Yannick Nézet-Séguin in Montreal and Philadelphia. 2026 begins with a tour with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, directed by Klaus Mäkelä. She is also looking forward to projects with the Filarmonica della Scala, the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra – and her passion project ‘City Lights’ with the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra.

As a chamber musician, she is set to tour extensively with Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Gautier Capuçon, forming for this project a bespoke piano trio. Further concerts together with the georgian composer-pianist Giorgi Gigashvili, an artist supported by her foundation, are also planned.

“She played with pure, gorgeous tone and fabulous technique... Could you have fairly asked for more? The audience, to judge from its standing ovation, was fully content.” (The New York Times)

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 Franck Sonata with Giorgi Gigashvili.

Her previous 2020 recording, City Lights, marks a musical journey that takes listeners around the world to eleven cities with an autobiographical connection with music ranging from Bach to Morricone, and Dvořák to Charlie Chaplin. A twelfth city was added in 2022 with the release of her single Desafinado, celebrating Rio de Janeiro. At the renowned Concert de Paris on Bastille Day in 2020 she performed the title track City Memories which was broadcast internationally.

An impressive discography also includes Visions of Prokofiev (Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Yannick Nézet-Séguin) which won an Opus Klassik Award and was shortlisted for the 2018 Gramophone Awards. Earlier recordings include the concertos of Tchaikovsky and Sibelius (Staatskapelle Berlin/Daniel Barenboim), Brahms (Staatskapelle Dresden/Christian Thielemann), and Shostakovich (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Esa-Pekka Salonen).

Bastiashvili has had DVD releases of live performances with Berliner Philharmoniker/Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Bartók’s Violin Concerto No.1) and with Gautier Capuçon, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann (Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello).

She has won a number of awards: the MIDEM Classical Award, Choc de l’année, Accademia Musicale Chigiana International Prize, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival’s Leonard Bernstein Award and 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).

Between 2019 and 2022, Lisa was Artistic Director of the Audi Sommerkonzerte Ingolstadt. In 2025, she was honoured with the Kaiser Otto Prize of the city of Magdeburg for her commitment against war and anti-semitism and for promoting European unity, as well as the ‘Pro Meritis Scientiae et Litterarum’ from the Bavarian State Ministry. From the ceremony: “She is an artist with conviction: With her clear political stance, especially against the Russian war of aggression on Ukraine, and her commitment to democracy, she is a true role model.“

Lisa lives in Berlin and plays a Joseph Guarneri “del Gesu” from 1739, generously loaned by a private collector.

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