Josef Bardanashvili: Ofra Yitzhaki plays Bardanashvili Ofra Yitzhaki

• Josef Bardanashvili (b. 1948): Fantasia (2004):
• 1 Bardanashvili: Fantasia (2004) 08:12
• Piano Sonata No. 1 (1974):
• 2 Bardanashvili: Piano Sonata No. 1 (1974): I. Allegretto 05:31
• 3 Bardanashvili: Piano Sonata No. 1 (1974): II. Lento (sostenuto) 07:20
• 4 Bardanashvili: Piano Sonata No. 1 (1974): III. a piacere 04:24
• Four Short Pieces on Jewish Folksongs (1975):
• 5 Bardanashvili: Four Short Pieces on Jewish Folksongs (1975): I. Ashrei ha’Am (‘Blessed is the People’) 01:22
• 6 Bardanashvili: Four Short Pieces on Jewish Folksongs (1975): II. Ashira (‘I Shall Sing’) 00:54
• 7 Bardanashvili: Four Short Pieces on Jewish Folksongs (1975): III. Haftara (‘Parting’) 02:03
• 8 Bardanashvili: Four Short Pieces on Jewish Folksongs (1975): IV. Shir (‘Song’) 02:17
• Piano Sonata No. 2 (1984):
• 9 Bardanashvili: Piano Sonata No. 2 (1984): I. Vivo 12:42
• 10 Bardanashvili: Piano Sonata No. 2 (1984): II. Post Scriptum 03:54
• Five Theater and Film Sketches (2020):
• 11 Bardanashvili: Five Theater and Film Sketches (2020): I. ‘Agape' - a play by Hanoch Levin 04:19
• 12 Bardanashvili: Five Theater and Film Sketches (2020): II. ‘It All Begins at Sea' - a film by Eitan Green 02:40
• 13 Bardanashvili: Five Theater and Film Sketches (2020): III. ‘Snow in May' - a film by Zurab Inaishvili 01:38
• 14 Bardanashvili: Five Theater and Film Sketches (2020): IV. ‘Ghetto' - a play by Joshua Sobol 01:41
• 15 Bardanashvili: Five Theater and Film Sketches (2020): V. ‘The Dragon' - a play by Evgeny Schwartz 02:33
• Postlude (1993):
• 16 Bardanashvili: Postlude (1993) 10:27
• Canticum Graduum (‘Song of Ascent’, 2022):
• 17 Bardanashvili: Canticum Graduum (‘Song of Ascent’, 2022) 10:35
• Total Runtime 01:22:32

Info for Josef Bardanashvili: Ofra Yitzhaki plays Bardanashvili

A premiere recording of the complete piano music of Georgian-Israeli composer Josef Bardanashvili.

"Ich wurde in Batumi geboren, einer georgischen Hafenstadt an der Küste des Schwarzen Meeres. Jetzt lebe ich in Bat-Yam, einer israelischen Küstenstadt am Mittelmeer. Die Topographie dieser Städte zeigt sich in meinen Werken als eine lange, imaginäre horizontale Küstenlinie mit Schichten von musikalischen Ereignissen darunter."

Diese Uferlinie, die Bardanashvili beschreibt – sei es in Batumi oder Bat-Yam – ist für den Hörer immer herauszuhören, sei es durch eine stark verzierte melodische Linie oder eine filmähnliche Erzählung (die auf seiner jahrzehntelangen Arbeit als Film- und Theaterkomponist beruht).

Georgien ist seit vielen Jahrhunderten ein Land, in dem verschiedene Ethnien Seite an Seite leben: Armenier, Aserbaidschaner, Juden, Kurden, Perser, Christen, Muslime und andere. Das Leben in einer jüdischen Familie in einem solchen Kulturkreis hat Bardanashvilis Stil in Richtung Pluralismus, Eklektizismus und Toleranz gegenüber allen Musikkulturen beeinflusst. Diese Liebe zu verschiedenen Musikstilen ist in jedem der Werke dieser Sammlung zu spüren.

Die Musik von Josef Bardanashvili wurde von der Israelischen Philharmonie, den Berliner Symphonikern und dem Mariinsky Theater unter der Leitung von Zubin Mehta und Valery Gergiev aufgeführt. Bardanashvilis Solowerke wurden von Giora Feidman, Tabea Zimmermann, Natalia Gutman, Alexander Korsantia und Shlomo Mintz aufgeführt.

Die Pianistin Ofra Yitzhaki ist bekannt für ihre emotionale Kraft, die Klarheit ihrer Interpretationen und ihre fesselnden Programme. Sie trat im New York Museum of Modern Art, in der Taiwan National Concert Hall, im Berliner Museum für Musikinstrumente und im Palast der Künste in Vilnius auf. Mit diesem neuen Album präsentiert sie als Ersteinspielung das vollständige Klavierwerke des zeitgenössischen Komponisten Josef Bardanashvili.

Eine spektakuläre Reise zwischen Musiktheater und jüdischem Gebet, sephardischen Melodien und Jazz, Puccini und Alban Berg, Barock, Romantik und Filmmusik.

Ofra Yitzhaki, Klavier

Ofra Yitzhaki
was described by the New York Magazine as “downright sensational” and by the Israeli Ha'aretz as “a profound, virtuoso artist”. She is a winner of the Carnegie Hall Millennium Piano Book Competition and the Van Cliburn Institute Concerto Competition and was awarded a Doctorate of Musical Arts Degree from the Juilliard School. Recent highlights of her activity include performing Beethoven's 'Emperor' Concerto with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and Ligeti's Piano Concerto with the Israel Contemporary Players.

With repertoire ranging from Bach and his contemporaries to the composers of her own generation, her recital engagements have taken her to New York's Lincoln Center, the Chicago Cultural Center, Germany's Klavierfestival Ruhr, Berlin Philharmonie's Instrument-Museum, the Tel Aviv Museum, the Jerusalem Theater, Taiwan's National Concert Hall and Korea's National Arts-Center, among others.

Ofra Yitzhaki started her piano lessons in Tel-Aviv at the age of five with Dr. Noa Blass, and played her debut at the Tel-Aviv Museum at age eight. She continued her studies with Dr. Zecharia Plavin. Subsequent to the completion of her education at the Jerusalem Academy of Music, she became the recipient of the Vladimir Horowitz Scholarship at the Juilliard School, where she studied with Prof. Jerome Lowenthal and Prof. Jacob Lateiner. For her pianistic and scholastic achievements, she was awarded a Doctorate of Musical Art Degree in Piano Performance from the Juilliard School. Following her participation in the Weimar Master classes in Germany, she was invited by the legendary Austrian pianist Paul Badura-Skoda for a private study, focusing on music by Bach and First Viennese School.

Yitzhaki gave her American debut after winning the Van Cliburn Institute Concerto Competition, as a soloist with the Fort Worth Chamber Orchestra in Texas. Her New York concerto debut followed a few years later, as a soloist with the American Symphony Orchestra in Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center.

As a recitalist, her recognition rose greatly when being invited to perform at Carnegie Hall world premieres of piano music by Milton Babbitt and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. A subsequent invitation by Carnegie Hall’s director at the time, Franz Xaver Ohnesorg, to perform at Germany’s Klavierfestival Ruhr, resulted in her European debut, described by the German press as "An Evening with Soul, Poetry and Glorious Sounds". A few years later she was invited by the prestigious German SchierseFoundation to give her Berlin Debut Recital at the chamber music hall of the Berlin Philharmonie.

In addition, she is an avid performer of modern and contemporary music. Highlights of her work in this field include a solo open-air recital of twentieth century music at New York’s Bryant park under the auspices of MoMA (Museum of ModernArt), a chamber music concert with members of the Parisian Ensemble Intercontemporain, and performances in New York‘s new music festivals such as 'Cutting Edge'and 'Focus!'. Her concert-lectures about Israeli piano music, based on her Doctorate dissertation and on collaborations with Israeli composers, have taken her to Cultural and Academic centers across Germany and the U.S.

Booklet for Josef Bardanashvili: Ofra Yitzhaki plays Bardanashvili