Anton Batagov. SAMSARA OCEAN. Solo piano recital. Album Premiere.

Anton Batagov will present his new album ‘Ocean Samsara’ in Prague on December 10, 2024.

The concert will take place in the intimate atmosphere of the Atrium Žižkov.

Prague is fortunate to be the first European city where it will be performed.”

The Artist’s notes

I recorded this album in August 2022.
I have never mixed music written by me and classical music in one album before. Now I decided to do so. In one way or another, I’ve always been both a “performer” and a “composer”. My “interpretations” of the classics have always sounded, shall we say, weird (compared to how it is “supposed” to be played), and my own stuff has always had echoes of my performing experience.

But now every sound has to make its way through the impossibility of speaking the language of music and speaking at all. Everything that seemed important and meaningful became meaningless. And it’s impossible to continue making art as if “everything is normal”.

The itinerary of the album includes some of the famous classical pieces and some of my own compositions. It goes through my entire life – from the time when my mother put me on her lap facing the keyboard, placed my hands on top of hers and played Bach for me (that’s how I “got into music”) – to the present moment. From Music for December (1993) to Chaconne in A minor (2021). From Schubert’s F minor Moment Musical to my solo piano transcription of Tchaikovsky’s very last song (Alone Again, As Before).

This album’s eleven tracks are like scattered pages discarded on the shore of Samsara ocean and fallen into someone’s hands. An attempt to understand the connection between them, how and why it all happened, and what will happen now. If anyone survives on this planet at all, I am not sure that there will be a desire and an opportunity to listen to music. But just in case, let this album exist.

1 Prelude in C minor, BWV 999 [Bach, between 1717 and 1723]
2 Rock-n-rOlga [Batagov, 2021]
3 Moment Musical in F minor, op.94 No. 3 / D 780 [Schubert, 1823]
4 Breathing In Breathing Out: E minor [Batagov, 2005, 2022 revision]
5 Prelude in C minor, BWV 847 [Bach, 1722]
6 Chaconne in A Minor [Batagov, 2021]
7 Alone Again, As Before [Tchaikovsky, 1893 / Batagov, 2022]
8 Samsara Ocean [Batagov, 2006, rev.2022]
9 Prelude in B minor, op. 32 No. 10 [Rachmaninoff, 1910]
10 Music for December [solo piano version] [Batagov, 1993 / 2022]
11 Prelude in C major, BWV 846 [Bach, 1722]

Total duration: 1 hour 20 minutes, no intermission.

Starts at 19.30
Doors at 19.00

!! Until November 1st, 30 tickets are on sale with a 20% discount using the PROMO code – SAMSARA20 !!