Mariam Batsashvili on… Chopin and Liszt

he album connects Chopin and Liszt, and the respect they shared. They didn’t have a good relationship at the: it has nothing to do with Chopin but it’s my favourite piece. Then there is Liszt’s arrangement of songs by Chopin – very respectful and sensitive. I wanted to show that the Consolations could have been written by Chopin. You can hear they’re by Liszt but they are so refined and sensitive, they have such nocturne-like qualities. And Liszt wouldn’t let them be published until Chopin had died, because he recognised Chopin as a supreme genius in the art of the nocturne. I have included Nos 1, 2 and 4 of the Etudes Op 10, which he dedicated to Liszt. This is Chopin at his most Lisztian – they were both showmen and poets.