“The work on the CD took us quite a long time for the research on the works’ pre-history. We looked for the crossing points”, Irina Georgieva said for Radio Bulgaria. “All three works were created during wars. We wanted it all to be perfect, including the photographs of the CD, taken before the Ivan Vazov National Theatre downtown Sofia. As far as the composers are concerned, the common thing is that all the three had a touch to French art and took something from its music tradition. The idea that lies behind our duo is the search for contemporary Renaissance in all arts. We want music-making to obey a global idea – the renewal of human ideals.”

Yoana and Irina presented in the summer the works from the CD with a concert at Hall 9 of the National Palace of Culture.

The two ladies opted for the Latin word initium /beginning, start/, when they looked for the best name for the CD. Thus Initio was born. “The word can be found in Italian and can be easily linked to the verb “initiate”, which is precisely the idea of our activity,” pianist Irina Georgieva explains.

The successful cooperation of the duo kicked off back in the music high school more than 20 years ago. Then their paths in life separated – Yoana went to study with world famous musician Ruggiero Ricci and now she lives and works in Germany. Irina graduated Sofia’s Music Academy with Prof. Irina Kapacinskaya and then continued her studies in Basel, Switzerland, where she resides to this day. The two friends met again three years ago – Irina got a proposal for a concert and the violinist that she had to partner with was named Yoana. The fact that they live in different countries doesn’t hamper the successful implementation of their joint projects. Irina Georgieva gives us details on their new horizons:

“The presentation of the CD is forthcoming now. I would like to thank here marvelous sound engineers Stefka Majdrakova and Georgi Trenev, who felt our spark and love for what we did. As far as our future projects are concerned, we know what we will focus on. Both Yoana and I are deeply connected to our roots and that is why we intend to prepare a program with works of Slavonic composers. The other joint project is in the sphere of research. We want to trace the biography of a certain author, which artists he’s had contacts with and what he has composed due to those contacts.”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev

The audio file containes the followiing works:

-  Part 3 of Sonata No. 1 for violin and piano opus 13 by Gabriel Faure

-  Part 1 pf Sonata for violin and piano No. 1, oppus 80 by Sergei Prokofiev