Flowers we are…

KSENIA KOUZMENKO PIANO

“Flowers We Are…” is a very poetic new album by pianist Ksenia Kouzmenko.

It features 38 “flower pieces” by 15 composers from the Renaissance to today, in which the flower symbolizes not only eternal beauty but also vulne- rability, the fleeting of time, and the transience of life. The album takes it’s name from a number of short pieces by theHungarian composer György Kurtág, “Virág az ember…” (“Flowers We Are…”).

The extreme intensity and almost aphoristic concentration of Kurtág’s compositions creates a very special listening experience, which puts other music in a bright new light. A natural tension arc connects the whole album from beginning to end. For almost two years Ksenia Kouzmenko has been busy carefully selecting and bringing together these pieces, ever again changing the order, or adding new ones. She was not only concerned with different styles or periods, but also with composers who wrote beautiful music but have become forgotten over time.

Ksenia Kouzmenko would like to dedicate this album to the magnificent composer György Kurtág, who will be a hundred years old in February 2026, and to his late wife Márta Kurtág. She had the privilege of working with both of them on several occasions, and the musical world of György Kurtág became very dear to her.