Pianist Yuko Batik, native from Japan, and for many years based in Vienna, explores human fantasy and imagination with her latest release. The Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky count among the most important and formative examples of so-called programmatic music. The descriptive impressions that befall the viewer while watching the paintings of a gallery caused many composers to adapt the original piano part for larger ensembles; however, the work in its original form is all the more impressive because the varied sounds and moods are achieved by the composing and playing techniques of only a single instrument. The Dante Sonata by Franz Liszt takes its programmatic content of Liszt's own reading of the Divine Comedy by the great Italian poet Dante Alighieri, whereas the Moonlight Sonata, op.27 no.2 by Ludwig van Beethoven got its poetic sobriquet only after his death.
Yuko Batik, who was born in Japan, received her first piano lessons at the age of six. After 1991, she studied with Y. Kitamura at the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo. She already held concerts as a soloist with orchestras and solo recitals during her studies. On completing her studies, she underwent further training at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna, where she graduated with a Master of Arts in 2007. From 1999 to 2007, she studied with Roland Batik and then with Thomas Kreuzberger at the Conservatoire Private University in Vienna. There followed master classes, including ones held by Jörg Demus and Oleg Maisenberg.
In 2006, she embarked on an intensive co-operation with Roland Batik in a piano duo. She has been invited to various festivals such as the Seibersdorf Castle Concerts, the Wiener Neustadt Spring, the Wörthersee Classics and on a tour through China in 2009. Many invitations to concerts in Austria, Hungary, Bosnia, Turkey and Japan underline the pianist's international status.
