Kancheli: 33 Miniatures George Vatchnadze & Suren Bagratuni

• Giya Kancheli (1935 - 2019): 33 Miniatures:
• 1 33 Miniatures: I. King Lear 01:12
• 2 33 Miniatures: II. The Eccentrics 01:20
• 3 33 Miniatures: III. When Almonds Blossomed 02:52
• 4 33 Miniatures: IV. Extraordinary Exhibition 00:51
• 5 33 Miniatures: V. As You Like It 01:58
• 6 33 Miniatures: VI. Don Quixote 02:17
• 7 33 Miniatures: VII. Kin-Dza-Dza 02:36
• 8 33 Miniatures: VIII. Minimo 03:14
• 9 33 Miniatures: IX. Mother Courage and Her Children 01:19
• 10 33 Miniatures: X. Twelfth Night 01:23
• 11 33 Miniatures: XI. The Blue Mountains 01:13
• 12 33 Miniatures: XII. Waiting for Godot 01:29
• 13 33 Miniatures: XIII. Richard III 02:24
• 14 33 Miniatures: XIV. Khanuma 00:51
• 15 33 Miniatures: XV. The Caucasian Chalk Circle 02:32
• 16 33 Miniatures: XVI. The Role for a Beginner 01:11
• 17 33 Miniatures: XVII. Richard III 01:14
• 18 33 Miniatures: XVIII. The Caucasian Chalk Circle 03:09
• 19 33 Miniatures: XIX. The Crucibles 02:49
• 20 33 Miniatures: XX. Hamlet 00:54
• 21 33 Miniatures: XXI. Twelfth Night 02:02
• 22 33 Miniatures: XXII. Don't Grieve 01:19
• 23 33 Miniatures: XXIII. Bear's Kiss 01:31
• 24 33 Miniatures: XXIV. Kin-Dza-Dza 02:29
• 25 33 Miniatures: XXV. Hamlet 02:21
• 26 33 Miniatures: XXVI. Earth, This is Your Son 01:32
• 27 33 Miniatures: XXVII. Tears Were Falling 02:20
• 28 33 Miniatures: XXVIII. Cinema 01:19
• 29 33 Miniatures: XXIX. The Caucasian Chalk Circle 01:11
• 30 33 Miniatures: XXX. The Role of a Beginner 01:23
• 31 33 Miniatures: XXXI. Sunny Night 02:32
• 32 33 Miniatures: XXXII. Mother Courage and her Children 01:42
• 33 33 Miniatures: XXXIII. Romeo and Juliet 03:51
• Ruben Altunyan (b. 1939): Sonata for Cello:
• 34 Sonata for Cello: I. Andante. II. Allegro Moderato 05:31
• 35 Sonata for Cello: III. Andante 04:20
• Sulkhan Tsintsadze (1925 - 1991): 5 Pieces on Folk Themes for Cello and Piano:
• 36 5 Pieces on Folk Themes for Cello and Piano: I. Villain's Song on a Carriage 04:49
• 37 5 Pieces on Folk Themes for Cello and Piano: II. Tchonguri 01:21
• 38 5 Pieces on Folk Themes for Cello and Piano: III. Sachidao 02:29
• 39 5 Pieces on Folk Themes for Cello and Piano: IV. Nana 02:33
• 40 5 Pieces on Folk Themes for Cello and Piano: V. Dance Tune 01:53
• Total Runtime 01:25:16

Info for Kancheli: 33 Miniatures

Music for piano and cello of simple melodies and lovable charm by three modern composers from Georgia and Armenia.

The pianist George Vatchnadze was born in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi but now lives and works in Chicago as Professor of Piano at DePaul University School of Music, having studied with several renowned artists from his homeland such as Alexander Toradze. As winner of prestigious competitions including the Gina Bachauer Competition in 1994, he has given concerts across Europe and the US with the likes of Valery Gergiev and Gianandrea Noseda.

For this album he has gathered together 33 short pieces drawn from the huge oeuvre of film music composed by the greatest Georgian composer of our time, Giya Kancheli. In each piece he outlines the directorial view of a given play or a movie, and not always emphasising the condition of sorrow or nostalgia to which most of Kancheli’s music aspires. In these distillations of the written for Eldar Shelgelaya’s movies The Eccentrics, Extraordinary Exhibition and The Blue Mountains, there is a distinctive flavour of joy even in the presence of sorrow, in the mould of Georgian art by painters such as Pirosmani. Kancheli’s music for productions of Shakespeare such as King Lear and Romeo and Juliet is more lyrical, still inflected with Georgian character.

The miniatures are paired with a pair of works for cello and piano. The Five Pieces on Folk Themes are among the most popular works of the Georgian composer Sultan Tsintsadze, belonging to a tradition of such pieces written by composers as far afield as Schumann and de Falla. Receiving here its first internationally distributed recording is the Cello Sonata by Ruben Altunyan, born in 1939. In his three-movement Sonata he quotes the famous Georgian folk song Tsin Tskharo, thus unifying the album in a celebration of Georgia’s rich musical culture.

Giya Kancheli (1935-2019) was a Georgian composer whose intensely personal style was closely related to Minimalism and Spiritualism. He possesses a unique vision of the universe. Despite the fact that many of his compositions reflect tragic events of the modern world, they somewhat suggest turning away from horrors of war and call for return to a true meaning of life – the all-embracing love. The roots of his music are closely related with Georgian folk melos despite the fact that there are no direct quotations. The 33 Miniatures are inspired by plays or films by authors ranging from William Shakespeare to Samuel Becket and other contemporaries. The music is haunting in its simplicity (it is called “simple music for piano”) and touches deep chords of human emotions in the heart.

In addition to the Kancheli works we hear works for cello and piano by Georgian composers Sulkhan Tsintsadze and Ruben Altunyan, played by cellist Suren Bagratuni.

Goerge Vatchnadze is a native from Georgia, he has appeared at prestigious festivals like Salzburg, Mariinsky, Ravenna, Hollywood Bowl, under conductors like Valery Gergiev and Gianandrea Noseda. He is a winner of the Bachauer Piano Competition.

George Vatchnadze, piano
Suren Bagratuni, cello

George Vatchnadze
has appeared with orchestras and in recital throughout the United States, Canada, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Finland, Italy, Israel, Russia, Japan, Taiwan and Central and South America. Among other music forums, he has performed at the Hollywood Bowl Festival, the Ravinia Festival, the Stresa Festival and the Rotterdam Philharmonic’s Philips-Gergiev festival. He has also been a frequent guest at St Petersburg’s White Nights and the Mikkeli (Finland) festivals. In 1997 Vatchnadze made a sensational recital debut at the prestigious Edinburgh International Festival and received the “Herald Angel Award” from the Scottish Herald newspaper. He has appeared on live broadcasts by Dutch National Radio, the BBC and NPR’s Performance Today. In 1999 Vatchnadze made his New York recital debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall. Critic and writer Faubion Bowers wrote in American Record Guide that “Vatchnadze is a consummate artist, now at the height of his musical and intellectual powers. He can do absolutely anything he wants at the piano. He commands delicate pianissimi, massive diapasons and everything in between.”

George Vatchnadze’s engagements have included performances with the Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Gianandrea Noseda at the Mariinsky Theatre itself in St Petersburg and at London’s Covent Garden, as well as appearances at the Salzburg Festival, the Maggio Musicale festival, the Stresa Festival, the Gilmore Festival, the Ravenna Festival, London’s Wigmore Hall and New York’s Miller Theater.

His most recent engagements have included appearances at Strathmore Hall in Washington DC, the Woodstock Festival (New York State), the Stanford Stravinsky Festival, the Pacific Symphony Rachmaninoff Festival, a residency at the SYArts Festival in Taiwan and performances in Japan. George Vatchnadze has recorded two CDs with the Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Jansug Kakhidze featuring Rachmaninoff’s Second Concerto and Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand for the Sony and Excelsior Labels. Both recordings were re-released several times and have received the highest critical acclaim. He was also part of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony’s CD recording alongside Alexander Toradze and Paavo Järvi. Vatchnadze’s latest CD will be released this year with the piano music of Giya Kancheli and music for cello and piano by Sulkhan Tsintsadze.

George Vatchnadze studied at Indiana University South Bend, the Mannes College of Music, the Tbilisi State Conservatoire and the Tbilisi Central Music School for Gifted Children. His teachers included Alexander Toradze, Arkady Aronov, Wanda Shiukashvili and Larisa Bakhtadze. He is a winner of numerous international piano competitions including the 1994 Gina Bachauer Competition, the 1998 Palm Beach Invitational Competition, the 1996 Alabama Competition and the 1997 World Piano Competition.

George Vatchnadze is currently an Associate Professor and the head of the Piano Department at DePaul University School of Music in Chicago. His students have won top prizes at several international competitions and have performed extensively throughout the world.

Suren Bagratuni
Winner of the silver medal at the 1986 International Tchaikovsky Competition while still a student at the Moscow Conservatory, Bagratuni has gone on to a distinguished international career as a soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. In addition to performing throughout the former Soviet Union, he has toured worldwide, earning enthusiastic praise in both traditional and contemporary repertoire.

Born in Yerevan, Armenia, he began his musical education there at the age of seven. After winning several national and international competitions, he continued his studies at the Moscow Conservatory and later in the United States at the New England Conservatory of Music.

Bagratuni began performing at age ten, and by age fourteen appeared as a concerto soloist performing Saint-Saens’ Concerto with the Armenian State Radio Orchestra. Since then he has performed with all the major orchestras in the former Soviet Union, including the Moscow Philharmonic (under the direction of Valery Gergiev) and has also appeared with numerous orchestras in Europe, Asia, and North and South America.

His solo appearances include recitals in the major concert halls of the world. Chamber music appearances have included guest invitations with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Newport Music Festival, the “Russian Winter” Festival in Moscow, the El Paso Pro Musica International Festival, Bargemusic, and international festivals in Italy, Switzerland, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Korea, China, and Taiwan.

Bagratuni has won critical acclaim for his CD releases on the Ongaku and BGR labels, featuring solo works for cello, solo suites by Bach, and sonatas by Beethoven, Debussy, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich. He also appears on the Marco Polo, Russian Disc, Cambria, and CMH labels. He has recorded for “Melodiya” and been featured on CBC Radio Canada, WNYC in New York, WGBH in Boston, NPR, and NHK TV Japan.

In addition to his solo activities, he performs as a member of Trio Nobilis, serves as artistic director of the Cello Plus music festival, and conducts master classes worldwide. A former faculty member of the New England Conservatory and the University of Illinois, Bagratuni is currently Artist-Teacher and Professor of Cello at the Michigan State University College of Music.

Booklet for Kancheli: 33 Miniatures