Giya Kancheli (1935-2019)
King Lear (Play by William Shakespeare)
The Eccentrics (Film by Eldar Shengelaya)
When Almonds Blossomed (Film by Lana Gogoberidze)
Extraordinary Exhibition (Film by Eldar Shengelaya)
As you like it (Play by William Shakespeare)
Don Quixote (Film by Revaz Chkheidze)
Kin-Dza-Dza (Film by Georgi Danelia and Rezo Gabriadze)
Minimo (Film by Georgi Danelia and Rezo Gabriadze)
Mother Courage and her Children (Play by Berholt Brecht)
Twelfth Night Play (by William Shakespeare)
The Blue Mountains (Film by Eldar Shengelaya)
Waiting for Godot (Play by Samuel Beckett)
Richard III Play (by William Shakespeare)
Khanuma (Play by Avksenti Tsagareli)
The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Play by William Shakespeare)
The Role for a Beginner (Play by Tamaz Chiladze)
Richard III (Play by William Shakespeare)
The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Play by William Shakespeare)
The Crucibles (Play by Arthur Miller)
Hamlet (Play by William Shakespeare)
Twelfth Night (Play by William Shakespeare)
Don’t Grieve (Film by Georgi Danelia)
Bear’s Kiss (Film by Sergei Bodrov)
Kin-Dza-Dza (Film by Georgi Danelia)
Hamlet (Play by William Shakespeare)
Earth, This is your Son (Film by Revaz Chkheidze)
Tears were falling (Film by Georgi Danelia)
Cinema (Film by Liana Eliava)
The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Play by William Shakespeare)
The Role of a Beginner (Play by Tamaz Chiladze)
Sunny Night (Play by Nodor Dumbadze)
Mother Courage and her Children (Play by Berholt Brecht)
Romeo and Juliet (Play by William Shakespeare)

Ruben Altunyan (1939-)
Sonate pour violoncelle

Sulkhan Tsintsadze (1953-1991)
5 Pièces sur des thèmes populaires pour violoncelle et piano

Suren Bagratuni, violoncelle
George Vatchnadze, piano

« La qualité la plus extraordinaire de sa musique est son aptitude à suspendre tout sens du temps » écrivit Alfred Schnittke à propos du compositeur géorgien Giya Kancheli. Ce dernier découvrit la musique en écoutant le jazz de Glenn Miller. En 1963, après ses études de piano et de composition au Conservatoire de Tbilissi, il remporte le Prix des jeunes compositeurs d’URSS avec son Concerto pour orchestre qui fait sensation. Une vingtaine de musiques de scène ainsi que des partitions pour le cinéma composent, alors, l’essentiel de sa production musicale. Ces œuvres de qualité, mais qu’il considère comme “alimentaires” s’ajoutent à ses activités d’enseignant. En 1990, il quitte son pays. L’année suivante, il s’installe à Berlin. À partir de cette date, son répertoire s’enrichit considérablement. Giya Kancheli se passionne notamment pour la musique électronique et compose une grande variété de partitions vocales et symphoniques. L’écoute de quelques mesures suffit aujourd’hui pour reconnaître l’une de ses œuvres. Y compris ces 33 Miniatures animées par le souvenir des musiques de films auxquelles collabora Kancheli. L’efficacité des mélodies, la définition des atmosphères est proprement sidérante. Ce sont de petits mondes sonores, des joyaux qui, en quelques notes, nous conduisent aux portes du rêve. George Vatchnadze joue ces pages avec un charme fou. La Sonate de Ruben Altunyan puise son inspiration dans les mélodies arméniennes. Une complainte et une révolte aussi. Le géorgien Sulkhan Tsintsadze reprit lui aussi des thèmes folkloriques au cours de l’époque soviétique. Cinq mélodies aux atmosphères différenciées, mais unies par la chaleur du jeu de Suren Bagratuni. (Jean Dandrésy)

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.