Classical music stars turn out for the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia

Classical music stars turn out for the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia
Copyright euronews
By Frédéric Ponsard
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In this week's episode of Cult, Euronews meets some of the classical music stars performing at the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia.

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Music enthusiasts were able to enjoy live performances once again at the Tsinandali Festival in Georgia's eastern province of Kakheti.

The event took place at the end of September as many other festivals and concerts around the world have been cancelled as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Major artists in classical music performed, including pianist Martha Argerich - and the Georgian German-based violinist, Lisa Batiashvili.

In this week’s episode of Cult, Euronews spoke to the stars about the event.

"This festival is an unimaginable thing for me. The Soloists that visited the festival made last year a very memorable and historical year. Some of my colleagues didn’t know anything about Georgia and the fact that they are now introduced with the beauty of the country is because of the Tsinandali Festival which is a very important place for Georgian culture," violinist Liza Batiashvili said.

As well as the big stars in attendance, the Tsinandali festival also attracted young talent.

Among them, the one nicknamed the "the French tsar of piano", Alexandre Kantorow, who is 23 years old.

"This place feels very intimate, like everybody knows each other, family aspect, people are generous and welcoming. And also you feel that with the audience also when they come they want to hear special moments of music on the spot and the way they listen is pretty impressive, so it's a perfect country." pianist, Alexandre Kantorow, said.

However, the Queen of the festival was the great Argentinian pianist, Martha Argerich, 80, who returned to Georgia for the second time for the event.

"It was like 60 years ago I think that I came to Georgia, it's incredible, non ? Such a long time, when it was the Soviet Union, I came to Tbilisi with Ruggero Ricci, the violinist, he is not alive anymore," pianist Martha Argerich said.

For her, life goes on, and concerts too, despite the uncertain times, she's keeping busy.

"It started already happening. I already played nine times since the pandemic, yes. Nobody knows. the scientists don't know what is happening now with coronavirus, I heard friends that are virologists and they all have a different opinion about all this. It's very strange, a little bit fantasmagoric."

Martha was accompanied by her compatriot Nelson Goerner and performed works with him by Claude Debussy, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Sergei Rachmaninoff.

"The audience is wonderful here, so, you know, enthusiastic and so warm, I hope I didn't disappoint them too much," she added.

Their performance was met with a huge applause, with fans now looking forward to the next.

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