Georgian State String Quartet

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The Georgian State String Quartet is an ensemble that has existed in its current line-up since 1969. The members are Konstantin Wardeli (1st violin), Tamas Batiaschwili (2nd violin), Nodar Schwania (viola) and Otar Tschubinischwili (cello).

During the time of the Soviet Union, the ensemble was called the “Georgian State String Quartet”, which was founded in 1932 by other Georgian string players. In 1966, Irakli Barnabishvili, the cellist of the quartet at the time, asked three distinguished graduates of the Tbilisi and Moscow conservatoires, K. Wardeli, T. Batiashvili and N. Schwania, to take over the positions of the withdrawn members of the quartet and to share with him the long-standing tradition to continue. In 1969 he withdrew himself and the cellist Otar Tschubinishvili, also a graduate of the music academies in Tbilisi and Moscow, took his place.

The young musicians traveled regularly to Moscow, where they were directed by Rostislav Dubinki, the first violinist of the Borodin Quartet at the time. The quartet achieved their international breakthrough in the Leo Weiner Competition in Budapest in 1973, where they received first prize as well as a special prize for contemporary music. As a result, the quartet gave numerous performances in Western Europe and made themselves popular and in demand at important chamber music festivals, such as B. at the famous Kuhmo festival in Finland.

After the end of the Soviet Union, the Georgian String Quartet first emigrated to Ingolstadt in Germany. In addition to their concert activities, the members of the quartet taught at the David Oistrach Academy there. In 2005, after the end of the political unrest, the musicians returned to their homeland. Today they are visiting professors at the Tbilisi University of Music and continue to give concerts with a cast that has not changed for 43 years.

repertoire

The repertoire of the string quartet is very diverse and includes works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Ravel, Schönberg and Webern to contemporary music, as well as especially works by Georgian composers such as Sulchan Zinzadze , Gija Kanscheli , Sulchan Nassidze and Nodar Gabunia .

The works of Dimitri Schostakowitsch , with whom the quartet has repeatedly been in contact, have a special place in their repertoire . Shostakovich remarked about the quartet: “I have heard concerts by the Georgian State String Quartet several times. It consists of individually strong musicians with excellent technique and has a wonderful sound. With every new work, they try to bring the listener's deepest ideas to mind. You have an excellent feeling for the ensemble. If you listen to them, you can forget that they are four musicians. One could believe that it is a single instrument. "

Prizes and awards

  • 1973 1st prize in the Leo Weiner Competition in Budapest
  • 1980 Award "People's Artist" of the former Soviet Union.
  • 2000 "Honorary Artist" of Georgia

Discography

  • Georgian State String Quartet, Sulkhan Nasidze String Quartet No.5, Sulkhan Tsintsadze String Quartet No.6 & Miniatures, published by SONY 1995.
  • Georgian State String Quartet, Sulkhan Tsintsadze Quartet No. 10 & Miniatures, Nodar Gabunia Quartet No.2, published by Unlimited Classics Germany 1996.
  • Georgian State String Quartet 35 Years, Ludwig van Beethoven String Quartet op.74 "Harp" & op.95 "Serioso", published by Caprice Records Stockholm 2001.
  • The Georgian State Quartet, Dmitri Shostakovich String Quaret No.2 & No.3, Sulkhan Tsintsadze Miniatures, published by Caprice Records Stockholm 2004.

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