Liana Isakadze’s ‘Night Serenades’ Back for More

On August 26-31, Batumi seaside city will host the 9th International Classical Music Festival ‘Night Serenades’. On August 22, the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia hosted the press conference in which the great violin player, conductor Liana Isakadze, partook. The news is that this time, jazz will also be performed. Legendary Isakadze will appear in a theatrical character within the festival- as a soloist and conductor. As per tradition, the ensemble ‘virtuosos’ will play with her.

The International Festival of Classical Music ‘Night Serenades’ was founded in 1982, in Abkhazia. However, due to the war, it was ceased. “I could not continue it, as after the conflict, there was a risk my international guests come to harm,” Isakadze said.

In 1988, she was the first artist to hold the festival ‘Musicians Joke’ in the Post-Soviet space, which fast gained popularity. Later, in 2009, Night Serenades was reignited in Batumi. Its founder and unchangeable artistic director is Liana Isakadze herself. The great interest towards the festival stipulated its widening and since 2015 it has borne the name of Batumi-Tbilisi International Festival.

Liana was born to a family of intellectuals. Her father was Sandro Isakadze, specialist of physics and mathematics, a uniquely honest man, many of whose inventions stood in the vanguard of European thinking. For instance, he turned a razor on a lathe by his own hands back in 1965. He didn't believe it right to think about what people would say, but to better think about what our conscience tells us. Liana’s mother, Galina Kvirikashvili, was as pure a person as her child, denying her vocal talent for the sake of her children’s bright future. She was always by Liana’s side like a shadow, trying to protect her from the temperature as well as from the severe world, remaining invisible herself.

This is the world of Liana Isakadze – one of the most sparkling violin players in the world. She leads a ‘cosmic’ orchestra, thus reaching divine levels, maximally free from earthly desires. For her, love reigns and not the mind. She is a real genius, who, at the age of 23, wrote meditations – a kind of credo for artists. In those days, she naturally lacked experience and the literature she read was limited, too. But, still, she possessed this wisdom. Reportedly, while flying to other countries, currents of reflections flooded her in the airplane. She calls it inspiration from God, which she immediately wrote on the flight tickets. Later, these were published in a book.

“Carefully entwine your hands around your souls and hold them high in order to protect them from the dazzling desert of life. Thus, people will adorn you with love, rather than admiring you,” writes the number one violinist of Georgia, “How rude is a word to the eternal, wordless world.” These golden words also belong to Liana Isakadze, a lady with a very characteristic chuckle, full of kindness, as of geniuses and eternal children. “Maybe my feelings cheat on me, but they are prompted by purity and heart”.

In 1981, the Georgian State Chamber Orchestra invited Liana to work as its artistic director and, later, as the main conductor. After a triumphal debut in Tbilisi and Moscow under her baton, and subsequently, in Post-Soviet countries and overseas, the orchestra became one of the leading ensembles in the world. Since 1982, the orchestra has guest-appeared in many countries in Europe and Asia, as well as in America and Australia. The orchestra released a lot of records at the famous firm ‘Melody’ in Moscow, as well as at ‘Orfeo’ in Munich. She was one of those eminent musicians who, together with composer Schnittke, recorded the one and only record of ‘Concerto Grosso’, which is a unique case when the aforementioned composer plays on the grand-piano. She conducted the first ever orchestra version of Rossini’s ‘Petite Messe Solennelle,’ orchestrated by Rossini himself.

During her years with the Georgian Chamber Orchestra, Kurt Masur, Genadi Rojdestvensky, Yehudi Menuhin, Natalia Gutman and many more sparkling stars guest-appeared in Georgia.

In 1990, supported by ‘Audi’ and Bavaria Municipality, Liana founded the Chamber Orchestra of Georgia in Ingolstadt, Germany. Since then, she has conducted numerous European orchestras in Austria, Finland, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Slovakia, Switzerland, France, Spain, as well as the Malmo (Sweden) Symphonic Orchestra and European Youth Chamber Orchestra.

On August 26, Liana Isakadze (violin, conductor), will play Tchaikovsky’s ‘Souvenir de Florence’, arranged for string orchestra by Liana herself. op. 70. Later, Tchaikovsky-Tsintsadze will be performed, namely, ‘Melancholy Serenade’, ‘Melody’ and ‘Waltz-Scherzo’. On the same day, under the baton of Davit Mukeria, Vivaldi’s Concert for Violin and String Orchestra, E minor, RV278 will be played. The day will end with Saint-Saens’ ‘Introduction and rondo capriccioso’ op.28 (arranged for violin and string orchestra).

August 28 will be the day of honorary guests: the world-acclaimed Gurfinkel family- brothers, Alex and Daniel Gurfinkel (clarinet, Israel) and their father Michael Gurfinkel (conductor, Israel). They will play Povolotsky’s ‘Jewish Soul Fantasy,’ op 103a (on traditional and popular tunes) as well as Saint-Saens’ ‘Introduction and rondo capriccioso’ (arranged for two clarinets and string orchestra by R. Feigelson and dedicated to Alex and Daniel Gurfinkel). F. Mendelssohn – Konzertstuk 1 in f minor, op. 113 will be their final performance. The day will be culminated in a jazz session in which Liana Isakadze, Otar Maghradze, Gia Salaghishvili, David Saganelidze and Tamaz Chachava will participate.

August 29 will be unveiled by the performance of Justus Frantz (conductor, Germany), who will play Schubert’s ‘String Quintet’, arranged by him for string orchestra. Under his baton, Liana will play Bernstein’s ‘West Side Story’ on violin.

On August 31, the festival will culminate in a concert in Tbilisi where the famous German conductor and pianist Justus Frantz will conduct Schubert’s ‘String Quintet arranged for string orchestra’. Liana Isakadze will play the violin and conduct Vivaldi’s Concert for Violin and String Orchestra, E minor, RV278. She will also play Tchaikovsky- Tsintsadze’s ‘Melancholy Serenade’, ‘Melody’ and ‘Waltz- Scherzo’. The concert will be capped by Saint-Saens’ ‘Introduction and rondo capriccioso’ op.28 (arranged for violin and string orchestra).

Maka Lomadze