Jansug Kakhidze
Encyclopedia
Jansug Kakhidze (born 26 May 1935 in Tblisi, Georgia
; died 8 March 2002) was a Georgian
conductor, nicknamed "the Georgian Karajan
". Kakhidze was music director of the Georgian State Symphony Orchestra for two decades beginning in 1973.
at the same institution. Later he had training in Moscow
with the Ukrainian
/French
conductor Igor Markevich.
From 1982 until 2002 Djansug Kakhidze was the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre
. Opera
performances released under his direction included Salome
, Don Giovanni
, Boris Goduno
, Il trovatore
, Otello
, Rigoletto
, Cavalleria rusticana
, Gianni Schicchi
, L'elisir d'amore
, The Queen of Spades
, The Fiery Angel, The Love for Three Oranges, Duenj, Abesalom and Eteri, and Music for the living
.
In 1989, Kakhidze founded a new hall for symphony
music in Tbilisi, which included the Tbilisi Center for Music and Culture. He established the first professional boys' choir
in Tbilisi at this center in 2000, further developing the classical performing arts
in Georgia.
In 1993, Kakhidze founded the new Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra, and led it until his death in 2002.
Noted for his innovative program and devotion to contemporary works from his homeland, Kakhidze gained recognition during his life as a close friend and strong advocate of composer Giya Kancheli
, recording his entire cycle of seven symphonies along with many other works.
Highlights of Kakhidze's career included numerous appearances conducting throughout Europe
and Australia
. His performance of Berlioz's
Damnation of Faust with the Orchestre de Paris
in 1990 drew high praise from critics, and helped him to secure further international success in places such as the United States
, where appeared as a guest conductor with both the Boston Symphony Orchestra
and the National Symphony Orchestra.
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
; died 8 March 2002) was a Georgian
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
conductor, nicknamed "the Georgian Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
". Kakhidze was music director of the Georgian State Symphony Orchestra for two decades beginning in 1973.
Musical career
In 1958, Kakhidze graduated from the Choir Conducting department of the Tbilisi State Conservatory. In 1963 he completed the post-graduate courses for Opera and Symphony Orchestra Conducting under Professor Odysseas DimitriadisOdysseas Dimitriadis
Odysseas Dimitriadis was a Greek and at the same time Soviet classical music conductor. During his 70 year career, Odysseas had conducted a number of the world's leading orchestras, as well as being a main conductor of Georgia, USSR state orchestra and the Bolshoy Theatre orchestra...
at the same institution. Later he had training in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
with the Ukrainian
Ukrainians
Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens...
/French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
conductor Igor Markevich.
From 1982 until 2002 Djansug Kakhidze was the Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre
Tbilisi Opera and Ballet Theatre
Tbilisi State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre is situated on Rustaveli Avenue, in the center of Tbilisi, Georgia. It is the oldest opera house in Georgia...
. Opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
performances released under his direction included Salome
Salome (opera)
Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann’s German translation of the French play Salomé by Oscar Wilde. Strauss dedicated the opera to his friend Sir Edgar Speyer....
, Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, Boris Goduno
Boris Godunov (opera)
Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1873 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece. Its subjects are the Russian ruler Boris Godunov, who reigned as Tsar during the Time of Troubles,...
, Il trovatore
Il trovatore
Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Salvadore Cammarano, based on the play El Trovador by Antonio García Gutiérrez. Cammarano died in mid-1852 before completing the libretto...
, Otello
Otello (Rossini)
Otello is an opera in three acts by Gioachino Rossini to an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Berio di Salsi, based on Shakespeare's play Othello....
, Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
, Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story. Considered one of the classic verismo operas, it premiered on May 17, 1890 at the Teatro...
, Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi
Gianni Schicchi is a comic opera in one act by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Giovacchino Forzano, composed in 1917–18. The libretto is based on an incident mentioned in Dante's Divine Comedy. The work is the third and final part of Puccini's Il trittico —three one-act operas with...
, L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
, The Queen of Spades
The Queen of Spades (opera)
The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky, based on a short story of the same name by Alexander Pushkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St...
, The Fiery Angel, The Love for Three Oranges, Duenj, Abesalom and Eteri, and Music for the living
Giya Kancheli
Giya Kancheli , born 10 August 1935, in Tbilisi, is a Georgian composer resident in Belgium.Since 1991, Kancheli has lived in Western Europe: first in Berlin, and since 1995 in Antwerp, where he is composer-in-residence for the Royal Flemish Philharmonic....
.
In 1989, Kakhidze founded a new hall for symphony
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
music in Tbilisi, which included the Tbilisi Center for Music and Culture. He established the first professional boys' choir
Boys' choir
A boys' choir is a choir primarily made up of choirboys who have yet to begin puberty or are in the early to middle stages of puberty and so retain their more highly pitched childhood voice type...
in Tbilisi at this center in 2000, further developing the classical performing arts
Performing arts
The performing arts are those forms art which differ from the plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own body, face, and presence as a medium, and the latter uses materials such as clay, metal or paint which can be molded or transformed to create some physical art object...
in Georgia.
In 1993, Kakhidze founded the new Tbilisi Symphony Orchestra, and led it until his death in 2002.
Noted for his innovative program and devotion to contemporary works from his homeland, Kakhidze gained recognition during his life as a close friend and strong advocate of composer Giya Kancheli
Giya Kancheli
Giya Kancheli , born 10 August 1935, in Tbilisi, is a Georgian composer resident in Belgium.Since 1991, Kancheli has lived in Western Europe: first in Berlin, and since 1995 in Antwerp, where he is composer-in-residence for the Royal Flemish Philharmonic....
, recording his entire cycle of seven symphonies along with many other works.
Highlights of Kakhidze's career included numerous appearances conducting throughout Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
. His performance of Berlioz's
Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts . Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works; as a...
Damnation of Faust with the Orchestre de Paris
Orchestre de Paris
The Orchestre de Paris is a French orchestra based in Paris. The orchestra performs most of its concerts at the Salle Pleyel.-History:In 1967, following the dissolution of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, conductor Charles Munch was called on by the Minister of Culture,...
in 1990 drew high praise from critics, and helped him to secure further international success in places such as the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, where appeared as a guest conductor with both the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
and the National Symphony Orchestra.