Otar Taktakishvili: Concerto No. 2 for violin and chamber orchestra (1986/1987)
Otar Taktakishvili
born 27 July 1924 in Tbilisi
died 21 February 1989 in Tbilisi
First performance
around 1987 with Liana Issakadze ??
CD recording
Liana Issakadze with the Georgian Chamber Orchestra 1992
A few years before his death and shortly before the fall of the Soviet Union, Otar Taktakishvili wrote a second violin concerto. In contrast to his first large-scale violin concerto in F
minor (1976), the second violin concerto (1986) was limited to a pure string orchestra (ad libitum, according to the score, a piano may be added at one point). Both violin concertos were preceded
by a Concertino in C major (1956) for the violinist David Ostrach.
At the age of 62, when Taktakishvili composed the second violin concerto, he had already produced a significant body of work in Georgia in all musical genres. Operas, orchestral works, choral
music and chamber music were among them. In the West, Taktakishvili is best known to flutists, with a flute sonata in C major that they are grateful for. Taktakishvili was an important
musical personality and left his mark on musical creation in the Soviet Republic of Georgia. He taught for many years at the conservatory in Tbilisi and was the choral conductor of Georgia's most
famous choir. Taktakishvili was active in many ways, held leading positions in the Georgian and Soviet composers' associations and also served as Georgian Minister of Culture from 1965 to
1984.
Taktakishvili comes from an old noble Abkhazian family in which music was a tradition. His mother was an opera singer in Tbilisi.
In the case of such an important national personality as Taktakishvili, it is striking that in this remarkable work of his age for a violin concerto, he appears rather briefly (16 minutes in
duration) and without a large orchestra. The musical demands are skilfully reduced. Taktakishvili's musical style is generally inspired by the folk music of Georgia and at the same time
influenced by Soviet social realism. The task of music is to touch the soul and "act on human feelings, human emotions and the human soul". Even if Taktakishvili had his reservations about serial
music in the West, he was aware of music outside Georgia and appreciated composers such as Carl Orff, Hans Eisler, Kurt Weill, Paul Dessau, Hans Werner Henze and, of course, Prokoviev as well as
Shostakovich. Such influences are particularly evident in this work of his old age, his second violin concerto, which lasts only about 16 minutes. In addition, there are neo-baroque stylistic
elements in this concerto. All influences merge playfully into a deeply humane composition that is both sceptical-ironic and rooted in Georgia.
Listen here!
Listening guide:
I. Allegro moderato
From a distance, soft string quavers throb in semitone steps, above which the violin hesitantly searches high up for its melody, then finds an exit in a deeper violin sound in dotted rhythm. An
opening that immediately captivates, all the more so as both the throbbing and the searching continue until the violin then lets a simple short melody in the string orchestra take the lead. But
this melody also comes to a halt, and the throbbing and searching begin again. As a secondary theme, the first violins replace their throbbing with a descending semitone accompaniment phrase,
over which the violin now finds its melody (2nd theme in sonata form), also characterised by semitones and modally coloured harmony. The violin begins to sing, supported only by soft harmonies
and the occasional accompanying phrase that reappears in the background. Slowly, the fine poetic mood dies away exhausted.
Forte, the throbbing begins again, now almost mechanically and futuristically loud, overwhelming, driving the violin into wild stress (= recapitulation). The continuing hammering bustle of the
industrial age displaces any poetry, but it cannot be completely killed off, the accompanying phrase quietly announces itself and the violin begins to sing again softly and even more spherically,
ever more nostalgically, until it finds its way to the final part with a long trill and pizzicatos and to a dreamy reconciliation of throbbing and poetics.
II. Andante
Reconciled dialectics in the present also need the past: the string orchestra opens the second movement in heavy neo-baroque overture style. The violin follows with a dramatic recitative, until the orchestra finally leads over to the violin's aria with its baroque sound. Like a baroque singer, she ornaments her fantastically beautiful vocal line, is additionally accompanied by a solo cello empathetically and beautifully in thirds, and leads the aria to the highest spheres. And then simply leaves it there.
III. Finale. Allegro molto
Again, as if from a distance, quietly wild violin phrases approach the solo violin, the throbbing of the first movement is also heard again immediately, but then accelerates into rhythmically shifted triplet accompaniment. Violin and orchestra stress each other out. After grinding glissandi, a folkloristically simple song melody emerges in an accentuated two-beat rhythm, accompanied by col-legno strokes on the wooden violin bodies. The two-beat rhythm exhausts itself and closes with two pizzicatos. Again the throbbing begins, again violin stress - until a striking unison theme of the whole orchestra, which in its unison comes across like a distorted old hymn (with the violin briefly recalling its aria melody in the second movement). Then the orchestra and violin accelerate into a kind of recapitulation. The short-short-long of the violin phrase of the beginning becomes a final theme for a wild and effective final chase. Once again, the folkloristic song melody is briefly recalled, but then this lightweight but enigmatic work plunges into a prestissimo whirlwind full of life-affirmation.