"Scenes of nature in tone painting" - piano works by Jean-Philippe Rameau, Franz Liszt, Camille Saint-Saëns, Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and Olivier Messiaen, played and commented on by Alexander Jakobidze-Gitman.
About the program
Soon after the heyday of European landscape painting in the 17th century, composers also began to imitate nature. Antonio Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" for violin and orchestra is considered the best known of the early musical landscape paintings. The first imitations of nature for keyboard instruments were also created in the Baroque period. Here, instead of landscapes, animals and concepts from physics emerge as objects of representation. It was only after the modern concert grand piano had completely replaced the harpsichord that piano composers became enthusiastic about the idea of tone painting and were inspired even more by the phenomena of inanimate nature than by living beings.
In the music of the 18th to 19th centuries, it is often difficult to determine what exactly is being reproduced: external physical characteristics of natural phenomena or human states of mind evoked by the experience of these phenomena. In the 20th century, however, the "human, all too human" was increasingly frowned upon in "serious music". This also applies to musical imitations of nature. Nature is no longer used as a mood enhancer; it is revered as a "thing in itself" that is only partially accessible to human cognition and empathy.
In this discussion concert, it becomes clear how perceptions of nature and its artistic representation have changed over the centuries. The development of musical images of nature not only reflects the technological progress of instruments, but also a deeper philosophical reflection on the relationship between art, man and nature. The concert program invites you to experience the multi-layered evolution of musical imitations of nature and to explore the artistic innovations that have shaped this fascinating path.
About the person
Alexander Jakobidze-Gitman studied piano at the Moscow Chaykovsky Conservatory and completed his postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music London. He then studied cultural, art and film studies (doctorate in 2009). He has performed as a concert pianist in countries such as Georgia, Great Britain, Germany, Latvia, Poland, Russia, Spain, Cyprus, Switzerland, the USA and the Netherlands. In 2013, Paul Hindemith's memorial year, Jakobidze-Gitman performed the complete piano cycle "Ludus tonalis". In 2022, he recorded 24 preludes and fugues in all keys from Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier.
Jakobidze-Gitman has been at the WittenLab since 2013. Zukunftslabor Studium fundamentale at Witten/Herdecke University as a research assistant and program manager. In addition to his work as a researcher and university lecturer, he gives talk concerts in which he combines piano playing with cultural-historical commentary.