Press

Stefan Pieper, February 2024

Interview mit der Pianistin Shorena Tsintsabadze

Ein neues Album, eine Hommage an Rachmaninoff und viele persönliche Einblicke – die georgische Pianistin Shorena Tsintsabadze spricht in einem ausführlichen Interview über ihre musikalischen und persönlichen Erfahrungen und kommende Projekte. Im Zentrum des Gespräch stand ihr persönlicher Bezug zu Rachmaninoffs Frühwerk, der zum Album „A Tribute to Rachmaninoff“ anlässlich dessen 150. Geburtstages und 80. Todestages im letzten Jahr inspirierte.

 

Stefan Pieper, February 2024

CD-Review: Shorena Tsintsabadze – Tribute to Rachmaninow

Die georgische Pianistin Shorena Tsintsabadze hat Sergei Rachmaninoff immer als künstlerische Leitfigur betrachtet, vor allem, wenn es um den Aspekt echter Hingabe gebt. Das gab ihr viel Kraft, um auch trotz persönlicher und beruflicher Herausforderungen immer nach künstlerischer Höchstleistung zu streben, wie sie in ihrem ausführlichen selbst geschriebenen Booklet-Text für die neue ARS-Aufnahme „A Tribute to Rachmaninoff“ ausführt.

Holger Sambale, January 2024

Tribute to Rachmaninoff

Earlier this year ARS Produktion released a Rachmaninoff commemoration SACD with, among others, his ever-so-popular Second Piano Concerto, played by Shorena Tsinsabadze and the Russian Federal Orchestra, Vakhtang Jordania conducting. At the time I decided that yet another Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto was not something people were waiting for. The present high-resolution count stands at 41 for the physical product, to which some will want to add those from download-only sites like Native DSD. Moreover, the orchestra accompanying the soloist, the ‘Russian Federal Orchestra’ did not ring a bell.

Adrian Quanjer, May 2024

Review - Tribute to Rachmaninoff

Earlier this year ARS Produktion released a Rachmaninoff commemoration SACD with, among others, his ever-so-popular Second Piano Concerto, played by Shorena Tsinsabadze and the Russian Federal Orchestra, Vakhtang Jordania conducting. At the time I decided that yet another Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto was not something people were waiting for. The present high-resolution count stands at 41 for the physical product, to which some will want to add those from download-only sites like Native DSD. Moreover, the orchestra accompanying the soloist, the ‘Russian Federal Orchestra’ did not ring a bell.

Daniela Fietzek, February 2024

Zeitloser Rachmaninoff

2023 war für Sergej Rachmaninoff-Fans ein ereignisreiches Jahr: Der Geburtstag des russischen Romantikers jährte sich zum 150., der Todestag zum 80. Mal. Grund genug für viele Musikerinnen und Musiker, Rachmaninoff besonders viel Aufmerksamkeit zu schenken. Unter den zahlreichen Neuerscheinungen findet sich auch das Album “Tribute to Rachmaninoff” der russisch-georgischen Pianistin Shorena Tsintsabadze.

Alexander Walther, April 2024

CD: Tribute to Rachmaninoff mit der Pianistin Shorena Tsintsabadze. Ars Produktion

Die aus Moskau stammende Pianistin Shorena Tsintsabadze präsentiert hier Rachmaninoff-Aufnahmen mit ungewöhnlicher Brillanz und Sensibilität. Sie wiederlegt auch die Behauptung, die Musik Rachmaninoffs kranke an Selbstwiederholungen. Dies zeigt sich sogleich bei ihrer Wiedergabe der Moments musicaux op. 16, die im Jahre 1896 entstanden.

Guido Krawinkel, November 2023

Romantisch: Shorena Tsintsabadze “Dedication”

Kontraste werden wirkungsvoll ausgefahren, subtile Nuancen aber nicht vergessen. Der langsame Mittelsatz etwa gelingt ihr ausgesprochen einfühlsam und lyrisch, gleichzeitig führt Tsintsabadze den dramaturgischen roten Faden weiter, der schließlich im fulminanten Schlusssatz aufgeht.

Adrian Quanjer, July 2023

Dedication - Tsintsabadze

Shorena Tsintsabadze having selected works that fit such a sad and psychologically profound mood wonderfully well, her playing is not triste, but compassionately powerful.

Peter Sommeregger, October 2020

Romantisches in Vollendung

Tsintsabadze verleiht ihrer Interpretation neben aller technischen Perfektion auch ein besonderes Gespür für die Feinheiten der Schumann’schen Melodik.

Stefan Pieper, September 2023

CD-Review: Shorena Tsintsabadze – Dedication

Wenn die georgische Pianistin Shorena Tsintsabadze ihr aktuelles Soloalbum „Dedication“ nennt, dann ist dies das Resultat einer tiefen musikalischen wie historischen Reflexion. Dedication, zu deutsch Widmung bezieht sich vor allem auf den persönlichen Draht, den zwei der wichtigsten Komponisten im 19. Jahrhundert zueinander hatten: Robert Schumann und Franz Liszt.

Adrian Quanjer, July 2020

Klavier Romantik - Tsintsabadze

Shorena, at the beginning of our conversation, I think it will be interesting for the readers to talk about the journey of yours, as a successful continuation of the family music traditions.

June 2021

Music International Summer Academy, Its News and Plans - Interview With Pianist Shorena Tsintsabadze

Shorena, at the beginning of our conversation, I think it will be interesting for the readers to talk about the journey of yours, as a successful continuation of the family music traditions.

“Dedication,” piano music of Brahms, Liszt, and Schumann

… Shorena starts off with Robert Schumann’s Phantasie in C Major, a work that begins with with a bright, continuously flowing, well-characterized theme that allows for, and in fact invites, numerous excursions. It is marked Durchaus phantastisch und leidenschaftlich vorzutragen (Absolutely fantastic and sorrowfully laden). And, as usual, Schumann means what he says!

“Klavier Romantik,” Schumann, Brahms, & Chopin

… With its seemingly endless wealth of color and techniques for blending, contrasting, and superimposing timbres, Symphonic Etudes has long been considered one of the most difficult works in the repertoire, a fact which does not deter Shorena. In the past decade, I can recall reviewing only one other recording by any pianist. Interestingly, it was by her compatriot David Aladashvili (Phil’s Reviews, 3/2014). Hmm… maybe these Georgians don’t scare easily.

James Harrington

SCHUMANN Fantasie in C, op. 17. BRAHMS Klavierstücke, op. 118: No. 2, Intermezzo in A. LISZT Sonata in b, S 178

Published in 1839 and dedicated to Liszt, Schumann’s Fantasy (Fantasie in German) is a large, three-movement, sonata-sized piece. Liszt’s Sonata, equally large but a single- movement piece, was completed in 1853 and dedicated to Schumann. When a copy arrived at the Schumann’s house in 1854, Robert had already entered a sanatorium. Clara found it “merely a blind noise” and never played it. She is the dedicatee of Brahms’s 6 Pieces, op. 118 (1893). The title Dedication is perfectly chosen here.

Jerry Dubins

SCHUMANN Fantasie in C, op. 17. BRAHMS Klavierstücke, op. 118: No. 2, Intermezzo in A. LISZT Sonata in b, S 178

The album at hand is titled Dedication, and beyond the title having other resonances and reciprocities throughout her recital, Shorena Tsintsabadze dedicates this program to her beloved father, Revaz Tsintsabadze. There are, however, additional connections between the album title and the works on this disc which will be revealed anon.

Tim Ashley, Jan 2011

Lyapunov: Piano Concertos Nos 1 & 2; Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes – review

“Sergei Lyapunov (1859-1924) is one of Russian music’s more puzzling figures. A pupil of Taneyev and Tchaikovsky in Moscow, he eventually gravitated towards the nationalist circles around Balakirev in St Petersburg. He took Liszt as his primary model, and if you place his music alongside Mussorgsky or Borodin it can seem a bit un-Russian and faceless. His two piano concertos deploy the sectional single-movement form that Liszt favoured. The First (1890), with its lofty piano writing and dark instrumentation, is noble and grand. The Second (1909) is more Romantic and sentimental, with big climaxes reminiscent of Rachmaninov. The performances are terrific, with monumental playing from Shorena Tsintsabadze and orchestral contributions of persuasive beauty from the Russian Philharmonic under Dmitry Yablonsky. The filler is the Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes (1907), which is very difficult for the pianist (Tsintsabadze does wonders), if also harmonically four-square and melodically trite.”

B.A. Nilsson, February 2011

“Pianist Shorena Tsintsabadze bring amazing chops to bear on the solo parts, reminding us that such talent isn’t always in the major local concert halls.”
Kevin Sutton, February 2011
“Shorena Tsintsabadze is fairly new to the concert world and was still pursuing post-graduate music studies in 2010. Despite her youth, she is a fully competent soloist with ample technique, a rich warm tone and quite capable of the finger-busting demands of this flashy music. Her sound is never overbearing, but it is amply robust and never clangy and bangy in a Lang Lang sort of manner.”
Dan Morgan, June 2011
“Tsintsabadze has a persuasive musical personality, and I really warmed to her playing in the work’s more inward moments.”
October 2014
“Both concertos are excellently played on this recording by the young Georgian pianist Shorena Tsintsabadze with the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky. The CD also includes Lyapunov’s Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes, often reminiscent of Liszt’s virtuosic pianistic style. Liapunov’s well-crafted music, with its colourful and imaginative orchestration, shows him to be one of the most talented nationalist composers of his time. Highly recommended.”

David Fanning, February 2011

“Moscow-born Shorena Tsintsabadze gives direct, well-schooled accounts of all three works, playing them for what they are worth”

David Hurwitz, January 2011

Lyapunov: Piano Concertos

“Moscow-born Shorena Tsintsabadze gives direct, well-schooled accounts of all three works, playing them for what they are worth”
Jerry Dubins, May 2011

“…Puritans, prigs, and prudes need not apply, but for all those not ashamed to leave their inhibitions at the door and to acknowledge their pleasure-seeking impulses, listening to Lyapunov is like taking a bath in Russian chocolate. And Shorena Tsintsabadze is the lady of the banya . Even if you already acquired the Milne as part of the Hyperion collection, I’d urge you to acquire this new Naxos. Timings-wise, Tsintsabadze and Milne are so close to each other that the few seconds’ differences between them in all three works are so slight they’re negligible. But in the crucial areas of interpretation, orchestral playing, and impact of recording, Tsintsabadze, Yablonsky, the Russian Philharmonic, and Naxos are the clear winners.

Shorena Tsintsabadze, in contrast, is Russian through and through. She was born in Moscow, studied at the Moscow Conservatory, and then in the U.S. with Oxana Yablonskaya. Lyapunov is in her blood, and you can hear it in the way she brings out the Russian idioms in this music derived indirectly from native folk melody sources. One has the feeling that these works have special meaning for her…”

Steven J Haller, March 2011

“Moscow-born Shorena Tsintsabadze seems born to play this music; she embraces it like Van Cliburn did the Tchaikovsky, warmly lyrical and impassioned in turn and blessed with a wide-ranging span of the keyboard from full bass register to glittering, yet never clattery top end. She traverses the shifting moods of both concertos with ease but truly comes into her own in the Rhapsody, tossing off the central “Polish” dance in deft fashion and really going to town in the Cossack Dance…”

John J. Puccio, January 2011

“The Piano Concerto No. 2 in E major, Op. 38 (1909) is a more formidable affair. It, too, is in a single movement, this time slightly shorter and more concise. It opens with a long, gently flowing theme, quite attractive and bucolic, which emphasizes Ms Tsintsabadze’s delicate virtuosity more than anything else on the disc. Following this opening section is a good deal more ornamentation by the soloist in segments that continuously transition from slow to fast to slow, with cadenzas galore. It’s almost too much of a good thing, finally leading to hints of Tchaikovsky and Liszt. Although there is a lot to like in the work, it probably goes in too many different directions to connect with every listener. The program concludes with the Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes for piano and orchestra (1907), a piece in rondo form with a pleasant pastoral theme returning several times, interspersed with a few country dances. Frankly, I enjoyed this music with its exotic Rimsky-Korsakov overtones as much as anything on the album, not only for the endless tunes but for Ms Tsintsabadze’s sensitive playing and Maestro Yablonsky’s alert direction.”

Robert Cummings, January 2011

“Moscow-born pianist Shorena Tsintsabadze, a student of Oxana Yablonskaya (mother of the conductor here), catches the fire and the poetry of the music, meets its pyrotechnical demands with relative ease and imparts a wonderful sense of imagination to her interpretations. Dmitry Yablonsky draws fine performances from the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, and Naxos provides excellent sound. Recommended.”

Phil Muse, February 2011

“…After the introduction by the orchestra of an unmistakably Russian theme in octaves, pianist Shorena Tsintsabadze makes her presence known early and often, handling the well-defined lyricism in the Adagio section with skill and feeling. When the opening theme returns in the long-awaited modulation to E flat major at the end, we have come to a very satisfying conclusion. Concerto No. 2 in E major affords Tsintsabadze and the RPO under Yablonsky even more occasions to shine in its relaxed, natural give and take between soloist and orchestra. Like its predecessor, this is a concerto in a single movement in which there is a nice balance between broadly stated melodies by the orchestra and finely crafted cadenza-like passages by the pianist, striking a natural balance between urgency and relaxation. The slow section, Lento ma non troppo, allows the soloist to display delicate tracery and subtle warmth that never descends to sentimentality. Finally, Rhapsody on Ukrainian Themes makes much of its folk themes and the pianist’s virtuosity, culminating in cascades of sound as we arrive at the climax, a rousing Cossack dance. Whether or not Rimsky Korsakov’s assessment that Lyapunov “lacked originality” will hold up with the passage of time, his music is undeniably attractive in its warmth and melodic qualities. These three works, short on thinks but long on feeling, embody what we love about the Russian piano concerto. They need to be heard more often.”

Patsy Morita, April 2011

”Tsintsabadze is certainly a very capable pianist, sounding as if she can handle the bigger Romantic concertos, and she effectively demonstrates where Lyapunov’s concertos fall in the history of Russian music.”

Christophe Huss, February 2011

“… Le concept du concerto pour piano est ici directement tiré des concertos de Liszt: un bloc d’une vingtaine de minutes accolant des épisodes contrastés. Le langage, aussi, est post-lisztien, dans la veine de Balakirev et dans l’esprit nationaliste de l’école de Rimski-Korsakov, mais sans la subtilité des textures orchestrales rimskiennes. Liapounov, bonne solution de remplacement à Liszt et Rachmaninov, est servi par une interprétation convaincante.”
Juan Manuel Parra Urbano
, April 2011
“…El protagonismo interpretativo, tanto de los conciertos como de la Rapsodia sobre temas ucranianos, reside en la pianista Shorena Tsintsabadze, que muestra una sólida destreza con el instrumento…Para quienes sientan una pasión desmedida hacia el pianismo ruso tardo-romántico, Sergey Mikhaylovich Lyapunov es una opción con claras reminiscencias a Rachmaninov.”

Publié le 18/08/2004

„Musique aux accents russes“
“19 ноября в Зале ОГАТ имени Тургенева прошел заключительный концерт юбилейного, X-го Фестиваля искусств «Орловская музыкальная осень». В исполнении Орловского губернаторского симфонического оркестра под управлением его руководителя Василия Шкапцова прозвучали два замечательных, объемных и сложных сочинения – Симфония № 9 Антонина Дворжака «Из Нового Света» и Третий концерт для фортепиано с оркестром Сергея Рахманинова. Солистом в рахманиновском концерте выступила молодая, но уже известная не только в России, но и за океаном московская пианистка Шорена Цинцабадзе. Тандем оркестра и солистки – Шорены Цинцабадзе, – можно с основанием назвать чрезвычайно удачным. Сложнейшая партия фортепиано была интерпретирована московской пианисткой ярко, вдохновенно, и, вместе с тем – искренне, просто. Ей удалось очаровать публику не только виртуозной техникой, тонкой и чувственной фразировкой, но и прекрасным, «собранным» звуком, наполненным воздухом и объемом. Хочется упомянуть о том, что очередная и ожидаемая встреча с талантливой пианисткой у орловских меломанов состоится в ноябре 2013 года, когда Шорена Цинцабадзе приедет к нам в гости с сольным концертом.
Отдельные слова благодарности, безусловно, заслуживает дирижер концерта – Василий Шкапцов, проведший оба отделения концерта в высшей степени профессионально, точно и тонко. Оркестр звучал на редкость компактно, стройно, его динамическая палитра была чрезвычайно разнообразна, что в целом позволило слушателям не думать о значительных трудностях выбранных произведений, а свободно погрузиться в волшебный мир музыки”

Interviews

აპრილი 12, 2017

“საქართველომ გამორჩეული ადგილი უნდა დაიკავოს მსოფლიოს მუსიკალურ სივრცეში“ – შორენა ცინცაბაძე”

“საქართველოს ახალგაზრდული სიმფონიური ორკესტრი იწყებს”