29)   E. Mikeladze Georgia State Symphony is a high-class orchestra characterized with lofty emotionality and the precision of sounding. Conductor Matchavariani governs and controls the whole process with a gentle hand, which creates a great impression. RHEINISCHE POST. HEIDE OEHMEN. GERMANY.

30)   Georgia State Symphony is an orchestra of a first class international category. Maestro Matchavariani’s movements are light, individual and clearly delineated as if dancing a minuet. He conducts the orchestra with determination using those invisible ropes. WESTDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG. HORST M. BECKER. GERMANY.

31)   Georgia State Symphony orchestra and Vakhtang Matchavariani at Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
   Before the Festival Ouverture, the 2 nd piano concerto and the 10-th Sypmphony were played, conductor Vakhtang Matchavariani from Georgia payed tribute to his father, composer Alexi Matchavariani. This artist was a contemporary of Shostakovich.
He also experienced the decline of the Soviet Regime and subsequently the artistic turnaround. That's why it is not surprising that two parts of the Suite " The Knight in the Panterskin " had a striking resemblance with for example Shostakovich 5-th Symphony.
Father Matchavariani had started experimenting with more atonal malodylines.
With the American pianist Ana-Maria Vera it luckily is progression.Vera is known a beautiful young lady who with calm assurance gives way to her musical vision.
The tenacity and power that the conductor Vakhtang Matchavariani showed in the 10-th Symphony of Shostakovich was an example of how this orchestra has a characteristic way of playing with which it in any case got a lot of acclaim with the Amsterdam public.
            JOS RUITERS, NOORD HOLLANDS DAGBLAD. 14-08-2002.

32)   Matchavariani elevated Prokofiev’s Symphony Number Five to a supreme intimate significance, having used no traditional music ideology. He gave the peace an amazingly rich and transparent musical sounding. MÄRKISCHE ODERZEITUNG. PETER BUSKE. GERMANY.

33)   Once again, Vakhtang Matchavariani has demonstrated his unusual sense of rhythm presenting Prokofiev’s Symphony Number Five, especially in the Symphony’s allegro and dancing rhythm parts. MÄRKISCHE ALLGEMEINE. JÖRG ZIMMERMAN. GERMANY.

34)   V. Matchavariani spellbound the orchestra. He looked presentable and explosive. His communicative and emotional presentation radiated the light. LA TRIBUNELE PROGRES. NICOLE MICHALON. FRANCE.

35)   It was opera BORIS GODUNOV. How very nice that we had a chance to enjoy Vakhtang Matchavariani in that opera, the director of a high class. The public gave him a prolonged standing ovation. LE PETIT BLEU. ALINE POISSENOT. FRANCE.

36)    The first performance in Israel of the Georgian conductor Vakhtang Matchavariani was a nice surprise, in a warm and enthusiastic conducting language that caught that caught the orchestra’s players and fascinated the audience. MA’ARIV. ORA BINUR. ISRAEL.

37.)    Matchavariani the man with the answers.
   Georgian music lovers commemorated the 95th birthday of famous Georgian composer Alexi Matchavariani at a concert held at Tbilisi musical centre on November 14. The Georgia National Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Vakhtang Matchavariani, his son, a conductor widely experienced and respected in Europe.

The concert began with Matchavariani’s Third Symphonic Suit from the ballet Othello. This was first performed in 1957 at the Tbilisi State Opera, and swiftly achieved international recognition, being staged in many cities worldwide. On the basis of the music alone, you can see why. Matchavariani’s music turns this on its head, by combining this with a warm lyricism and deep devotion to music itself which puts this intellectualism into context. Yes, that part of life exists, but we all have a fundamental humanity, expressed through soaring violin lines, superb orchestration and organic harmony and counterpoint.

People did seem to be a bit taller after hearing this music, and seeing how Vakhtang Matchavariani instilled the sense of the importance of this work, that it had a universality beyond 'interpretation'.

The second half of the concert was the premiere of symphonic suite The Taming of the Shrew. This was a thoroughly enjoyable romp, Shakespeare’s Shrew reappearing in a motif when least expected, emotion suddenly leavened by playfulness, argument dissolving into the drama that had created it. This is was what Shakespeare would have composed himself, as Matchavariani clearly had the same connection with truth that Shakespeare had, and knew exactly what to do about it.

The audience was deeply appreciative of both music and performance, as any audience would have been. Matchavariani thoroughly deserves a more prominent place in the classical canon.
             By Rumwold Leigh. "Messenger". 17.11.2008.

38.)    HATS OFF GENTLEMEN.

   On 30 October internationally famous Georgian conductor Vakhtang Machavariani gave a concert of the work of Mussorgsky,Prokofiev and his father Aleksi Machavariani at Tbilisi Music Centre.
..............................
It was a risk devoting the second half of the programme to Aleksi Machavariani's music for the ballet "The Taming of the Shrew",particulary as it was the world premiere of this piece. It is a substantial work,certainly not incidental music,and in a way it was unfortunate that this was the premiere,as it will repay considerable future study.

It grabs the audience from the first however,and in an unusual way.The first bars declare "Watch out,watch out,there's a shrew about",and you never know how seriously to take what is being said throughout. It is very difficult to maintain such a tone for any length of time without being misunderstood,but this music and this performance pulled this off,in an excellent rendering of the light comedy of Shakespeare's play.Within a short while you know that this is going to be the highlight of the show.The orchestration is flawless and very satisfying for the performers,who each have a considerable part and plenty to say, the music darting around from one section to another like a gymnast flinging himself about on the rings.The deeply suggestive tempo,the musical equivalent of rapidly raising eyebrows,is maintained even in the more solemn parts,when the consequences of all the jollity are reflected on,but nothing gets in the way of the fundamental triumph of fun when the shrew is tamed,but into a wiser shrew,at the end.

Like all bloodthirsty reviewers you wait for the misplaced effect,mistiming,failure of expres- sion,wrong choice or misplaced note in this piece.In this music,and this performance of it, this reviewer waited in vain.The piece is brilliant,like the way it was played,but it has far greater substance than a work which has brilliance alone.When you write reviews people tell you not to be too positive or negative because people will think it is a put up job.If this newspaper wants to sack me for telling the truth,let it. If Russia wants to start another war and Georgia can choose its weapon,it should choose the music of Aleksi Machavariani.
             By Rumwold Leigh. "Messenger". 03.11.2009.

39.)    HATS OFF GENTLEMEN.

   On 30 October internationally famous Georgian conductor Vakhtang Machavariani gave a concert of the work of Mussorgsky,Prokofiev and his father Aleksi Machavariani at Tbilisi Music Centre.

The evening began with Mussorgsky's famous tone poem "Night on a Bare Mountain"....... In this rendering this was finely controlled,tonal appropriateness appearing to be one of Vakhtang Machavariani's characteristics as a conductor.Another is that he seems to be interested in what the composer actualy meant,rather than what other people are supposed to infer from it,something always particulary noticeable in the way people render Russian music.Many Western conductors except their orchestras to drown Rusiian music in tortuous sweeps and groans,as if written by a loquacious drunk going berserk in a bar. This completely misses the subcutaneous fatalism at the heart of all Russian music, extracted simply by playing the notes.To this extend Night on a Bare Mountain does not sound very Russian,but Vakhtang Machavariani and his highly proficient orchestra were able to convey the fact that it is not only universal but very much a piece of 1886,when Russian aristocrats were busy showing how modern they were by developing an iterest in spirits and ghoulies inherent in many Western countries long before.

The second piece was Prokofiev's 3 rd Piano Concerto.....
             By Rumwold Leigh. "Messenger". 03.11.2009.

The Georgian, Russian and Soviet Press

40)    The Moscow Conservatory Grand Concert Hall. The Moscow State Symphony Orchestra is performing Brahms’s Symphony Number Four, one of the peaks of a symphonic genre in the world. Conductor Matcavariani excited us with his depth, lyricism and philosophical conception in reading of the peace, which clearly corroborates Matcavariani’s solid musical skill.
SOVETSKAYA KULTURA. JULY 14, 1981. M. VERSHININ

41)   Twenty-nine year old Vakhtang Matchavariani and the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra are presenting Schubert’s (Tragic) Symphony Number Four in the Tchaikovski Concert Hall in Moscow, which I am inclined to interpret as a significant and monumental presentation. All this is unexpected, but very convincing. On the whole, the event is understood as the conductor’s success, a daring step in the musician’s career. Matcavariani offered a magnificent partnership to pianist Petrov in Brahms’s Concerto for Piano.
SOVETSKAYA MUZIKA NO.10, 1982. G. SHOKHMAN

42)   This is what Tikhon Khrennikov said, the People’s Artist of the USSR, Hero of Socialist Labor, Winner of the Lenin and the State Prizes, First Secretary of the Union of Soviet Composers: May I note the artistic skill of a young conductor Vaktang Matchavariani, who in my opinion, will considerably add to the good name of the Soviet school of conductors.
SOVETSKAYA KULTURA ARTICLE SYNDICATED TO KOMUNISTI. OCTOBER 23, 1982

43)   I first met Vakhtang Matchavariani last year in Leningrad, and I was charmed. He is a serious musician with a highly developed taste and feelings. He was brought up in the musical world. As a conductor he possesses a rare individuality. He is a very sensitive and suave musician. I think a great and widely recognized career is in store for him.
MOSCOW. OCTOBER 22, 1985. INTERVIEW WITH ART CRITIC O. NEMEROVSKAYA AT BOLSHOI.

44)   Possessing outstanding musical talent, elaborate musical technique, fine and precise gesture as well as flawless artistic taste and temperament, Matchavariani and the orchestra today demonstrated a high-class musical performance.
ZARYA VOSTOKA. NOVEMBER 20, 1988. ALEXANDER SHAVERDZASVILI