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By Olga Fyodorova
One day, in the spring of 1962, the phone started ringing in the Moscow
apartment of Conservatory Professor Yakov Zak.
“Yes? Where are they calling from? Tbilisi? Put them through, please!”
It’s got to be Professor Anastasiya Virsaladze, - Professor thought,
- and this woman is too no nonsense to call just to chat about trifles!
It’s got to be something real important. “Hello, Anastasiya, I knew it
was you! Want to show me one of your students? Any time! I know how good
they are and would be happy to take up any one of them. You give them such
great piano training that one needn’t bother teaching them the right technique
and can move right on to high class! Who’s she? How old? Nineteen? So young!
You want her to take part in the Tchaikovsky competition?! … Well, well…
And what’s her name? Virsaladze?! One of your namesakes or a relative?
Your granddaughter?! Bring her in, I will audition her, I promise. A deal?
Come over, both of you, I’ll be waiting…”
Professor Zak was immediately impressed by young Eliso’s playing and even
more than that, by her poetic soul, elegant, aristocratic finesse and mature
playing manner.
Several months later the 19-year-old Eliso Virsaladze won the third prize
at the Tchaikovsky competition – a real coup de force for such a young
pianist.
Her fast-progressing skills were drawing glowing reviews
in the press…
“Her playing is so amazingly harmonious and poetic,” went one such account,
“her command of the instrument is absolutely amazing and her sound palette
would make many more experienced players envious…”
Eliso Virsaladze was born into an artistic family in the Georgian capital
Tbilisi. Her grandmother Anastasia, one of the republic’s best known music
teachers, set the tone as an excellent musician and a wise and bighearted
woman. Otherwise she would hardly be able to professionally teach her granddaughter.
Really, few musicians dare teach their offspring because in most cases
this ends up in family spats, tears and, as a result, makes the kids allergic
to music. That’s exactly what happened to Eliso who never really
managed to get her musically endowed daughter interested.
But let’s get back to the now distant Fifties... Rebellious as she was,
Eliso still proved an excellent student moving from strength to strength
under the expert guidance of her seasoned tutor. If she did not like this
or that piece, it meant that she should work harder to get it in and if
she wasn’t entirely happy with Beethoven, she was simply told to listen
more to better appreciate the great German’s music… Only then was she allowed
to indulge in her beloved romantics enjoying their compositions, all so
tender, warm and inspired…
Eliso started playing in competitions early on. Starting out winning a
number of regional ones she then moved on to win bronze at the 1961 competition
of young performers and later finished third participating in the prestigious
Tchaikovsky international competition in Moscow. Several years later she
triumphed at the Schumann international competition at Zwickau, Germany.
Her childhood penchant for romantically-tinged music eventually made her
one of the world’s best performers of Schubert, Chopin and, above all,
Schumann…
Graduating from the Tbilisi Conservatory, Eliso Virsaladze continued her
education doing postgraduate work at the Moscow Conservatory in the
class of her good old friend Professor Yakov Zak who was carefully honing
her exceptional skills…
It’s a pity that women account for just a fraction of performing musicians.
Not because they are less gifted, of course, but because too many have
to quit saddled by family chores and other domestic problems. Indeed, performing
musicians are always on the road and the enormous physical and moral strain
often proves too much for women. Not Eliso Virsaladze, though, whose iron
will and perseverance have made her a performing celebrity and also a good
wife, loving mother and a guest-loving hostess…
Tight-lipped and introverted, Eliso still proved a perfect friend and stage
partner well-known colleagues really loved to play with. Always sensitive
and attentive to her partner’s ways, Eliso enjoyed ensemble playing and
each her concert with the famous Borodin string quartet was a celebration…
Her partnership with the brilliant cellist Natalya Gutman has also been
a head-spinning success…
Partnering with the Borodon string quartet, Natalya Gutman and others,
Eliso Virsaladze played at top-notch European chamber music festivals,
including the December Nights festival in Moscow organized by the late
pianist Svyatoslav Richter.
Playing with the formidable Richter was a great honor and responsibility
and Eliso still retains warm and tender memories of those unforgettable
moments… Svyatoslav Richter is gone now but his December Nights festival
lives on and Eliso Virsaladze always makes sure to be there…
Eliso is a world-renowned pianist playing at the world’s most prestigious
venues, teaching at the Moscow Conservatory, giving master classes around
the world, and making excellent recordings…
Once, years back, her grandmother told her: “If you want to achieve much,
never hurry. You should feel as if you had all the time in the world. Only
a free person has time for everything…”
That’s exactly what Eliso Virsaladze, a brilliant pianist, a beautiful
woman and an extremely talented person, has been doing all her life…
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