Mikael Tariverdiev - Organ Concerto no. 1 “Cassandra“ (I. Intrada) (Luca Massaglia, organ)

Luca Massaglia () plays “Intrada“ (no. 1 from “Organ Concerto no. 1 «Cassandra»“, op. 91) by Soviet composer Mikael Tariverdiev (1931-1996). Hauptwerk system, Cavaillé-Coll organ of St. Etienne Abbey Church in Caen, France. Mikael Tariverdiev was born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR to Armenian parents, but lived and worked in Russia. His father, Levon Tariverdiev, was from Baku (Azerbaijan) but a native of Nagorno Karabakh. His mother, Satenik, was Georgian Armenian. He graduated at Moscow “Gnessin“ Academy of Music (in the class of Aram Khachaturian) and he was taught orchestration by Dmitry Shostakovich. He is an author of over 100 romances and 4 operas, but he is best known for his soundtrack music to many popular Soviet movies (more than 130 films). Mikael Tariverdiev was a recipient of many awards, including the USSR State Prize (1977) and the Prize of the American Music Academy (1975). He was awarded the title “People’s Artist of Russia“ in 1986 and won the “Nika Award“ (the main annual national film award in Russia) as best composer three times in the ’90s. The “Best Music“ prize at the “Kinotavr“ (the most important Russian national film festival) is named after Tariverdiev. After Tariverdiev’s death, a group of admirers of his music founded the “Mikael Tariverdiev Charity Fund“ and the “Tariverdiev International Organ Competition“. In 1984, Tariverdiev visited the exhibition of paintings of Christopher Niesse in Berlin; he was particularly impressed by a series of paintings under the title “Cassandra“ and decided to use the same title for his first Organ Concerto, written in Sukhumi (a city on the Black Sea where the composer used to spend his summer holidays ever since he was a boy) shortly before. Cassandra is a character of Greek mythology. She consented to sleep with Apollo in exchange for the gift of prophecy, and then broke her promise. Her punishment was the curse of never being believed. She foresaw forthcoming misfortunes, but her warnings were always ignored. The message of both Niesse’s “Cassandra“ paintings and Tariverdiev’s Organ Concerto no. 1 is a warning to today’s inhabitants of the planet of the horrors of war threatening mankind.