VISIT OF THE GEORGIAN NOTE QUARTET IN KARLOVO AND KOPRIVSHTITSA

The Georgian State Note Quartet was a guest of  Trio Impressia of the Bulgarian Town of Karlovo, as well as of the Municipality of Karlovo in the days around the Rose Feast. They sang about ten songs on the stage of the central square during the evening concert on May 28. The next day they performed, together with the Impressia Trio at the the summer stage in the town of Koprivshtitsa.

What impressed me most about their visit in Karlovo?

Above all, their high class: four really beautiful and strong voices, three female and a male ones, all compelling and very professional. Given the attractive appearance and charm of each of the four the quartet would certainly be a honour at any of the most prestigious world stages.

I should say that probably there was a subjective reason for my delight: the Georgians sing my a mix of my favorite musical styles, i.e. ethnic, world, jazz and pop. And all this is Georgian, which means unique, colorful and beautiful - I can only compare it with the Brazilian world-ethnic-jazz-pop.

Their repertoire of around 30 songs is mainly based on the Georgian urban folklore. They also perform popular songs from other countries they have visited, including the Bulgarian song of Familia Tonika, with which they won the first place at Memories & Sea Festival in Varna.

However, they say in Georgia writing a song is expensive, 2000 lari (about 1000 euros), and therefore they complete their repertoire mostly on their own, by selecting and processing Georgian oldtime city songs, which  they change from one voice to four voice ones. Their songs are difficult because each of the quartet sings a different melody in the spirit of the Georgian tradition.

They mainly sing about love, as well a about their city Batumi , about Tbilisi ...

A question arose in my head during my short conversation with them (thanks for it to my friends of Impressia Trio and especially to Ivanka Baltova) was whether their calm and confident stage presence is due to government support to both them and Georgian culture in general . "State" before the name of the Georgian song and music ensembles means the performers are employed by the relevant government agency, as it was in Bulgaria before 1989. They receive salaries with the duty to be available to government organizations on formal occasions and concerts. Besides, certainly they can earn by private participation in concerts, weddings and other events.

Impressia Trio accidentally met with Note Quartet at a table in Varna, during one of the three participations of the Georgian Quartet at the Sea and Memories Festival. Happily, the Municipality of Karlovo covered financially their visit to the Rose Festival, despite its problems at the moment.

Karlovo audience seemed intrigued. and greeted them kindly. However, given how the people rapidly crowded together under the stage after Note leaved, in suspense of Sevdalina and Valentin Spasovi pop-folk duo, it is clear that the public has lost ear and taste for such music. There must have been no way for avoiding it, because ear and taste would develop by listening, they were something to built and educate in as they would say decades ago. Bulgarian both music and singers has been left to themselves for the last two decades. The Bulgarian culture is neither supported by the state nor can be realistically expected to develop as a successful business, given the size and economic capacity of our country. “Chalga” seems to be an exception; however many people suspect that it was imposed not just because of the mass taste and preferences, but as a result of any purposeful (perhaps conspiratorial) policy. It is known that almost every song, every style can become a hit if they keep on sounding in the media ...

And let us return to the Georgians. They said they felt at home in Bulgaria because people were as welcoming as Georgians, and the nature was the same. Well, there may be some difference since photos of their city include palm trees and old architecture looking like Mediterranean. Indeed, Batumi located on the southern Black Sea coast of Georgia, is the most important both sea and tourist town of the country, and may differ somewhat from the rest of it. A brief reference to Wikipedia shows higher temperatures to compared to Bulgaria; they have almost no winter nor snow.

My associations with Georgia have been preliminary linked with Stalin, Georgian folk dancers and a Georgian actress I would often watch on TV before 1989. In more recent times, I would be impressed by the strong performances of the Georgian representatives at Eurovision Song Contest. Even when a Georgian song was not among my favorites, I liked the confident and strong performance demonstrating a good condition of their music scene.

Beyond those stereotypes, I did not know much about Georgia and Georgians. Before the start of the "democratization", even though we were involved in the same so called "socialist camp" we were isolated from each other, and as sunflowers mainly watched to the center. Diversity of cultures and peoples we associated with the concerts mainly at Moscow stages, as well as with films from the different Soviet republics.Even after the „democratic changes“, we continued, somewhat due to the momentum to stare like sunflowers at the new „Big Brothers"...

The visit of  Note Quartet in Karlovo was for me a great incentive to seek online information about Georgia. Perhaps, the Eurovision 2012 in Baku will focus the attention of the Europeans not only on Azerbaijan but also on the entire Caucasus region. Thus many people like me will realize that Europe means not only Western Europe and Western (Anglo-Saxon) culture, and the continent continues to the east of the Black Sea, where Europe and Asia overlap.

WHICH CONTINENT IS HOSTING EUROVISION SONG CONTEST 2012, AND HOW TO REACH BAKU?

After the victory of Ell and Nikki with the song "Running Scared" for Azerbaijan, I "discovered" that part of the territory of Azerbaijan is actually located in Europe. This is similar to Russia and the same case as Turkey, as all Bulgarians know, and as Georgia, which just few know. The capitals of the three Eurasian countries Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey are in the Asian continent. For the Georgian capital Tbilisi I just can guess after having compared the maps.

Political map of Eurasia
Double-click on the map to get a large-scale image
and compare it with the physical map

I have always thought that Europe is just west and north of the Black Sea. I wondered why Eurovision continues to expand with countries of Asia, without changing its name, for example to something like Eurasiavision. I reasoned that the name Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) is not derivative of 'Europe' and 'European', and from Eurovision TV. I also suspected that what might have played role were political considerations and a strong desire to affirm the indivisibility of both Jewish the Caucasian cultures from the European one. I also did not exclude a possible role of corruption schemes .

It actually seems that at least part of my assumptions were right, because Israel and Armenia - the last country surprisingly for me after the discovery about Georgia and Azerbaijan - are entirely Asian. I very well understand the inclusion of Armenia, because I can not imagine how countries such as Georgia, Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey and Israel but Armeniacan be a part of ESC; it would definitely look like exclusion.

So I can sleep peacefully now knowing the expansion of ESC makes sense.

The next ESC will be held in the eastern periphery of the continent, even more than ESC in Moscow (2009) and in Ankara (2004). This will contribute to further breaking the stereotype imposed on Europe as Western Europe and Anglo- Saxonized culture. Even though the Azerbaijani people may have masked themselves presenting songs in Western style and manner (Anglo-Saxon or Swedish, but the latter I think is a variant of the Anglo-Saxon), we might have not seen much of the traditional and contemporary musical culture of Azerbaijan, but  there is no way we would miss the authentic Azeris during ESC 2012. In both positive sense including culturally diversity and negative sense.

As to some of the negative aspects of Azerbaijani culture, I have read in an online forum an emotional essay by a Westerner about a long and dramatic queuing up, in particular one for railway tickets; this may remind to older Bulgarians the well-known phenomenon  from our country's near past too. It is also not excluded that reaching Baku will prove more expensive and difficult compared with other ESC capitals. According to some comments in ESCToday.com by enthusiasts, who have already made some explorations, there are two less expensive itineraries: a budget airline to either Moscow or Ankara, and then travel by train to Baku. However, in both cases there are some problems. On one hand, travel in sensitive Caucasian region of the Russian Federation is just allowed for citizens of CIS countries. On another hand, the railway line from Ankara to Baku is not yet complete, although it is possible to have it built until the beginning of ESC 2012.

I also did a quick online survey on the itinerary to ESC 2012 from Bulgaria. Good option might be traveling by plane to Tbilisi, Yerevan or Tehran, and then - by train (about € 35 first class from Tbilisi). Some locals recommended travel by train than by bus minibus; it lasts 15 long hours from Tbilisi - the nearest town to Baku, but there is much less risk of road accidents. Otherwise, transport communications between the countries in the region are seemingly well developed. Baku can also be reached by plane from Tehran at the price of $120-160, depending on the air company eg Azeri Azal or IranAir. Most zealous ESC fans may risk traveling just by bus through Istanbul; it is probably about a day to Istanbul and then another 3 days to Baku. Another good option seems to be a budget airline flight to one of European cities, to which Azal flies eg Milan, and then a flight to Baku. However, after calculated the total cost the most variants here may not significantly differ from the price of the direct flight Sofia-Baku.

Concerning visas,  the authorities in Baku will probably do their best to facilitate the festival tourists in obtaining Azeri visas; even a political decision to temporally visa suspension should not be excluded. According to the online forums, Georgia does not require visas for EU citizens, the Armenian visa is easily obtainable and cheap (6 euros for a stay up to 20 days), and in Tehran you can get a visa at the airport at the price of $60 for an up to a week stay.

Otherwise, ESC 2012 in Baku will be geographically in Asia, as Azeri capital is situated it the Asian part of the country. The contest will be in Asia politically too, because the special managing committee for the upcoming ESC, which is already appointed by the Azerbaijani President is headed by the first lady, and just includes ministers and other heads of state institutions and agencies. The difference with the European (Anglo-Saxon) manner is that the latter would hide from the for the public eyes the political influences and especially the politicians involvement as much as possible; it would be like under the slogan "Intervene, but do not do it visibly". Political interference tends to happen in a most more sophisticated  and discreet way in Europe, mainly through the professionals involved in the organization on both international and national levels, and also routinely through media and propaganda. By the way, we Bulgarians are certainly between Europe and Asia in this regard.

Because of the borderline characteristic of the Azerbaijani culture I look forward to ESC Baku 2012 with even higher interest and curiosity, and am going to follow on the developments around the Azeri ESC hosting.