Happy Georgia: When God invited the nations to Himself after the act of creation to assign them their territory, the people from the area between the Caucasus and the Black Sea were late – because they had been drinking and celebrating so exuberantly. However, when the Lord learned that the feast was being held in His honor, He allotted to the Georgian people that patch of earth which He had actually set aside for Himself. At least that's what the popular legend has it. Viticulture in Georgia dates back more than 8000 years, and to this day the small country is considered a haven of hospitality and humid conviviality. The typical banquets, known as "supra," follow strict rituals: a "tamada," the table master, watches over the fact that not a drop of alcohol is consumed without first delivering a rhetorically polished toast. The word "Alaverdi" is used to pass an archaic drinking horn around in a circle. Whoever holds it in their hands sets the theme for the next toast. Mikhail Timoshenko, the baritone from the extreme south of Russia, and the Bulgarian pianist Elitsa Desseva now make Georgian table usage the guiding principle of an entertaining evening of song: each toast opens a new chapter. In Russian and Georgian songs, in settings from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn" as well as compositions
by Viktor Ullmann, Samuel Barber, Georg Kreisler and others, themes such as "peace", "friendship" or "youth" come up.

Concert without intermission
Duration approx. 70 min