I am very happy to share this book with you: thirty-three miniatures by the great Georgian composer Giya Kancheli based on his music for theater and cinema. Originally, the miniatures were written for piano; I have transcribed them for solo vibraphone.

I discovered Giya’s music as a member of Kremerata Baltica, the chamber orchestra spearheaded by the world-renowned violinist Gidon Kremer, with whom I have been collaborating for more than twenty years. Not only did I have the opportunity to perform the music of the Maestro - I was lucky to get to him know him well. Our first artistic encounter took place at Gidon Kremer’s Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival in Austria, where Giya Kancheli had been a frequent composer-in-residence. He was a man of rare human warmth, sincerity, charm, passion and positive aura, with a wonderful sense of humor. At the same time it would be difficult to find a person more meticulous and demanding regarding the performance of his compositions, where every little detail matters.

Giya said: "Whether my music is played matters less than the way it is played". When you open this book, you'll understand better what Maestro meant. His music is incrementally sensitive, every stroke, every change of harmony, even every rest carries its own expressive significance, its own mood, its own energy. A thoughtful approach to timing becomes the magic key to the interpretation of Kancheli’s works - in every period, in every measure and in every beat.

The unique timbres and color capacities of the vibraphone, I am absolutely convinced, allow the performer and listener to immerse themselves in the majestic microcosm of extremely subtle, tender, and sublimely inspiring imagery that is the musical world of Giya Kancheli. I’m sure you will enjoy it!

Andrei Pushkarev