Today is the birthday of Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (1859-1935), a pupil of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, who made his name as a musical spokesperson for the Caucasus.

Ippolitov-Ivanov spent his formative creative years in Georgia, as director of the music academy and conductor of the orchestra in Tblisi. Though he would return to Russia to become a professor at – and eventually director of – the Moscow Conservatory, as a well as a prominent conductor of the Russian Choral Society and at Bolshoi Theatre, clearly the music of Georgia had become deeply ingrained. He returned there in 1924 to reorganize the Tblisi Conservatory. His compositional output includes works on Georgian, Armenian and Turkish themes.

His best-known piece, of course, is the “Procession of the Sardar,” from his “Caucasian Sketches.” It climaxes the Suite No. 1, which can be heard here:

A native Georgian composer of whose music I am particularly fond is Zakaria Paliashvili (1871-1933), regarded as the “Father of Georgian Music.” Paliashvili studied composition at the Moscow Conservatory under Sergei Taneyev (a pupil of Tchaikovsky). He then returned to Georgia to collect folk songs, co-found the Georgian Philharmonic Society and head the Tblisi Conservatory.

I discovered his music online a number of years ago, when I encountered a Georgian website that was selling CD-Rs of his operas, including “Abeselom and Eteri,” the posted excerpts from which were absolutely gorgeous. Apparently, Deutsche Grammophon issued some recordings on LP, back in the 1970s. However, I was not about to share my credit card number with an unknown merchant in Georgia!

Unfortunately, just about everything is currently out of print. I did play Paliashvili’s “Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom” on “The Lost Chord” a number of years ago.

Holy cow! Somebody posted one of his operas, “Daisi,” on YouTube!

Zoiks! Here’s a selection from “Abeselom and Eteri!”

And a film version?!!!! No way! I can’t wait to watch this!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlDhjCqCVM0

I’ve got Georgia on my mind.

PHOTOS: Gorgeous Georgians Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (honorary, left) and Zakaria Paliashvili