Yuri Bashmet to Vestnik Kavkaza: I really love visiting Caucasus

"I really love visiting the Caucasus," Yuri Bashmet, People's Artist of the USSR, head of Chamber Ensemble "Moscow Soloists" and State Symphony Orchestra "New Russia" said, answering the question of Vestnik Kavkaza's correspondent.

"Caucasusian people are very kind," he said.

"One day, after a concert in Tbilisi, our orchestra already got into the bus, and suddenly this bus was above the ground. In other words, audience carried us like Beatles," he said.

"Armenia is in no way inferior to Georgia. People love when we come there," he noted.

"Azerbaijan, of course, has its Rostropovich festival. So I really love to come there," he stressed.

"I have very close long-term relations with Georgia. I have awesome music, written for me by Gia Kancheli - we're friends. Great conductor Dzhansug Kakhidze is also my friend. Unfortunately, he passed away a long time ago," he said.

"When we were in Georgia, Patriarch Ilia II invited us. We had a wonderful time together, listened to music, talked a lot. He said: 'We love you very much, visit us as often as possible!'," Yuri Bashmet concluded.