This September, Alexander Manotskov and his quartet have already performed at Erarta. That time they presented an excellent program "Peli" by the lyrics of  Kharms, Vvedensky and Juan Ramón Jiménez. The project received the highest marks and appreciation of the widest range of the local audience, even though the program was already one year old.

This time St. Petersburg will be one of the first cities to hear the band’s new program "Mama" (in Georgian language it is translated as "father"). 

After "Mama" premier at the Moscow Night of Music, "Vedomosti" newspaper wrote in their review: "Aleksandr Manotskov and Courage Quartet presented their new concert program — a series of twelve songs under one title "Mama". The main feature of this particular program is that this time Manotskov not only wrote all the melodies and arrangements for the string quartet, but also came up with all the lyrics. So now he can be fairly considered not only a classical composer, but also a "classic" rock band frontman”. 

A 42-year-old Manotskov, the author of oratorios, operas, music for films and drama performances, has been tending to the "minstrel" (in terms of Vladimir Martynov) music for quite a long. It was already implemented in 2014 in his winter album "Peli", where the "minimalistic" string quartet solidly and almost in the folk manner sang the texts of several outstanding poets. 

The current program is even more diverse. It features almost punk lyrics, music in stylistics of  XVIII century and minimalistic folk traditions from all over the world. 

Is it still academic or already rock? Manotskov and Courage Quartet are well educated both in the classic British rock and the Viennese classical tradition. Let’s wait when "Mama" is released on an album, to fully  figure out all the nuances of the new masterpiece.