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Giya Kancheli: an Introduction to his Music

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 February 2010

Ivan Moody
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Extract

Born in 1934, Georgiy (Giya) Kancheli has begun to receive attention in the West rather later than Alfred Schnittke, who was born one year earlier. Kancheli, who comes from Tiflis (Tbilsi), in Georgia – and who should not therefore be described as Russian – studied piano and composition (with Ilya Tuskiya) in the Conservatory of his native town between 1959 and 1963, and he has himself taught there since 1970. Since 1971 he has also been musical director of the Rustaveli Theatre in Tiflis. He has received recognition as a People's Artist of the USSR, and been a State Prize winner, and following his emergence into the consciousness of countries outside the USSR interest in his music has spread considerably.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 173: Soviet Issue , June 1990 , pp. 49 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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References

1 I have been unable to examine Symphony No.7 of 1986, entitled Epilogue, so that work is not discussed in the course of this article.

* In addition to the pieces listed above, Kancheli is credited with two musicals, Khanuma (1973) and The Caucasian Chalk Circle (1975). He is currently composing a Flute Concerto for Carol Wincenc and a String Quartet for the Kronos Quartet. His latest work, entitled A Life without Christmas – ‘The Morning Prayers’, for strings, amplified piano, electric bass guitar and boy soprano, will receive its world première on 8 July during the Almeida Festival, in a concert given by Opus 20 conducted by Scott Stroman. (Ed.).

2 See preface by Givi Ordzhonikidze to the score of the Second Symphony.

* Compare the final movement of Shostakovich's Suite on Verses of Michelangelo (Ed).

3 It is significant that Kancheli chooses not to make use of the indigenous repertoire of Georgian folk music. His folk-like melodies are entirely his own, and have none of the abrasiveness or dissonance of the Georgian tradition.

4 Tempo 168 (03 1989), p. 16Google ScholarPubMed.

5 Ibid.