Giya Kancheli - Symphonies No. 1 & 7, Mourned By The Wind (1992)

Some more recordings of the Georgian master of steely storminess and melancholy calm, all taped in Moscow in September 1992.  The 'world premiere recording' banner up there I assume only refers to Kancheli's 7th Symphony (composed in 1986), as the other works on the disc both had prior releases - see links below for an earlier Mourned By The Wind.

This album, then, functions as a kind of bookending of Kancheli's symphonic era, that began in 1967 with his 1st and ended 19 years later with the aforementioned 7th.  Symphony No. 1's two movements show early signs of the Kancheli trademarks - fluctuating dynamics, especially in the choppy first movement, then a more languid solemnity in the second (love that twinkling percussion though).  The dramatic fireworks and passages of elegaic respite of Symphony No. 7 are contained in a single, flowing movement lasting 21 minutes.  Some later recordings are noted as proper blow-your-speakers-out monstrosities, but this premiere doesn't sound too extreme.

In between the symphonic bookends sits a lovely rendering of Mourned By The Wind, Liturgy for Viola and Orchestra.  It's not drastically different in approach to the 1988 Georgian recording, more a matter of taste - occasional little subtleties are more apparent in one version than in another.  Nice to have a contrast.

 

link

pw: sgtg

 

Giya Kancheli at SGTG: 

Symphonies No. 3 & 6

Bright Sorrow/Mourned By The Wind (80s recordings)