Virtuosos 44. KANCHELI’S EVEREST

On the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the outstanding Georgian composer Giya Kancheli

Artists:

• Julian Milkis, clarinet
• Giorgi Sagareli, viola
• Nicholas Rachveli, conductor

Program:

Giya Kancheli.

• Letters to Friends (based on themes from Giya Kancheli’s film and theater music) (2016-2018) for clarinet, piano and string orchestra
• Cried by the Wind (1989) Liturgy for viola and symphony orchestra
• Music for the theatrical performance Caucasian Chalk Circle for symphony orchestra (1970s)

There is music that you don’t just hear – you breathe it in. The music of Giya Kancheli is exactly like that: filled with space, silence, phrases stretched in time that sound like breathing at a high altitude. It never shouts – it opens up depths and heights. And that is why the concert of the INSO-Lviv Orchestra on May 17 at the Lviv National Philharmonic is called “Kancheli’s Everest”, which embodies not only the pinnacle of the composer’s thought, but also a symbol of diving into the highest layers of human emotions.

Giya Kancheli (1935-2019) is a cult Georgian composer, author of 7 symphonies, dozens of symphonic, chamber, vocal and choral works, creator of music for more than 30 dozen films and 20 theater productions, including at the Rustaveli Theater in Tbilisi. His musical language is restrained and deep, without haste and unnecessary tinsel, and his scores sometimes resemble deserted plateaus, where every pause says more than a note.

Giya Kancheli’s visit to Lviv in 2014 was a remarkable event. This moment is well remembered by the musicians of the INSO orchestra, who performed Symphony No. 7, “Epilogue,” and the liturgy “Gone with the Wind” in the presence of their famous composer. The upcoming event is a tribute to the memory and a testament to the living connection. Lviv will once again breathe in Kancheli: as air, as prayer, as a peak that does not need to be seen to know it is there. The concert will be conducted by a key Georgian conductor, composer, and artistic director of the National Symphony Orchestra of Georgia, Nicholas Rachveli. Nicholas is a well-known interpreter of Gia Kancheli’s music: he knew the composer well, recorded and performed his works all over the world, and is therefore considered his follower and a skillful guide to the musical dimensions of his famous predecessor.

The program of the concert on May 17 includes iconic compositions by Giya Kancheli, including the second performance of the Liturgy “Cried by the Wind” for orchestra with viola solo after 2014, which will be performed by one of the best Georgian musicians of the younger generation, Giorgi Tsagareli. The Ukrainian premiere of the cycle of miniatures “Letters to Friends” (2018), each part of which is dedicated to close friends and colleagues of Giya Ganceli. In the work, the composer uses fragments of theater and film music from different years, presenting the cycle as a series of personal musical letters filled with memories and sincere emotions. The world-renowned clarinetist Julian Milkis will be the soloist in the work.

Every piece by Kancheli is a slope that seems safe until you climb it. And already there, at the height where the silence is as thick as a cloud and you can touch the sky with your hand, you begin to realize that this music is not for the ears, but for the lungs. You don’t listen to it – you breathe it.