Giya Kancheli

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Giya Kancheli (2010)

Gija Alexandrowitsch Kancheli ( Georgian გია ყანჩელი / Gia Qantscheli , Russian Ги́я Алекса́ндрович Канче́ли , English transcription Giya Alexandrovich Kancheli ; born  August 10, 1935 in Tbilisi ; † October 2, 2019 ibid) was a Georgian composer .

Life

Kancheli was born the son of a doctor. He first studied geology before moving to the Tbilisi State Conservatory in 1959 . There he studied composition with Iona Tuskia. He then worked as a freelance composer, composing film and stage music.

From 1966 he worked with the chief director of the State Academic Rustaveli Theater in Tbilisi, Robert Sturua. His music for a modern Shakespeare production caused a stir . In 1971 he became musical director of the stage, in which position he worked for around two decades. From 1971 to 1978 he also worked as a composition teacher at the Tbilisi State Conservatory . From 1984 to 1989 he was chairman of the Georgian Composers Union .

In 1991, Kancheli left Georgia. Since then he has lived in Western Europe . Between 1991 and 1992 he lived in Berlin at the invitation of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) . In 1995 he moved to Antwerp as a composer for the Royal Flemish Philharmonic . Since 1996 he has been living freelance in Belgium .

Giya Kancheli died on October 2, 2019 at the age of 84 in Tbilisi . He was married and had two children.

Services

Kancheli was already composing pop and chansons during his student days . Between 1967 and 1986 he wrote seven symphonies and earned a reputation as an avant-garde. The opera Music for the Living premiered in Tbilisi in 1984. He has composed music for numerous films and plays, including Blue Mountains or An Unlikely Story ( Eldar Schengelaja , 1984) and The Kiss of the Bear ( Sergei Bodrow Sr. , 2002), as well as many films by the Georgian director Georgi Danelija . From 1971, was music for plays such as The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Bertolt Brecht (1975) and Richard III. by William Shakespeare (1979).

Kantscheli's compositions combine modern elements such as clusters with archaic melodies and usually have an atmosphere that is characterized by deep sadness and tells empathically about “the night side of human life”.

In the booklet accompanying the CD Chiaroscuro , published in 2015 by the music label ECM Records , Kancheli explains that he does not believe in the illusion that beauty can save the world and that he only composes for himself. The works Chiaroscuro and Twilight on the sound carrier, recorded by the chamber orchestra Kremerata Baltica and Patricia Kopatchinskaja as well as Gidon Kremer on the violins, were accordingly described in a criticism of the time as “highly intimate self-talk”, “with which Kancheli our reality as fatal, hardly redeemable World history reflects ”.

Works

  • Symphonies
    • Symphony No. 1 (1967)
    • Symphony No. 2 lieder (1970)
    • Symphony No. 3 (1973)
    • Symphony No. 4 In memoria di Michelangelo (1974)
    • Symphony No. 5 In Memory of My Parents (1977)
    • Symphony No. 6 (1978-80)
    • Symphony No. 7 Epilogue (1986)
  • Other orchestral works
    • Concerto for orchestra (1961)
    • Weeping with the Wind , liturgy for orchestra with viola solo (1989)
    • Land of Mourning (1993)
    • Abii ne viderem for alto flute (viola), piano, bass guitar and string orchestra (1992/93)
    • A la Duduki for brass quintet and orchestra (1995)
    • Lament , funeral music in memory of Luigi Nono for violin, soprano and orchestra (1995)
    • Violoncello Concerto (1995)
    • Simi (Joyless Thoughts) for violoncello and orchestra (1995)
    • Diplipito for violoncello, countertenor and orchestra (1997)
    • Styx for viola, choir and orchestra (1999)
    • Broken Chant , double concerto for oboe, violin and orchestra (for Batiashvili - Leleux ) (2007/08)
    • Film music, etc. a. for kin-dsa-dsa! (1986) and its animated remake Ku! Kin-dsa-dsa (2013)
    • Letters to friends for violin and string orchestra (2016/2018)
  • Stage works
    • Hanuma's Pranks , Musical Comedy (1968)
    • The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Brecht), Musical Comedy (1975)
    • Music for the living , opera (1982)
    • Incidental music
  • Chamber music
    • Exile based on texts by Paul Celan , Hans Sahl and from the Old Testament for soprano and chamber ensemble (1994)
    • Magnum Ignotum for wind ensemble, double bass and tape (1994)
    • Caris Mere for soprano and viola (1994)
    • Valse Boston for piano and strings (1996)
    • Piano quartet In l'istesso tempo (1997)
    • Twilight for two violins (2004)
    • String Quartet Chiaroscuro (2010)
  • Film music

Web links

Awards

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Famous Georgian composer Giya Kancheli died at 84. In: Eurasia Diary. October 2, 2019, accessed October 2, 2019 .
  2. Soft lights - Gidon Kremer plays Giya Kancheli. In: Classic Accents. Universal Music Germany , October 1, 2015, accessed January 2, 2016 .
  3. Kate Molleson: Kancheli: Chiaroscuro review - an excruciating mashup of schmaltz and angst. The Guardian , November 5, 2015, accessed January 2, 2016 .
  4. ^ Georg-Albrecht von Eckle: Courage to look inside. Die Zeit , December 10, 2015, accessed on January 2, 2016 .