| The liturgy of Gia Kancheli was performed for the first time in Moscow The Moscow premiere of the liturgy “Mourned by the Wind” by the world-famous author of music for dozens of films and performances, the composer of symphonic and chamber works favored by the European market, Gia Kancheli, began with a slight - in a bus style - scandal. At eight o’clock ten minutes, after the “where are the apologies?” and “we demand an apology for the delay of the concert!” came from different ends of the gallery! and so on, the evening still began without any curtsies. The New Russia orchestra appeared on the stage with its new artistic director and chief conductor Yuri Bashmet. The latter came out with a viola, and an American of Russian origin, Felix Kruglikov, took over the conductor's stand.
The audience, impatiently waiting for Kancheli, had to sweat a little more, listening to the Romance for viola and orchestra by Roman Ledenev, which preceded the popular Georgian European. He was known as a liberal at the conservatory, Bashmet often played him, and this time the neo-postromantic romance with exciting tutti, soulful alto solos, intense pizzicato strings and mysterious woodwind chords framed by vibraphone cues won respectful applause from the audience.
She, however, wanted to hear the promised rarity from the musician, who is now becoming the main promoter of modern (more precisely, the end of the twentieth century) music that has emerged from the post-Soviet space onto the European stage. In this field, Bashmet competes, perhaps, only with Gidon Kremer. But Kremer, who regularly unearths even more sophisticated material, offers his repertoire explorations primarily to the Western market.
Kancheli's music - technologically well-equipped, but at the same time democratic, somewhat frowning, as befits serious scores of the late twentieth century, but not scary, rather with a sad drag, touching with a combination of globality and soft ethnicity, simply beautiful, and finally - occupies a place in the repertoire Bashmet's package is perhaps the main place. And although Kancheli is heard a lot in Moscow, Bashmetov’s performances stand out. The latest noisy event was “Styx” for orchestra, choir and solo viola, brought to the Russian stage some time after the Amsterdam premiere.
The current performance of the liturgy “Mourned by the Wind” is already an import of archives. A composition in memory of the Georgian musicologist Gia Ordzhonikidze, dedicated to Bashmet, with a title from the poetry of Galaktion Tabidze, in four parts without a break, in one typically Kanchelievsky slowly floating breath, was written for the Berlin festival week of 1990. Then it was performed twice in Nizhny Novgorod at the Sakharov Festival. Now the Moscow public has become acquainted with the opus. It would be an exaggeration to say that the audience heard something fundamentally different from the familiar Kancheli double dominants, sad non-chords, sad resolutions and languid delays, slow sequences with major shades in which the outlines of the melodies are lost, the concentrated author’s voice in the solo part and the soft orchestral haze with towering fortissimo cliffs. But the work is old, and it would be strange to expect something new from it. Captivated by the sincerity of the intonation of the liturgy and its formidable beauty, the audience was in any case grateful. The care of the diligent orchestra and, as always, the soulful sound of the viola enhanced the sense of open-hearted reciprocity in the relationship between the score, the performers and the audience.
PHOTO: From heart to heart: Bashmet - Kancheli - BZK Yulia BEDEROVA |
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