Customer Reviews

Giya Kancheli: Trauerfarbenes Land; À la Duduki

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Very few composers approach the notion of contrast with the grace and compassion of Giya Kancheli. Music fans with a greater affinity for the contemporary scene, who are usually put off by the jarring bombast of most classical surges (particularly the older stuff that almost everyone feels obliged to rave on about) could well find this album refreshing. It takes a few listens to get used to the exceptionally wide dynamics, where the faintest whisper of the strings transforms into an unrestrained orchestral blast without warning - Kancheli's music is often best familiarised before fully appreciated, but that applies to most good things in life.

Okay, I don't actually own this CD, but I've given this 5 stars because I've played "A la Duduki" with my local youth orchestra, and it's just one of those pieces that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. I played "A la Duduki" and have been hooked on Kancheli's unique sound ever since. Though his long chords may be too outstretched for some listeners (two in "A la Duduki" are 14 seconds long!), Kancheli's harmonically and melodically sparse music WILL bring enjoyment to those willing to listen.

Some reviewers on other recordings of Kancheli have criticised his use of sudden outbursts of sound, frequent in "A la Duduki" -they have said that he uses this technique to often to make it effective over time. Perhaps this is the case, but I will be incredibly surprised if the shorter outbursts don't make you jump and smile. For me, this is the whole point, Kancheli wants us to enjoy his music, and if he raises a smile, has he not succeeded?

This is amazing, ethereal, haunting, beautiful music, and everybody should hear it.

This is not music for the faint-hearted, but neither is it dull. The two pieces here are spread on large musical canvasses which portray some very powerful mood swings, with transitions from soft, elegiac passages which are suddenly broken into with climaxes which appear almost from out of nowhere (think of a freak monster wave arising out of an almost becalmed sea), and subside almost as rapidly. Brass and percussion in fortissimo are used to drive these 'cliff-hanger' events, and the sensation is one of upheaval and displacement, of the previous rather plaintive, austere and spacious melodic theme. Coupled with ECM's usual high quality production job, this is music you won't forget in a hurry and, after the first shock or two, you strangely don't wish to forget. Gramophone rates this an 'exceptional release of some extraordinarily powerful music'. Are you up for the challenge?

... á la Duduki is a rather striking work, typical of the composer and probably one of the best introductions to his music for those who don't already know it. As with many of his works, it suggests vast, desolate and somewhat gloomy landscapes with some strikingly dramatic features. It is a mostly quietly moving work with telling uses of silence, interrupted by some dramatic outbursts and fragments of various dance forms and instrumental solos. I hasten to add - if the music sounds austere from the description - that it is surprisingly variegated (if subtly so) and attention-grabbing.

Trauerfarbenes Land is, not surprisingly, composed in the same vein, but here the material is darker and employs some harrowing dramatic climactic effects. The music speaks of alienation, and the few moments of apparent consolation and sweetness are brief and quickly shattered by impending gloom. Sound quality is of the usual ECM standard, precise and nuanced, and the performances by the Vienna Radio symphony Orchestra under Dennis Russell Davies are powerful. Recommended.

when i feel sadness,it can give me strength.It enter in my heart.
The same time let me memory some things.