Giyah Kancheli - Symphony no. 3 (3) 1973 {Warning!! Xtreme volume fluctuations!} Video

Giyah Kancheli (1935)

David James, counter-tenor
The London Philharmonic, conducted by Franz Welser-Möst

The Third Symphony was composed in 1973 and contains the sole example of direct folk-music quotation in his work.
"The first stimulus for my composition was a recording I heard of a Svanetian (Northwest Georgian) funeral ceremony; in the room containing the coffin the mourners were lamenting, while outside a men's choir was singing a cheerful song. Then I took from a collection of Svanetian songs four notes of the lament 'Zari' and composed them into the opening melody of the vocal solo".

The lament becomes the generating force for harmonic and melodic contrast, mystically present even when not actually heard (as it is extensively in the middle section and towards the end). It was intended for the unique timbre of the tenor Gamiet Gonashvilli, a member of the famous Rustavi Choir, and for this recording the composer specifically recommended the voice of the Hilliard's Ensemble counter-tenor, David James.