Giyah Kancheli - Symphony no. 1 (1) Allegro con fuoco Video

Giya Kancheli (Georgian: გია ყანჩელი), born 10 August 1935, in Tbilisi, is a Georgian composer resident in Belgium. His music is often spiritual, leading some to compare him (not always helpfully) to composers such as Arvo Pärt and John Tavener. There are several instances of folk and religious inspiration in his music, notably in the opening of the Third Symphony and his more recent work Magnum Ignotum, but the effect of Georgian folk elements on his style should not be overemphasized.

Since 1991, Kancheli has lived in Western Europe: first in Berlin, and since 1995 in Antwerp, where he is composer-in-residence for the Royal Flemish Philharmonic.

In the 1st Symphony (from 1967) a certain grotesque motoric quality still holds sway and inevitably brings to mind the march themes from Shostakovitch. The musical dramaturgy is built around two dynamic extremes, the central building-blocks of Kancheli's expression, sound masses and quiet. By turns we are given the stunning explosions of the tutti sections, by turns a lyrical meditation, and the overall effect is to create an image of a cosmic rite, in which time is no longer under our control. The wealth of timbres and the deluge of tonal levels hurtles the listener from one reality to the next at the speed of thought.

Symphony no. 1 (1967)
1. Allegro con fuoco

The Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by James DePreist