Contemporary Classics October 23, 2018 - Composers from Former Soviet Republics

Tonight on Contemporary Classics we are featuring the music of composers from former Soviet Republics with music from both before and after their independence from the Soviet Union.  We are focusing on the music of Arvo Part from Estonia, Pēteris Vasks from Latvia and Giya Kancheli from the Republic of Georgia.

Lets begin with Exil  by Giya Kancheli. Giya Kancheli is an exiled Georgian composer who is presently living in Belgium. Kancheli is quoted as saying about this work Exil “When a person goes into a church, synagogue or mosque where there’s not service going on, there’s a special kind of silence. I want to turn that silence into music.”  This is a 5-movement song cycle that begins with a setting of the 23^rd Psalm.  Themes in this first movement haunt the rest of the piece.  It exudes Kancheli’s spirituality.  One reviewer said that it strikes and uncanny balance “between profound consolation and . . . even more profound inconsolability.”  Kancheli certain wears his spirituality on his sleeve.  It also combines tonality with microtonality which never quite resolves. 

We are going to close this hour with two works by Arvo Part for solo piano – his first work Sonatina #1 Op. 1 #1 marked Allegro-Allegretto-Allegro written in 1958 and to a later work, the life affirming miniature Für Anna Maria written almost 50 years later in 2006. 

Music for a Deceased Friend was written by Peteris Vasks in 1981 and is dedicated to the memory of Jana Barinska, who perished tragically. The thematic writing of the one-movement work (a free sonata allegro) grows from the interval of the third. There is a chorale, chromatic "sighing" motives in the spirit of ancient Latvian funeral songs. As in other compositions, Vasks organically intertwines the sound of the human voice with that of the instruments. This piece could be characterized as "moderately contemporary." Flute doubles Alto Flute, all members of the quintet are required to sing, for which specific ranges are given and there is some moderate use of extended technique. 

The next work is Giya Kancheli’s V & V composed in1995.   He wrote “In my third symphony the vocal part was performed and recorded by a famous Georgian popular singer – Mr. H. Gonashvili. He tragically died in an accident in 1988.  The uniqueness and distinctiveness of his voice have inspired me to use the recording of his voice in my new composition “V&V. In this relatively small piece I tried to confront the Eternal (the Divine voice) and the Real (the soloing violin and the string orchestra).

Next work is Arvo Part’s Spiegel im Spiegel (Mirror in the mirror). The work was written in 1978, just before Part departure from Estonia. The piece is in his tintinnabular style, wherein a melodic voice, operating over diatonic scales, and tintinnabular voice, operating within a triad on the tonic, accompany each other. The title Mirror in the Mirror is meant to give the image of the infinity mirror, which produces an infinity of images reflected by parallel plane mirrors: the tonic triads are endlessly repeated with small variations as if reflected back and forth. The structure of melody is made by couple of phrases characterized by the alternation between ascending and descending movement centered on the note A. This, with also the reversal of the final intervals between adjacent phrases, contributes to give the impression of a figure reflecting on a mirror and walking back and towards it.

The next work is Giya Kancheli’s  Symphony No. 4, "in Memoria Di Michelangelo".   Kancheli’s Symphony No. 4: “In Memoria di Michelangelo” commemorating the quincentary of Michelangelo’s birth, was honored with a U.S.S.R. State Prize in 1976. Its theme of youthful idealism thwarted by adult realities was then later expanded by Kancheli in his Symphony No. 5 written the following year.

The last work this second hour is also by Arvo Part, his Quintettino. Quintettino is a wind quintet composed in 1964.  The premiere of the work took place the same year in Tallinn, Estonia by the Wind Quintet of the Estonian Philharmonic Orchestra.  It is in 3 movements Schnell, Langsam and Mässig.      

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