Kancheli, Giya - Diplipito - Russell Davies, Dennis (conductor)
"Don't let the innocuous title fool you: Giya Kancheli's ‚'Valse , Diplipito", pitting countertenor against cello in duets of aching elegy, seems to me one of Kancheli's most ravishing creations. In Valse Boston" for piano and strings an ineluctably slow ¾ time merely hints at long-lost dance origins amid images of lament and frustration: the ballrooms of Kanchelia are chill, empty places, probably with glass and rubble on the floor. With Dennis Russell Davies (conductor and dedicatee) at the piano, there are ghosts in "Valse Boston" of Shostakovich's First Piano Concerto and, in both pieces, of Schubert, whose example has encouraged Kancheli's recent works towards more direct melodic content. The performances reflect utter dedication from all concerned.
(BBC Music Magazine)
Boston' is a powder keg of a piece. It is a secular prayer , veering between extremes of dynamics, tempo and mood. One moment , the piano is goading the strings to produce angry, stabbing dissonances. The next moment, it is quieting the orchestra with tiny fragments of waltz time, deceptively merry. Nobody conjures troubled landscapes in sound like Kancheli. He has given as a bleak, very Eastern view of modern existence, but the effect is cleansing."
(Chicago Tribune)
Premiere recordings of two major works, "Valse Boston ." (written 1996) , and "Diplipito" (written 1997). Both pieces give evidence of the ongoing tendency in Kancheli's writing to simplify the musical language, strip the works of any superfluity, and tighten the focus for maximum emotional impact.
Derek Lee Ragin, countertenor
Thomas Demenga, cello
Dennis Russell Davies, piano
Stuttgarter Kammerorchester
Dennis Russell Davies, conductor
Recorded January 2001