Soviet and Georgian composer Giya Kancheli was one of the most prominent composers of the 20th century, with an extensive output of film and theatre music in addition to his orchestral and small-scale works which spread back to his time as a student. He began his musical career as a jazz performer, but on hearing Stravinsky's 'Rite of Spring', he was inspired to study composition and enrolled at Tbilisi University at the age of 24. When he graduated in 1963, he had already composed several works. He began composing his first of seven symphonies soon after he graduated and are noticeable milestones through his early years as a composer. He composed the first in 1967, and the seventh, titled 'Epilogue', in 1986.
'Symphony No. 4: In Memoria di Michelangelo' (1974) received a Soviet State Prize in 1976 and was premiered in America in 1978 before the cultural freeze there against Soviet artists. 'Symphony No. 6' (1980), perhaps the most successful of his symphonies, was said to be an outcry against the repression of the human spirit by tyranny.
In addition to his symphonic output, Kancheli composed one opera, 'Da Ars Musika' (1982-4), and several other vocal works including 'Caris Mere' (1994) for soprano and viola, 'Diplipito' (1997) for cello, countertenor and chamber orchestra and 'Styx' (1999) for viola, chorus and orchestra. He also wrote several instrumental chamber pieces and a substantial amount of film music for which he is particularly well-known in his home country of Georgia. Between 1990 and 1995 he wrote a series of devotional pieces for various different ensembles, influenced by Eastern Christian spirituality and mostly with a chamber orchestra accompaniment.
In 2010, for the composer's 75th birthday, Kancheli's son liaised with EMI records to release an album called 'Themes from the Songbook' which features 20 arrangements of Kancheli's incidental music, performed by violinist Gidon Kremer, bandoneónist Dino Saluzzi and vibraphonist Andrei Pushkarev. Another notable album of Kancheli's music is 'Motherland', a selection of his piano pieces including 'When Almonds Blossomed', performed by Khatia Buniatishvili and Gvantsa Buniatishivili. In 2015, Brilliant Classics released an album entitled '18 Miniatures for Violin and Piano', a collection of pieces composed by Kancheli for various different films, featuring violinist Andrea Cortesi and pianist Marco Venturi.
Kancheli was the musical director of the Rustaveli Theatre from 1971-'90, taught composition at Tbilisi University from 1971-'78 and was the General Secretary of the Georgian Union of Composers. He became a National Artist of the Georgian SSR in 1980. He lived in Belgium from 1991 onwards and was championed by many well-known musicians such as Yuri Bashmet, Mstislav Rostropovich and the Kronos Quartet. His later works included string quartet 'Chiaroscuro' in 2011 and 'Nu.Mu.Zu' for orchestra in 2015. He passed away in October 2019 aged 84, after complications from a heart condition.
