Giya Kancheli employs extreme contrasts to vividly illustrate the realms of life and death as separated by the mythological river Styx. After a ferociously grim and gripping opening, Kancheli immediately relieves the tension in a quiet passage for chorus and orchestra of equally intense beauty, thus establishing a pattern that will predominate throughout the work. Each aspect of this bipolar composition provides Yuri Bashmet ample opportunity to display his stunningly virtuoso skills as the music increases in intensity until the luminous conclusion. It’s all quite effective and affecting, and although some of the “life” passages reminded me of Andrew Lloyd Webber, this remains a very impressive modern work.
Sofia Gubaidulina’s ethereal and rhapsodic Viola Concerto features many of her recognizable stylistic devices, among them a mysterious opening draped in hushed chords, sudden (yet beautiful) outbursts of tone clusters, and gradually coalescing thematic fragments. It’s this last that holds your attention throughout this sprawling one-movement work–which seems shorter than its 35-minute length, and which builds to a beautifully intense and spiritually uplifting conclusion. Yuri Bashmet meets the composer’s considerable demands–the wide leaps, sustained passages at both register extremes, exacting trills and tremolandos–with spirited precision. He also manages to communicate the music’s lyrical poetry while maintaining focus and an amazing intensity of tone throughout the many long-sustained quiet passages. Valery Gergiev’s meticulous and powerfully projected collaborations with the Mariinksy Theater Orchestra fully convey the passion at the heart of both works, just as DG’s powerfully vivid recordings faithfully relay the music’s dramatic and dynamic impact. An excellent release that will appeal to committed new music fans as well as the newly curious.
