Dennis Russell Davies, Radio Symphonieorchester Wien - Giya Kancheli: Trauerfarbenes Land (1998)

Georgian composer Giya Kancheli's music ranges from brash to deeply personal. His scores explore dynamic and rhythmic extremes, and almost seem to be a soundtrack for angular, rhapsodic dreams. At times the orchestra swells to a heavy Russian march complete with bells and drums, and at other times there is near silence. The two works presented on this CD are enigmatic, yet one can sense that the materials are steeped in history, memory and drama. The essay in the liner notes is highly philosophical, making references to Camus, Delacroix and Kenko as parallels to Kancheli's compositions.
Dennis Russell Davies leads a deeply personal performance well-played by the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, though it is difficult to find an appropriate volume setting to listen to this disc by. One minute it is near silence and the next it is blasting--this says something about the fragmented and rocky terrain which Kancheli's music inhabits.