KANCHELI: “Vom Winde beweint”; SCHNITTKE: Concerto for...

KANCHELI: “Vom Winde beweint”; SCHNITTKE: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra. Kim Kashkashian, viola; Dennis Russell Davies conducting the Orchestra of the Beethovenhalle Bonn and the Saarbrucken Radio Symphony Orchestra. ECM New Series 437 199-2. Giya Kancheli is not as well known here as some of his contemporary colleagues from the former Soviet Union, such as Schnittke, but this disc should earn him some new friends. Subtitled “Liturgy for Large Orchestra and Solo Viola,” “Vom Winde beweint” (Mourned by the Wind--a play on the German translation of “Gone With the Wind”) is a rumbling, clangorous, four-movement symphonic universe, in which the viola is the awed but ultimately optimistic voice of the individual perspective. Kashkashian plays the eye-of-the-storm part with her characteristic intelligence, not struggling to foist heroism on the slender introspection, while Davies focuses the mighty noises from his orchestra with a keen ear for the direction of the evolving sounds.

The Schnittke Concerto--heard here in a recording from 1986--is a logical partner, sharing both spiritual and sonic affinities with “Vom Winde beweint,” although expressed with greater acerbity and poly-stylistic cross-references. Kashkashian’s performance is robust in sound and ruggedly pointed in character.