Almost all of Kancheli’s works since the late 1970s were commissioned by western performing companies and publishers (one exception being the parable opera Music for the Living). … al niente was commissioned by the Symphony Orchestras of Danish Radio and Gothenburg and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. The premiere took place in Oslo on 25 October 2000. The work is dedicated to Yuri Temirkanov. The story of the premiere is an unusual one; the commission was initiated by the so-called Scandinavian Project. The three music ensembles which commissioned the work went on to perform it in towns throughout Northern Europe, among them Oslo, Copenhagen and Gothenburg. The Oslo premiere was conducted by Mark Sustro, the Copenhagen premiere by Yuri Temirkanov and the Gothenburg premiere by Neeme Jarvi. The complete title of the work is Diminuendo al niente, meaning “fading towards nothingness.” According to Kancheli himself, he chose the title as it coincided with his mental state. Fading towards nothingness indicates ideas of what you have experienced and the time that you have left. When working on …al niente Kancheli turned sixty-five.
Brahms’ final symphonic confession is a unique phenomenon in the history of western European music of the 19th century. The greatest of his symphonic quartets it was composed over the course of two years, in the summer months of 1884 and 1885 in Mürzzuschlag. In the first summer he composed the first and second sections, and the latter two the next year. Already in September 1885 there had been a “home performance”, where Brahms played a four-handed version with an acclaimed pianist for a circle of close friends. The resounding silence following the first section said more than any words. Eduard Hanslick cried out that “I had such a sensation as if I had been thrashed by two witty men!” Brahms’ new symphony also enchanted his friend Hans von Bülow, who took it on a concert tour throughout Germany. The premiere in Meyenheim on 25 October 1885 was deafening. Later, on 3 March 1897, it was with his Fourth Symphony that the increasingly sick Brahms bade farewell to Vienna. Hans Richter stood at the conductor’s stand at the Wiener Philharmoniker.
The composer’s final symphonic work is strikingly different to the three previous symphonies both technically and in terms of the musical meaning of the music itself. With its tragic worldview, Brahms’ Fourth Symphony brings to mind Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony. But with Brahms the finale comes upon us suddenly, like some terrible piece of news that rocks the typical world of serenity and harmony to its core. It is a symphonic presentiment, a symphonic warning.
Pavel Velikanov
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