„Styx” for viola, choir and orchestra (version for violin)

Georgian composer GIYA KANCHELI (1935–2019) composed STYX in 1999 in Antwerp, nine years after leaving his homeland, which had been torn apart by civil war and economic collapse. The piece was commissioned by the Gaudeamus festival in the Netherlands. The choice of its requiem‑like character is linked to the loss of two of his close friends - composers of the 1990s: Alfred Schnittke and Avet Terterian. He conceived the work as a dialogue between life and death, and the idea for the title - the River Styx from ancient Greek mythology, which separates the earthly world from the world of eternity - came from Gidon Kremer. The composition is written for solo viola, mixed choir, and orchestra. “I chose Yuri Bashmet as the soloist and dedicated the piece to him because I believe that the voice of his viola is capable of uniting the worlds divided by the waters of the Styx,” says Kancheli. “Only the viola, with its rich sound and expressiveness, can lead the soul to reconciliation, peace, and harmony. The solo viola became the center of the work, the core of its dramaturgy.” Rejecting the canonical Latin text of the requiem as a predefined form, a set of constraints, Kancheli composed his own text for Styx in Georgian - an unusual and complex mosaic of associative and semantically significant words and phrases, which he used as phonetic material. The text encompasses several semantic layers: prayers for forgiveness and hymns of praise; the names of Georgian monasteries and cathedrals, historical regions, and folk songs - the spiritual pillars of Georgia; sacred transitional time and space (dawn, dusk, a long journey, a clear sky); family members; deceased friends - in addition to Schnittke and Terterian, he incorporates the names of several other important figures from his spiritual circle. For Kancheli, these are soundscapes that evoke the idea of roots, memory, the enduring nature of spiritual bonds, faith in the Divine, and immortality. In the very finale, the voice of merciless and merciful Time appears. Through the language of Shakespeare (with a quote from Time’s monologue in The Winter’s Tale), it reconciles, as the supreme judge, good and evil, horror and joy. The solo viola is the “protagonist” of the narrative; it is a metaphorical representation of Charon, the ferryman who guides souls to the afterlife. It builds that fragile bridge of sound between the two worlds, carrying us through various emotional states: from deep melancholy, prayerful contemplation, and intense expression to the peace of all‑pervading silence. As is characteristic of Kancheli, these alternate with sharp, dynamic clashes - from the almost imperceptible, ghostly whisper of voices to the orchestra’s sudden, volcanic climaxes. At the center of this stream of sound, the viola remains the sole advocate of humanity in the face of eternity. The premiere of Styx took place on November 7^th, 1999, featuring soloist Yuri Bashmet, the Hilversum Choir, and the Hilversum Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Tonny Kaluste. At the urgent request of Gidon Kremer, seven years later Kancheli created a version of the piece for violin: At first, I thought that Styx could only be performed on the viola, but when I heard how Gidon drew sound from the silence, I realized that the violin could add another kind of pain - one that is sharper and more otherworldly. The premiere took place on June 10^th, 2007, featuring Kremer, the Berlin Radio Choir, and the German Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Eri Klas.