Giya Kancheli on his Piano Quartet in L'istesso Tempo

Out of music comes silence, and sometimes silence itself turns into music. It is my dream to achieve silence of this kind.
- Giya Kancheli (b. 1935)

	Giya Kancheli

Giya Kancheli's Piano Quartet in L'istesso Tempo was specially commissioned for the Bridge Ensemble by David and Amy Fulton. In the dedication at the time of its world premiere in Seattle in October 1998, Kancheli explained his motivations for the piece:

"Again and again, with deep regret, we see how alongside obvious achievements of the civilized world, our planet is being torn apart by bloodshed and antagonisms. And no creative deed is able to withstand that destructive force, which so easily strikes out the fragile means of progress.

"Taking very close to my heart all that is happening around me, I am trying to express in my music the state I feel in my soul, writing basically for myself, without contriving any illusions that, as Dostoyevsky said, 'beauty will save the world'.

"This is where my music is more sad than happy, and is addressed more to the lone individual, rather than to society. Here you won't find appeals for striving, equality, or 'a bright future'. Most likely, you will find threads of sorrow caused by the imperfection of the world which keeps disregarding the most horrendous examples from human history.

"My thoughts are expressed in an extremely simple musical language. And I hope that the audience in Seattle will be affected by my composition, written for the Bridge Ensemble, and will not mistake my deliberate simplicity for what, in my opinion, is the most dangerous phenomenon - the feeling of indifference."

Read more about Giya Kancheli and his music. www.schirmer.com/composers/kancheli_bio.html