Nektarios Chargeishvili


Nektarios Nektariosovich Chargeishvili was a Russian/Soviet and Georgian composer, as well as an educator and a philosopher. Despite having composed a body of sophisticated orchestral works and film scores, he is virtually unknown today. This is in no small part due to his political outspokenness against the Soviet regime which led to his being ostracised, his music prohibited from performance or distribution, and to being dismissed from his teaching position at the Moscow Conservatory. His struggles to maintain any kind of career after his dismissal—he was even denied a job as a bus-driver—led to a serious deterioration in his mental health, and eventually to his suicide at the age of 34.

Life and career

Born in Leningrad, Nektarios Chargeishvili grew up in Abkhazia, then spent most of his life in Moscow. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1963, followed by postgraduate studies with Tikhon Khrennikov and Aram Khachaturian. He taught score reading and instrumentation at the Conservatory from 1966 to 1968. In 1969, he studied philosophy at Moscow State University.
Pursuing the traditions of the Russian symphony, he composed two one-act ballets from popular stories, The absence of Dobrynya in 1963 and Dobrynia subdued the Chubis in 1965, and a symphonic poem inspired by a song by Kircha Danilov in 1965. Chargeishvili also composed in the style of Renaissance music. His Symphony was hailed as a masterpiece by Schnittke and Gubaidulina, but remained unperformed until 1990. He also composed music for several films, some under the pseudonym Nikolai Yakovlev, and worked as a music editor for the Bolshoi Ballet, including making an arrangement of Prokofiev's Lieutenant Kijé suite for them.
He also wrote a philosophical treatise Esoteric Doctrine of Christianity.
After being critical of the Soviet regime, he was dismissed from the Moscow Conservatory. After that, he struggled to find work, and his mental health deteriorated. In 1971, he committed suicide by hanging. He is buried in New Athos, Georgia.

Works

Orchestral works

NB: some films are credited under the pseudonym N. Yakovlev