Tālivaldis Ķeniņš - Symphonies Nos. 4 & 6; Canzona sonata (Guntis Kuzma)

Information

Composer: Tālivaldis Ķeniņš

1. Symphony No. 4: I. —
2. Symphony No. 4: II. —
3. Symphony No. 6 "Sinfonia ad fugam"
4. Canzona sonata for Viola & String Orchestra

Santa Vižine, viola

Latvian National Symphony Orchestra

Guntis Kuzma, conductor

Date: 2021

Label: Ondine

https://www.ondine.net/index.php?lid=en&cid=2.2&oid=6754

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Review

Perhaps Tālivaldis Ķeniņš (1919-2008) would have had a better time of it in the record catalogue had his legacy not been cast adrift somewhere over the Atlantic. He was born in Latvia and studied in Paris but made a life in Canada, ending his career as a professor of composition at the University of Toronto.

It’s the Baltic region that’s putting things right. This second disc in Ondine’s survey of the composer’s orchestral works comes not far behind a mesmerising live recording of the composer’s Violin Concerto (1974), Concerto for Five Percussionists (1983) and unsettling Beatae voces tenebrae (1977) from the Latvian label Skani, issued in November – a gripping introduction to this urgent and serious musical voice for newcomers (it certainly was for me).

Clarity, severity, discipline and vitality are the watchwords with Ķeniņš, who wrote with logic, a genuine contrapuntal ability (so rare) and an unmistakably pained Baltic accent. The little glissando that ends his ‘song for orchestra’ Canzona Sonata – led by a solo viola and taken beautifully by the Royal Concertgebouw’s Santa ViŽine – could have come straight from Vasks. The pain of conflict, upheaval and exile linger everywhere. Often his structures are simple exercises in tension and release; journeys up and journeys down.

The Symphony No 6 is the standout piece here. It was written for Ottawa’s National Arts Centre Orchestra in 1978 and takes as its motto the angular four-note theme from the C sharp minor Fugue from Book 1 of Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier. Ķeniņš isn’t the first to borrow it but his treatment of it stands up across a polyphonic tapestry in one movement but four discernable parts. The counterpoint is sturdy, whether hurtling at a prestissimo or straining through a slow movement seasoned with the sound of instrumentalists humming. The piece sounds laden with cryptic implications but the composer apparently advised not to ‘go looking for any deep meaning’. Fair enough.

Ķeniņš’s ear for what percussion instruments can do to enliven or unsettle an orchestral texture is what links the Sixth Symphony with the Fourth from 1973. This is a purposefully splintered, disjointed, brittle piece for exposed chamber orchestra, whose first movement ratchets up tension through layering and weaving before a mirror-image second freewheels down the other side of the hill, eventually losing power on the flat. It includes several moments of aleatoric writing. But the composer’s many innovations aren’t confined to these, and are all the more ear-catching for being placed in his characteristically laconic and disciplined musical context. These well-prepared, deep-feeling performances breathe life rather than simply preserving, which is no less than the music deserves.

-- Andrew Mellor, Gramophone

More reviews:
https://artmusiclounge.wordpress.com/2021/05/04/the-symphonies-of-kenins/

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Jun/Kenins-sys-ODE13542.htm

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Jul/Kenins-sys-ODE13542.htm

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Tālivaldis Ķeniņš (April 22, 1919 in Liepāja – January 20, 2008 in Toronto) was a Canadian composer. He studied under Jāzeps Vītols in Riga, then at the Paris Conservatory under Tony Aubin and Olivier Messiaen. Ķeniņš moved to Canada in 1951 and began teaching at the University of Toronto, where he taught for 32 years. Canadian musicologist Paul Rapoport has credited Ķeniņš with introducing many European idioms to Canadian art music in an era when many of its composers remained solidly influenced by British models. His works include 8 Symphonies, 12 Concertos, as well as chamber, piano and vocal music.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tālivaldis Ķeniņš

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Guntis Kuzma is former principal clarinetist of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra (2008–2014) and the Sinfonietta Rīga chamber orchestra since it was established in 2006 until 2015. He was appointed conductor of the LNSO starting with the 2014/2015 season. Kuzma is both lecturer and former Head of the Department of Wind Instruments at the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music. Besides being an active participant in chamber music projects, Kuzma also enjoys performing contemporary music. He has participated in the first performances of numerous new works both as clarinetist and conductor.

https://www.ondine.net/?lid=en&cid=3.2&oid=6627

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