Tālivaldis Ķeniņš - Symphonies Nos. 5 & 8; Aria per corde (Andris Poga)

Information

Composer: Tālivaldis Ķeniņš

• Symphony No. 5
• Symphony No. 8 for Organ & Orchestra "Sinfonia concertata"
• Aria per corde

Iveta Apkalna, organ

Latvian National Symphony Orchestra

Andris Poga, conductor

Date: 2022

Label: Ondine

https://www.ondine.net/index.php?lid=en&cid=2.2&oid=6821

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Review

After his Fourth and Sixth Symphonies from Ondine and the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, here we have the Fifth and Eighth by Latvian émigré in Canada Tālivaldis Ķeniņš (1919-2008). Respectively premiered in 1976 and 1986 at Roy Thomson Hall, Toronto, these works enshrine the Ķeniņš watchwords of clarity, severity and discipline, while his exceptional contrapuntal abilities are even more in evidence.

I am intrigued by darkness in these scores, from a man who claimed to live a happy and jovial life yet admitted to ‘dark overtones … hidden somewhere deep inside’ [sic] and described an ‘alter ego’ taking over the compositional part of his persona. There is aggression in the Honegger-influenced No 5, notably in its brutalist opening movement, even if you can sense the technical joie de vivre in the rich and writhing tapestry of the final Vivace con fuoco, which fizzes with nervous energy. Is the music cheeky rather than threatening, despite its lack of warmth?

You can take the composer out of Latvia but not the Latvia out of the composer, and Ķeniņš reveals much of himself in his slow music. Symphony No 5 contains a brooding, surging Lento underpinned by stern rhythms but lacking the climax you feel it needs. The slow movement of No 8 makes up for that, partly. The whole symphony is a dance for organ and orchestra where, despite the percussion and capering rhythms, it’s the organ’s harmony and colour that create the friction, French-style. The central Largo is heavy and searing, with seams of ominous counterpoint working away in the basement. The counterpoint in the finale is so diligently wrought that it might explain why the music can seem to lose steam (not an isolated problem with this composer); perhaps the bleakness exposes still more about Ķeniņš’s DNA. Star Latvian organist Iveta Apkalna is engaged to play it although the venue is a hall without a pipe organ.

As on Skani’s 2020 issue of the composer’s Violin Concerto, it’s worth starting with the filler that’s not a filler. Ķeniņš’s Aria per corde is a dense contrapuntal essay rather than a slab of Baltic mourning, and one apparently lined with optimism. This composer gets more intriguing, if less immediately striking, with every release in this mini-revival. As the booklet states, he freely admitted to writing music with meticulous technical goals rather than any pretence to genius. Worth bearing in mind, but I’ll enjoy returning to these works as I endeavour to better ascertain where their real value lies.

-- Andrew Mellor, Gramophone

More reviews:
ClassicsToday  ARTISTIC QUALITY: 8 / SOUND QUALITY: 9

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2022/Mar/Kenins-syms-ODE13882.htm

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2022/Apr/Kenins-syms-ODE13882.htm

https://www.wtju.net/talivaldis-kenins-symphonies-nos-5-8-end-of-the-journey/

https://www.amazon.com/Symphonies-5-8-Iveta-Apkalna/dp/B09NPTVSNH

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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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Andris Poga (born 29 June 1980 in in Riga) is a Latvian orchestral conductor. Poga is a graduate of the Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, where he studied trumpet and conducting. He also studied conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Poga was artistic director and principal conductor of the Professional Symphonic Band Rīga (2007-10), then assistant conductor to Paavo Järvi at Orchestre de Paris (2011-14). He became music director of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra in 2013, and is currently chief conductor of the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andris_Poga

https://www.andrispoga.com/

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