Pēteris Vasks - Distant Light; Voices (Gidon Kremer; Kremerata Baltica)

Information

Composer: Pēteris Vasks

• Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra "Distant Light"
• Symphony No. 1 for Strings "Voices"

Gidon Kremer, violin & conductor

Kremerata Baltica

Date: 1999

Label: Warner Classics

https://www.warnerclassics.com/release/vasks-distant-light-voices

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Review

Sometimes I wonder whether we here in Britain can understand the creative work of East European peoples who have been persistently invaded, abused, repressed and occupied by foreign forces. True, any art that justifies the name can speak to us on various levels, but when a composer like the Latvian Peteris Vasks alludes to ‘tanks, cruise missiles and oppressed peoples’ (as in the second movement of Voices (‘Balsis’), memories of mere news footage hardly constitute profound recollection. Which is where music comes in, especially when it hints at the emotional turmoil that Vasks and his people have endured and overcome. The story that Voices (1991) tells is far from comfortable. Even the birdsong that dominates the second movement is cast in a minor key (nothing like the wonder-struck chirrupings that fill Bartok’s various ‘night music’ episodes) and the grinding dissonances that invade the third movement (at, say, 4'12'') are deeply unsettling. And yet there is serenity, too, the sort that Kancheli writes on to his similarly disquieting canvases, albeit using rather fewer notes.

Vasks’s style is consistent with his best Baltic contemporaries. Thematic germs are invariably simple or hymn-like and the music is grounded on a secure tonal base. But where Kancheli plays on violent contrasts between dynamic extremes, Vasks – like Part in, say, Fratres – is more prone to employ sustained crescendos.

The single-movement violin concerto Distant Light (‘Tala gaisma’) was composed in 1996-7 for Gidon Kremer and his newly-formed Kremerata Baltica and was indeed the very first work that they recorded. Early on in the work, sporadic pizzicatos signal subtle changes in volume or texture. Vasks uses solo cadenzas rather as Shostakovich does in his First Violin Concerto, as a way to accumulate tension. The first cadenza works towards a sudden increase in tempo and a folk-like jagged figure (as from 11'01'') which in turn takes us on to a second cadenza and, beyond a spot of heated argument, a return to relative lyricism. Some of the later passages create a distinctly romantic aura, though ‘aleatoric chaos’ sets in shortly before the end. It’s a real violin concerto, ardent and technically exacting with plenty of chordal work and soaring melodic lines that should please any discerning virtuoso. Kremer sounds in his element, and his command of rhythm and nuance are all that one might expect.

This is music with a message, music that recounts history in a way that recalls Shostakovich and – more subtly, perhaps – Karl Amadeus Hartmann. Its heartache and austerity will not suit all moods, but one cannot gainsay its sincerity or directness. The recordings pull no punches.

-- Gramophone

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Pēteris Vasks (born 16 April 1946 in Aizpute, Latvia) is a Latvian composer. He trained as a violinist and a double-bass player and played in several Latvian orchestras before entering the State Conservatory in Vilnius in Lithuania to study composition with Valentin Utkin. He started to become known outside Latvia in the 1990s, when Gidon Kremer started championing his works and now is one of the most influential and praised European contemporary composers. Vasks's compositions incorporate archaic, folklore elements from Latvian music with the language of contemporary music.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pēteris_Vasks
https://en.schott-music.com/shop/autoren/peteris-vasks

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Gidon Kremer (born 27 February 1947 in Riga) is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica. He studied with Voldemar Sturestep at the Riga School of Music, and from 1965 with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. Kremer won first prize at the Paganini Competition and International Tchaikovsky Competition, among others. Composers such as Gubaidulina, Nono and Schnittke have dedicated works to him. He has a large discography on the Deutsche Grammophon label, for which he has recorded since 1978. He has also recorded for Philips, EMI, Decca, ECM and Nonesuch.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gidon_Kremer
http://www.gidonkremer.net

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Kremerata Baltica is a chamber orchestra consisting of young talented musicians from Baltic countries. It was founded by its artistic director, Latvian violinist, Gidon Kremer in 1997. The group has developed into one of the most prominent chamber orchestras in Europe, performs around 70 concerts annually during tours throughout Europe, Asia, and the Americas. They won awards for their recordings on labels such as Teldec, Nonesuch, ECM, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI. Essential to Kremerata Baltica’s artistic personality is its creative approach to programming, which often looks beyond the mainstream.

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

http://www.kremeratabaltica.com/home/

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