Peteris Vasks November 7, 2008
Posted by Tom Moore in : Uncategorized , trackback
Composer Peteris Vasks
Not so long ago music from Eastern Europe’s composers was considered to be contaminated artistically simply by the fact that it had been created within a system which gave government support to the arts and which saw them as socially useful. Record labels such as Melodiia in the Soviet Union had extensive catalogs releasing works of composers throughout the union, but were frequently difficult to acquire unless the collector went directly to the source.
Latvian composer Peteris Vasks (b. 1946-) is from a generation younger than that of Penderecki or Part (both born in the mid-thirties) and roughly contemporary with John Adams (b. 1947). I first heard his work (a piece called Mūzika aizgājušajam draugam) on a 1986 LP also presenting music by Grinups, Zemzars, and Smidbergs, none of the others yet househould names in the West. The Music Library has just received a 2008 CD with three chamber works by the composer, Gramata cellam for cello solo, the Partita for cello and piano, and Episodi e canto perpetuo for piano trio. The latter work manages the feat of paying hommage to the late Olivier Messiaen without falling into pastiche, combining the master’s idiom with Vasks’s own language.
VASKS – Works with violoncello – CD 17077
Comments»
no comments yet - be the first?