lv Peteris Vasks: Composer and Sinfonietta Riga deplore destruction

The star of Latvian composer Peteris Vasks is continuing to rise. After a recent release with Finish record company Ondine, German label Wergo is now readying a CD highlighting his work. “Viatore” was realised in cooperation with the Sinfonietta Riga under the auspices of Normunds Sne and features three orchestral pieces by Vasks. “Musica adventus per orchestra d'archi”, “Concerto per corno inglese ed orchestra” as well as the single-movement quasi-title track “Viatore per orchestra d'archi”. For the “Concerto”, Sne has taken on instrumental duties hmself, playing the cor anglais. While Peteris Vasks’ previous album focussed on religion and spirituality, as well as his personal quest of translating his feelings on the subject into music, “Viatore” is dominated by the theme of responsability. The composer openly demands humanity to realise the degree of destruction it is inflicting upon nature – as well as the moral and aethical questions this raises.

Essentially, the destruction of the planet and its ressources represents the eternal fight of good and bad for Vasks and acts as a metaphor for adjacent polarities: Between culture and nature and between the human being as an individual and a collective being. Over the years, his style has become extremely clear and lost all curlicues, resulting in an immediately understandable language of uncomplicated harmonic transformations. The real development of Vasks work lies in his sense of arrangement and orchestral colouration, which the composer explicitely uses to underline his message.

The Sinfonietta Riga is meanwhile quickly turning into the most prominent interpretor of Vasks’ music, as they already recorded aforementioned predecessor “Pater Noster” for Ondine.

Homepage: Sinfonietta Riga
Homepage: Wergo Records
By Tobias Fischer, published 2008-06-13

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