Peteris Vasks (born 1946)

Started by vandermolen, June 01, 2007, 07:02:13 AM

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North Star

#40
April 06, 2016, 07:53:17 AM
Time for a bump, as Vasks' 70th birthday is ten days from now. I've heard a few works on Youtube, but should listen to more.
"Everything has beauty, but not everyone sees it." - Confucius

My photographs on Flickr

Scion7

#41
April 06, 2016, 02:40:37 PM
Vasks specializes in instrumental chamber music with programmatic titles, which speak of nature under threat and the need to defend humanity from forces hostile to mankind in the development of civilization. The presence of this ethical imperative creates a deeply meditative basic mood, as well as frequent sharp contrasts between the clear beauty of ideals and tragic pathos.

Wow.  That's quite a bite to chew. I wonder how long the journalist took to think up that codswallop.
Be that as it may, I've heard much worse in post-WW 2 modernism.
I used to date a leggy blonde Latvian girl - we could have put on some of the more lengthy pieces if they'd been about back then!   :)
When, a few months before his death, Rachmaninov lamented that he no longer had the "strength and fire" to compose, friends reminded him of the Symphonic Dances, so charged with fire and strength. "Yes," he admitted. "I don't know how that happened. That was probably my last flicker."

kyjo

#42
December 30, 2017, 07:38:47 PM Last Edit: December 30, 2017, 07:41:06 PM by kyjo
I listened to Vasks' Cello Concerto on the below Ondine CD earlier today. It's certainly one of the most impressive contemporary works I've heard, and has taken place amongst my favorite cello concertos. It's a deeply emotional work, with two heartfelt, lyrical Cantus outer movements flanking three violent, often grindingly dissonant inner movements. Overall, a really moving work which I strongly recommend.

[asin]B000I5YVLG[/asin]

https://youtu.be/iECzk9CeCi4
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Mirror Image

#43
December 30, 2017, 07:45:59 PM Last Edit: December 30, 2017, 08:04:02 PM by Mirror Image
Some of my favorite Vasks is the Distant Light VC, the SQs, Musica adventus, Vox Amoris, and Viatore. There's a wonderful purity to much of his music. I don't care much for any of his symphonies. The Cello Concerto is a nice work, though, but I'm not as enamored with it as I am the afore mentioned works.

vandermolen

#44
December 31, 2017, 01:30:45 AM
Symphony 2 is my favourite (the Ondine release with interesting notes from one of our members).
I also think very highly of Symphony 3. He is probably my favourite living composer.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Christo

#46
February 22, 2018, 05:11:53 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on December 31, 2017, 01:30:45 AMSymphony 2 is my favourite (the Ondine release with interesting notes from one of our members). I also think very highly of Symphony 3. He is probably my favourite living composer.
Quote from: Mirror Image on December 30, 2017, 07:45:59 PMThere's a wonderful purity to much of his music.
Agreed, but exactly this special quality applies to his three symphonies too, IMHO.
... music is not only an 'entertainment', nor a mere luxury, but a necessity of the spiritual if not of the physical life, an opening of those magic casements through which we can catch a glimpse of that country where ultimate reality will be found.    RVW, 1948

Mirror Image

#47
February 22, 2018, 07:28:12 PM
Quote from: Christo on February 22, 2018, 05:11:53 PM
Agreed, but exactly this special quality applies to his three symphonies too, IMHO.

I never cared for Vasks' symphonies to be honest. For me, he's not a composer that excels in the symphonic form and I think there's a lack of thematic development in the music that just belies his great lyrical gift, which, for me, is much more apparent in his SQs, choral music, and shorter orchestral works.

SymphonicAddict

#48
February 22, 2018, 07:42:28 PM
Many works I've listened of Vasks have been highly rewarding. I feel that there is melancholy in his works and it gives so beauty and a profundity almost heavenly that move me. I do like his symphonies (I also hope that he composes more of them) and I agree with the idea that the ending of the No. 2 is transcendent. The Cello concerto 1, Violin concerto, and the string quartets are other favorites.

vandermolen

#49
February 23, 2018, 03:39:03 AM
Quote from: SymphonicAddict on February 22, 2018, 07:42:28 PM
Many works I've listened of Vasks have been highly rewarding. I feel that there is melancholy in his works and it gives so beauty and a profundity almost heavenly that move me. I do like his symphonies (I also hope that he composes more of them) and I agree with the idea that the ending of the No. 2 is transcendent. The Cello concerto 1, Violin concerto, and the string quartets are other favorites.
This is largely my experience with this composer although I don't know Symphony 1. Clearly I need to listen more closely to the Cello Concerto and string quartets.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

CRCulver

#50
March 01, 2018, 02:37:01 AM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on February 22, 2018, 01:45:15 AM

Classical CD Of The Month: Consoling, Questioning, Scratching -- Pēteris Vasks String Quartets

Wow, I would have never expected to see Vasks on Wergo, a label generally associated with the mid-century avant-garde and its heirs.

SurprisedByBeauty

#51
March 01, 2018, 04:09:34 AM
Quote from: CRCulver on March 01, 2018, 02:37:01 AM
Wow, I would have never expected to see Vasks on Wergo, a label generally associated with the mid-century avant-garde and its heirs.

I think Wergo will record whomever Schott will publish. Think Enjott Schneider, for example, who is very much not part of the mid-century avant-garde or one of its heirs.

kyjo

#52
March 01, 2018, 07:24:17 AM
Quote from: vandermolen on February 23, 2018, 03:39:03 AM
This is largely my experience with this composer although I don't know Symphony 1. Clearly I need to listen more closely to the Cello Concerto and string quartets.

As I said before, I believe the Cello Concerto is a masterpiece and has been one of my greatest recent discoveries. I also really enjoyed his Sala - Symphonic Elegy.
"Music is enough for a lifetime, but a lifetime is not enough for music" - Sergei Rachmaninoff

Brahmsian

#53
February 04, 2019, 04:42:10 AM
* Cross posted from the 'What concerts are you looking forward to II thread'

Attended this outstanding concert on Friday night!

February 01, 2019

Final concert of the 28th annual Winnipeg New Music Festival

Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b.1977-) - Metacosmos

Caroline Shaw (b.1982-) - Music in Common Time

Peteris Vasks (b. 1946-) - Symphony No. 2

Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
Daniel Raiskin - conducting

Excellent concert, with three works of three composers I had never heard a single note from before!  :)

It was a Canadian premiere for the Thorvaldsdottir and Shaw works, while it was surprisingly also the North American premiere of Vasks' Symphony No. 2, a fairly popular work in Europe.  Caroline Shaw and Peteris Vasks were both in attendance and part of the pre-concert chat as well.

vandermolen

#54
February 04, 2019, 05:22:13 AM
Quote from: ChamberNut on February 04, 2019, 04:42:10 AM
* Cross posted from the 'What concerts are you looking forward to II thread'

Attended this outstanding concert on Friday night!

February 01, 2019

Final concert of the 28th annual Winnipeg New Music Festival

Anna Thorvaldsdottir (b.1977-) - Metacosmos

Caroline Shaw (b.1982-) - Music in Common Time

Peteris Vasks (b. 1946-) - Symphony No. 2

Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra
Daniel Raiskin - conducting

Excellent concert, with three works of three composers I had never heard a single note from before!  :)

It was a Canadian premiere for the Thorvaldsdottir and Shaw works, while it was surprisingly also the North American premiere of Vasks' Symphony No. 2, a fairly popular work in Europe.  Caroline Shaw and Peteris Vasks were both in attendance and part of the pre-concert chat as well.
How exciting! Sounds like a great concert.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

SymphonicAddict

#55
June 23, 2019, 06:01:38 PM
Oh God! I can't believe how beautiful this music is! The content of the disc below is inexhaustibly moving. Pater Noster and Dona nobis pacem are the short works, but immensely magnificent, above all the latter. However, it's the Missa for chorus and strings the most astonishing piece here. This is unspeakably moving in its sheer majesty, cathartic, gorgeous, and I think I'm not exaggerating. If music is a window to soul, then Vasks looks like a really spiritual human being, at least this music seems to demonstrate that. I'm really moved by this.



vandermolen

#56
June 23, 2019, 10:31:38 PM Last Edit: June 23, 2019, 10:33:22 PM by vandermolen
Quote from: SymphonicAddict on June 23, 2019, 06:01:38 PM
Oh God! I can't believe how beautiful this music is! The content of the disc below is inexhaustibly moving. Pater Noster and Dona nobis pacem are the short works, but immensely magnificent, above all the latter. However, it's the Missa for chorus and strings the most astonishing piece here. This is unspeakably moving in its sheer majesty, cathartic, gorgeous, and I think I'm not exaggerating. If music is a window to soul, then Vasks looks like a really spiritual human being, at least this music seems to demonstrate that. I'm really moved by this.


Amazon (fortunately) tells me that I purchased that CD in 2014. Now I need to locate it ::)
I found this CD very engaging. I already had the highest opinion of Symphony 2 but I found the Esenvalds work to be especially moving.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

SurprisedByBeauty

#57
June 24, 2019, 03:34:21 AM
Quote from: SymphonicAddict on June 23, 2019, 06:01:38 PM
Oh God! I can't believe how beautiful this music is! The content of the disc below is inexhaustibly moving. Pater Noster and Dona nobis pacem are the short works, but immensely magnificent, above all the latter. However, it's the Missa for chorus and strings the most astonishing piece here. This is unspeakably moving in its sheer majesty, cathartic, gorgeous, and I think I'm not exaggerating. If music is a window to soul, then Vasks looks like a really spiritual human being, at least this music seems to demonstrate that. I'm really moved by this.



It certainly is gorgeous. That's why he's got a chapter in "Surprised by Beauty" - and it hones in exactly on these pieces, too.

But his string quartets are pretty good stuff. Here's a Forbes review I wrote a while back: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/21/classical-cd-of-the-month-consoling-questioning-scratching-peteris-vasks-string-quartets/

SymphonicAddict

#58
June 24, 2019, 05:56:44 PM
Quote from: SurprisedByBeauty on June 24, 2019, 03:34:21 AM
It certainly is gorgeous. That's why he's got a chapter in "Surprised by Beauty" - and it hones in exactly on these pieces, too.

But his string quartets are pretty good stuff. Here's a Forbes review I wrote a while back: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2018/02/21/classical-cd-of-the-month-consoling-questioning-scratching-peteris-vasks-string-quartets/

Thanks for that. Those SQs are indeed powerful, they convey many emotions in a most sincere way. Vasks is clearly one of my favorite living composers. His music is incredibly rewarding.

SymphonicAddict

#59
June 24, 2019, 05:58:33 PM
Quote from: vandermolen on June 23, 2019, 10:31:38 PM
Amazon (fortunately) tells me that I purchased that CD in 2014. Now I need to locate it ::)
I found this CD very engaging. I already had the highest opinion of Symphony 2 but I found the Esenvalds work to be especially moving.


I hope you can listen to that disc, it's utterly touching. Whas is the Esenvalds like?
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