Peteris Vasks - String Quartets Nos 2 & 5
£13.25
Usually available for despatch within 2-3 working days
Despatch Information
This despatch estimate is based on information from both our own stock and the UK supplier's stock.
If ordering multiple items, we will aim to send everything together so the longest despatch estimate will apply to the complete order.
If you would rather receive certain items more quickly, please place them on a separate order.
If any unexpected delays occur, we will keep you informed of progress via email and not allow other items on the order to be held up.
If you would prefer to receive everything together regardless of any delay, please let us know via email.
Pre-orders will be despatched as close as possible to the release date.
Label: Wergo
Cat No: WER73292
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Genre: Chamber
Release Date: 8th January 2016
Contents
Artists
Spikeru String QuartetAbout
As a child, Peteris Vasks began to study violin. He recalls as his happiest the times when he was able to play in a string quartet. Later Vasks performed as a double-bass player with various Latvian and Lithuanian symphony and chamber orchestras. He says it was clear soon enough that the sound of string instruments was for him the most perfect: “Apart from everything else, I was fascinated by cantilena – the feeling of an immense and never-ending chant. It is in the sound of string instruments that my message sounds best – I am able there to sing out in the best way.”
Vasks’s pantheistic love of nature is mirrored in his String Quartet No.2 'Summer Tunes': “I experience God and pray to him in the forest, on the seashore, everywhere, because the world as God created it is so beautiful.” The first movement, 'Coming into Bloom', is introduced in a subdued and flowing manner until the music settles. The second movement, 'Birds', with its free imitations of birdsongs, ranks among the most elaborate of Vasks’ compositions. The third movement, ,Elegy, ushers in autumnal resignation.
The String Quartet No.5 consists of two contrasting movements with poetic titles: 'being present' and 'so distant ... yet so near'. This opus explicitly reveals the dualism of images and moods so intrinsic to Vasks’s music, to which the composer’s written introduction bears witness: “The first movement immediately ushers in an atmosphere of emotional high tension. The dominant musical atmospheric elements are dramatic and turbulent. [...] The second movement is the quartet’s quiet, unhurried, songlike section – a forgiving, love-filled gaze upon a world tormented by pain and contradictions. Gradually, the singing becomes more personal, emotional, and dramatic. [...] The quartet dies away in a mood of radiant sorrow. One cycle has ended. We continue to live.”
Reviews
Error on this page? Let us know here
Need more information on this product? Click here