Pēteris Vasks

Vox Amoris gathers three works by Pēteris Vasks for solo violin and string orchestra, his favourite instrumentation. Their soloist is the violinist Alina Pogostkina, with the Sinfonietta Rīga under Juha Kangas. According to Vasks, all three pieces carry the same polarity, between hope for a better future and anxious concern for the modern world.

Vasks was born in Aizpute on 16 April 1946, and his music always has to be seen against the turbulent social and political history of his country, Latvia. Here it moves through contrasting states: passages of great beauty give way to disjointed, dramatic sounds. The recording was made in June 2011 at the Reformation Church in Riga, produced by Latvijas Koncerti with Normunds Šnē as recording producer and editor. Of the soloist the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: “so young, so brilliant, so musical, perfect and at the same time natural”.

The fantasia Vox Amoris (2008-09), almost 24 minutes long, is about love, which Vasks calls the strongest force in the world. The violin is the voice of love, moving from gentle blossoming to open passion. “I hope that this piece touches the listener and makes the world a little more friendly and open for love”, he said. Tālā gaisma (Distant Light, 1996-97), a concerto, was his first and so far most extensive work for violin and strings. Over 32 minutes it unfolds as a sequence of sharply contrasting episodes, partly shaped by Latvian folk music.

Almost ten years later came Vientuļais eņģelis (Lonely Angel, 1999/2006), a meditation for violin and string orchestra. While writing it Vasks had the image of an angel flying over the world and looking at its state with grieving eyes, whose almost imperceptible touch brings comfort and healing. He called it “my music after the pain”. At under thirteen minutes it is the shortest of the three. The cover reproduces an untitled painting by Eberhard Münch, and the disc belongs to Wergo's Vasks series.

CD, Wergo WER 6750 2, released in 2012, with a 28-page booklet in German and English.