Pēteris Vasks: Partituras dificil

Choral music has always played a major role in the work of the Latvian composer Peteris Vasks. In this piece, but also in his numerous instrumental works, themes such as home, nature, customs and trad...

Taking as his theme the use of traditional birds' names as pet names for women, Vasks has created a very poetic piece of music based on a text in the Latvian language. German and English translations...

Zala ainava (Green Landscape) is the final part of the cycle Die Jahreszeiten (The Seasons), a collection for piano with the pieces Rudens muzika (Autumn Music), Balta ainava (White Landscape) and Pav...

In the Concerto for Flute and Orchestra, performed for the first time by Michael Faust, Semyon Bychkov and the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne in 2009, the burlesque middle movement, with its firm dete...

This work of ca. 12 minutes' duration was composed at the suggestion of the cellist Sol Gabetta in remembrance of the great mystic St. Teresa of Avila. Premiered in 2014, it will surely find its way i...

String Quartet No. 5 consists of two contrasting movements. The first movement, being present, immediately leads to an atmosphere of high emotional tension. The prevailing atmospheric elements of the...

This is the first of two works by the successful Latvian composer for this instrumentation. It was written in 1977 and shows his early compositional style: while freely notated in the beginning, impro...

Gramata cellam besteht aus zwei sehr kontrastierenden Teilen. Der erste, sehr heftige Teil 'fortissimo' (Allegro, freie Sonatenform) bearbeitet rauhes, aggressives Musikmaterial in ununterbrochener em...

Peteris Vasks from Latvia, who is known for his atmospheric pieces for string orchestra Cantabile, Musica dolorosa and Voices, is concentrating increasingly on chamber music. He was commissioned to co...

'Vox amoris', apart from 'Tala gaisma' (Distant Light), is Vasks' second violin concerto with string orchestra accompaniment. The world premiere of this Fantasia per violino ed archi, as Vasks calls t...

This piece dates back to Vasks' Sturm and Stress period and was premiered in 1977. Freely notated over long passages, it uses both commonly notated passages and symbols as well as clusters. Vasks uses...

The Latvian region Zemgale is infamous for atrocities committed in the 13th century and in 1949. It has become a symbol for the deportation of Latvians. Vasks uses the text in a linear as well as in a...

Peteris Vask's Eine kleine Nachtmusik, composed in 1978, is an example of the tragedy of past eras and a small-scale requiem for the hope of people of all ages. The title borrowed from Mozart is here...

This 'Autumn Music' allows the performer great latitude within the notated music. It puts great demands on both the technique and the creativity of the pianist. The sound spectrum ranges from soft pia...

Peteris Vasks has written a large number of pieces for the organ, both original works and arrangements of his own pieces which had originally been written for strings. The Riga-based composer created...

Spring Music - The Seasons II (1995)This Spring music forms part of the cycle The Seasons, a collection for piano containing the previously published pieces Balta ainava (White Landscape) and Rudens m...

'Christmas - Peace on Earth' is the leading motive of the String Quartet, a tenet of faith as well as an expression of hope. In the first part of the work Vasks uses themes from a well-known Christmas...