String Quartet No. 6
SKU: HL.49033305
ISBN 9790001137911. UPC: 884088408053. 9.0x12.0x0.202 inches.
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 music are dramatic and passionate, alternating with each other like a kaleidoscope. In contrast to that, a second theme is intoned three times - an invitation, a memory of the existence of another world, a light-house which illuminates the twilight in which we live so often. But this invitation remains unheard. The first movement concludes with dissonances in the upper register - a cry of utter desperation.The second movement, so distant ... yet so near, is the calm, unhurried vocal section of the quartet. A forgiving, loving look at a world tortured by grief and contradictions. Gradually, the singing becomes more personal, more emotional and more dramatic. The rhythmic figure of a funeral march in the recapitulation of the second movement is a gesture of loss. Eventually, the quartet loses itself in an atmosphere of light-filled grief. Peteris Vask.
SKU: HL.49008206
ISBN 9790001124003. UPC: 073999655742. 9.0x12.0x0.34 inches.
With serious string players this Latvian composer has long been recognized because of his sonorous tonal concepts and his modal, occasionally aleatoric idiom. Works like 'Cantabile per Archi' or 'Musica dolorosa' are already quite well-known, but newer pieces like the violin concerto with string orchestra 'Fernes Licht', commissioned by Gidon Kremer for his Kremerata Baltica, are also gaining wide international exposure. The genre of the string quartet is well represented in Vasks' output. The 2nd string quartet 'Summer Tunes' (ED 8512) has been published for some time and the 3rd was premiered by the Kronos Quartet who were so enthused that they commissioned a 4th quartet. In 1996, prompted by a complete recording of all his string quartets by the Miami String Quartet for Conifer Records Vasks totally revised his early 1st string quartet 1996, it is here presented for the first time in a printed edition.
SKU: HL.49008109
ISBN 9790001120678. UPC: 073999881493. 9.0x12.0x0.268 inches.
'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 carol, while the second part is strongly influenced by Latvian folksongs and dances. The third section, with a chromaticiscm strongly reminiscent of Shostakovitch, investigates and questions the feasibility of any peace in our society. The final, calm and slightly melancholy section symbolizes 'Peace on Earth' by means of sonorous sustained choirs.
SKU: HL.49008060
ISBN 9790001113663. UPC: 073999917642. 9.0x12.0x0.358 inches.
SKU: HL.49046017
ISBN 9790001164726. UPC: 840126929102. 9.0x12.0x0.063 inches.
Mother Teresa was happy to surprise her interlocutors by handing them a small card instead of a traditional business card, on which a short text was to be read, beginning with the line “The fruit of silence is prayer.†In 2013, Peteris Vasks set this peace prayer of Mother Teresa on behalf of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival for mixed choir a cappella in the form of a dense elegiac sound stream. The versions for piano quintet and string quartet now make this musical expression of Mother Teresa's words accessible to two traditional genres of chamber music without the help of a choir.
SKU: HL.49046014
ISBN 9790001159968. 9.0x12.0 inches.
Mother Teresa was happy to surprise her interlocutors by handing them a small card instead of a traditional business card, on which a short text was to be read, beginning with the line The fruit of silence is prayer. In 2013, Peteris Vasks set this peace prayer by Mother Teresa on behalf of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival for mixed choir a cappella in the form of a dense elegiac sound stream. The versions for piano quintet and string quartet now make this musical expression of Mother Teresa's words accessible to two traditional genres of chamber music without the help of a choir.
