Pēteris Vasks News
Latvian composer
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2024-03-18
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2023-10-23 03:30:00
Recent Releases No. 62 (CD Reviews)
[…] captures the sound of her Fazioli in rich, natural, lifelike tones. With CD1 clocking in at 80 minutes and CD2 at 75 plus informative notes about the music by the pianist herself, there is plenty to like about this production. There are plenty of excellent Mozart sonata recordings out there, several of which I have reviewed in the past, but I’ve never heard better than this one, which of course earns my highest recommendation.Sonic Alchemy. Vasks: Balta Ainava (White Scenery); Pärt: Fratres; Mozart: Fantasia in D minor, K. 397; Pärt: Mozart-Adagio (after Sonata K. 280); Mozart: Fantasia in C minor, K. 475; Vasks: Castillo Interior (Interior Castle); Pärt: Spiegel im Spiegel. YuEun Kim, violin; Mina Gajić, piano; Coleman Itzkoff, cello. Sono Luminus DSL-92261 Pianist Mina Gajić says of this album that it was “inspired by the transformation and fluidity of life, represented by the seasons in nature, and in humankind in […]
2023-10-12 03:30:00
Stillpoint (CD Review)
by Karl NehringJessie Montgomery: Rounds; Paolo Prestini: Code; Alvin Singleton: Time Past, Time Future; Pēteris Vasks: Castillo Interior; Tyshawn Sorey: Untitled Composition for Piano and Eight Voices; Judd Greenstein: Still Point. Awadagin Pratt, piano; Roomful of Teeth, voices; A Far Cry, strings. New Amsterdam NWAM177-CD Way back in 1994 I reviewed a solo piano recording titled A Long Way from Normal by a young African-American pianist by the name of Awadagin Pratt. Born in Pittsburgh, Pratt began studying piano at the age of six. By age nine, having moved to Normal, Illinois thus the title of his first album) with his family, he also began studying violin. At age 16 he entered the University of Illinois where he studied piano, violin, and conducting. He subsequently enrolled at the Peabody Conservatory of Music where he became the first student in the school’s history to receive diplomas in three performance areas – piano, violin and conducting. In 1992 he won the Naumburg […]
2023-06-29 09:54:00
When the king could not hear the sound of the lute
'A king hears the sound of a lute and is enchanted, so he asks his servant to bring him that sound. The servants bring him the lute, and have to explain to the king that the sound does not exist independently, but is created out of the elements of strings, box, and bow. Just as the king could not find the sound of the lute, so we cannot find the self' - the Buddha, the Samtutta Nikaya Recent listening and reading:Pēteris Vasks Violin Concerto Distant Light; Renaud Capuçon & Chamber Orchestra of EuropeThe Darkness; Ragnar JónassonSpirit of Benares; Channula MisraBuddha's Nature; Wes NiskerYusuf/Cat Stevens at Glastonbury - BBC iPlayer
2023-02-16 10:33:00
Can classical music survive the private to public transition?
[…] is following the trend from private to public. But is that a good thing?Every ridiculous gimmick has been tried to lure new audiences into the concert hall. But no effort has been expended on discovering why people actually go to a concert. The audience is not there for the disco lights, for the scanty dress of the soloist, to tweet during the performance, or for a collective rave between movements. As the Latvian composer Peteris Vasks has explained, "... people go to the concert hall because they are looking for answers". Just as an earlier generation used hallucinogens to briefly experience altered consciousness, so audiences keep returning to classical music to experience a similar consciousness fix. (Before dismissing the previous statement as psychobabble, please consider the research identifying an increase in secretion of the neurotransmitter dopamine when listening to music - dopamine is also an active agent in hallucinogens.) Great music is […]
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