Baltic Elegy

Tuur (Artist), Vasks (Artist), Part (Artist), Duke Quartet (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 18, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Collins Classics
• ASIN: B000003VZG
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #829,802 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Str Qt No.2 'Sommer Gesanger': I. Aufbluhen

2. Str Qt No.2 'Sommer Gesanger': II. Vogel

3. Str Qt No.2 'Sommer Gesanger': III. Elegie

4. Str Qt: I. Crotchet = 80

5. Str Qt: II. Tempo Ad Libitum

6. Fratres

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars beautiful, evocative, atmospheric - and sometimes even "modern", January 7, 2010

By 

Discophage (France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Baltic Elegy (Audio CD)

Composers since, say, Bartok and Schoenberg, and more still since Boulez and Ligeti and the early Penderecki tried to write music that was "modern" or "contemporary" or "cutting age" in addition to being - they hoped (I suppose) - "beautiful" and "atmospheric" and "evocative". Not anymore. Now composers of the age of the post-1970 tonal revival, heralded by the older Penderecki, the American minimalists and the eastern and/or mystic brand of minimalism of Tavener-Pärt-Gorecki, try to write music that is, first and foremost, "beautiful" and "atmospheric" and "evocative", and they use to that effect a wide variety of compositional techniques (composition and instrumental) that do not need to be particularly "modern" or "contemporary" or "cutting age" - even if they don't always reject those either.

Don't take this as disparaging. While I do often find that many contemporary tonal composers have simply relinquished any compositional exigencies in favor of pandering to the "wider" audience's taste, but offering nothing in the process that is really nourishing to the investigative musical mind, I've found these Quartets by Vasks, Tüür and Pärt very beautiful and evocative indeed.

Peteris Vasks (in case you don't know: a Latvian composer born in 1946) String Quartet No. 2 "Summer songs" from 1984 starts with a (beautiful and evocative) high-pitched sul ponticello tremolo which makes you think you are in the sound world of Crumb's "Black Angels" or Penderecki's early quartets. But that leads immediately (0:37) into a longing tonal upward scale that brings you back (?) to Britten or Vaughan Williams even: equally beautiful and evocative. And then (1:41) comes another sul-ponticello tremolo glissando, and back to Crumb-Penderecki. And so forth. I don't usually like the American minimalism of the Reich-Riley-Adams "school" (it isn't the repetition I dislike but the tonal laziness), but Vasks Quartet reminded me very strongly of one opus of American minismalim which I love very much: Terry Riley's String Quartets (Terry Riley: Salome Dances for Peace. Vasks uses the full gamut of compositional (from tonal to pitch-less timbre) and instrumental techniques, at the service of three movements of searing lyricism and wonderful evocativeness and musical invention. The second movement, "Birds", is a marvelous musical evocation of a wild flock of exotic birds, bringing to mind Enescu's Third Violin and Piano Sonata as well as Riley's quartets.

Erkki-Sven Tüür is Estonian born in 1959 and was educated in rock music as much as classical. His String Quartet is less lyrical, more dynamic and rhythmic than Vasks, and it too veers between syncopated minimalism (the simple, ditty-like melodies of Dutch composer Simeon Ten Holt came to mind, see my review of Simeon ten Holt: Complete Multiple Piano Works [Box Set]) and coloristic techniques from the Penderecki-Ligeti school.

Arvo Pärt needs no introduction, and his slow-moving, meditative, mystical Fratres, composed in 1977 and here played in its String Quartet form from 1980 (it exists in no less than eight versions for various instrumental ensembles), needs only quite and rapt listening. No Boulez complexity here, no Penderecki-Ligeti-Crumb coloristic and timbral invention, just 10 minutes of Orthodox chants.

TT 55 minutes.

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Modern Music, November 13, 2010

By 

Sentinel (Essex) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Baltic Elegy (Audio CD)

It's disappointing that this cd is only available at such a ridiculous price, as it is an excellent introduction to the chamber work of three modern composers from the Baltic area. The major work is Latvian Peteris Vasks 2nd quartet, an exciting and challenging piece which glitters like the wintry cd cover, contains his recurrent 'nature' themes, and makes use of the full dynamic range of the strings involved to generate both high glissandos to represent the vast skies and birds within it, and grounds this in the lowest register of cello and viola to depict 'Mother Earth'. Vasks recognisable yearning/keening melodies infuse this piece with its emotional heart, and the Duke Quartet create an amazing richness of sound for a mere quartet, at times reminiscent of a chamber orchestra.
Erkki-Sven Tuur, a young Estonian composer, contribution is a two-part string quartet, and this surprisingly accessible and tonal piece has the recognisible 'minimalist' refrain, especially in the first movement, while the lengthier second part features alternating soft/slow/fast rhythms a little like the work of Kancheli, but in less dramatic, scaled-down fashion. Finally, the cd concludes with a lively performance of 'Fratres' by Arvo Part, who is probably the only one of the three to have major international status. Impeccably played and recorded, this is well worth listening to if you have an interest in exploring exciting and accessible modern music. Fingers crossed this fine disc is re-released soon.

4.0 out of 5 stars An Interesting Release, August 8, 2009

By 

Karl W. Nehring (Ostrander, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Baltic Elegy (Audio CD)

The quartet by Latvian composer Peteris Vasks (b. 1946) that opens this CD is in three movements that are rich in drama. Although this is not program music, the music does seem to tell a story, or at least it attempts to communicate with the listener by incorporating allusions to whale songs and other sounds of nature. This is quartet writing that is expressive and compelling, clearly contemporary in sound yet coherent and communicative, too.

After being enthralled by the ECM disc of Tüür compositions titled Crystallisatio, probably my favorite classical CD of 1996, I was naturally quite curious to hear what his String Quartet would sound like. I must admit that I had some apprehensions, fearing that it would be too abstract to really enjoy, but much to my delight, I found this quartet to be energetic indeed, but eminently listenable and quite enjoyable.

Arvo Pärt's Fratres is a piece that has been featured on several CDs that I have recommended in the past. On this disk it appears in an arrangement for string quartet, ending the disk on a reflective, spiritual note. Baltic Elegy is a disk that every lover of string quartet music should audition.