Customer Reviews

Music of Peteris Vasks

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Vasks compositions on this CD are the most powerful modern-classical pieces I have heard. The emotion is raw and clear, the music is soaring and connects directly to the soul. Where it is truly not for the musical faint of heart, it is unbelievably powerful. Prepare for thrilling dynamics and strains of music that flow like ribbon.

A critical review of a work, in a music store, may be received poorly. Because mostly people who want to purchase that work, will visit the particular page in the first place.

That said, I do not want to issue a critical review on Vasks' music. This music is of an unbelievably high spiritual quality, such as many an aspiring composer could hardly hope to achieve.

So, perhaps, only a few observations are relevant:

I) This is serious music.

II) Little humor is to be found here, and, as a result, perhaps little joy as well. This is music for the time of being poor in spirit. You may feel a desire to weep, while listening. Perhaps in these tears, there is a blessing: communion with someone who has been, in some sense, wounded.

III) What is the ethos that makes this music so serious? Also, what is the ethos that, perhaps, permits happiness to be possible? These, for me, are the interesting questions that Mr. Vasks work raises.

Above I have recommended several disks of music by Peteris Vasks on the Conifer label, and those disks would be my first recommendation for the music of this fascinating composer, because those disks offer a richer variety of Vasks's music. However, for those who are afraid to plunge right into uncharted musical waters, and would rather first dip in a toe to check on the temperature, this new Telarc disk offers a fine sampling of Vasks's music, and the recording quality is up to the usual high Telarc standard. If you have not yet heard the music of Peteris Vasks, then you are really missing something special, so put this disk on your must-audition list, and then be prepared to purchase several more disks to round out your Vasks collection.

Vask symphony "voices" is movingingly beautiful and etherial. One movement contains only stringed instruments and it soars. It is one of my all-time favorites.

To start, this CD is a wonderful exercise in, above all, orchestration. Vasks' works clearly show his admiration for the Romantic and early Modern masters, from Bruckner and Rachmaninov to Stravinsky and Salinen; as well as his ability to assimilate, then restructure their melodies and harmonics in a delightfully spacious way.

Many composers, Vasks among them, utilize great dynamic range variations, crescendos and diminuendos, as a tool to create a deeper spatial dimension and psychological impact. There is only one problem with this technique: While it works in a symphony hall or in a well-insulated, acoustically designed, listening room with hundred-thousand dollar sound equipment, on a CD played in your automobile or the typical living room with a modest sound system the results are literally aggravating!

In this particular CD, the dynamic range is so great that, to hear anything at all, or to protect your ear drums, you have to keep your agile fingers on the volume knob. In my opinion, the problem is two-fold: microphone placements and recording engineering, as well as the job of conducting the orchestra for the recording media.

Vask symphony "voices" is movingingly beautiful and etherial. One movement contains only stringed instruments and it soars. It is one of my all-time favorites.