Songs of My Heart

Description

Peteris Vasks (born in 1946) is one of the greatest contemporary Baltic composers, renowned for the depth of his musical language. The Latvian Radio Choir, a multiple award-winning ensemble conducted by Sigvards Klava, dedicates its new album to Peteris Vasks’ 80th birthday this year. The choir presents several world premieres of his choral music, including recently composed works as well as his very first choral composition, dating from 1961. All the themes dear to the composer find a deep echo in these works: pantheistic faith, love, silence, and home. Essentially tonal and diatonic, slow, homophonic and syllabic, fluid and linear, they possess a restrained grace and a fragile luminosity. Although Peteris Vasks considers himself above all a composer of instrumental music, his choral works have met with great success in his country. Unfortunately, until the fall of the Soviet Union, sacred music was strictly forbidden and any other form of vocal music was only allowed after being subjected to censorship. From the 1970s onward, Vasks therefore composed very little vocal music and practically no sacred music for more than twenty years. The Latvian Radio Choir was among the few ensembles to champion a composer considered persona non grata by the regime and was not deterred by his innovative language. Conceived as a tribute to Peteris Vasks on the occasion of his eightieth birthday, the program of this recording spans more than half a century and focuses on his intimate a cappella choral works. The Latvian Radio Choir (LRC) is one of Europe’s leading professional chamber choirs and has established itself as a recognized force on the international scene thanks to its refined taste in musical repertoire, its expressive subtlety, and its incredible vocal range. The LRC’s repertoire ranges from Renaissance music to the most demanding scores by modern composers.