Latvian music

[Mark Thomas]

Alan's post stings me into admitting that I not only downloaded Barison's hugely enjoyable Symphony a couple of weeks ago, I have played it several times since, enjoying it more each time. So the very least I could have done was thank you for it Atsushi; which I do now, if only very late.

[lechner1110]

  You are welcome, Mark
  I also many thanks malito for sent me this fine symphony!

[jowcol]

Janis Kalnins: Piano Concerto(1987)

Artūrs Ozoliņš(?) - soloist
Latvian Youth Orchestra
Edgars Kariks Conductor
Performance from 1990


From the collection of Karl Miller-- Additional details about recording courtesy of ttle and Fr8nks.


Caveats:
Born in Estonia,  Active in Latvia, but then moved to Canada.  I'm filing him as Latvian for now.

I've hopefully gotten the correct picture-- at least I am pretty sure he's not the currently active Latvian Hockey player of the same name making a save as shown below:






From Musiccentre.ca site:

Janis Kalnins was born in Estonia in 1904, and was recognized as a piano prodigy from a very young age. After studying composition and conducting at the Latvian State Conservatory and privately in Berlin and Salzburg, he toured Europe as an orchestral and opera conductor. In the 1920s and 1930s, he worked as music director at both the Latvian National Theatre and the Latvian National Opera, a post formerly held by Richard Wagner and Bruno Walter. Kalnins came to Canada in 1948, and took a position as a church organist and choirmaster at St. Paul's United Church in Fredericton, New Brunswick, a post he held for over forty years. Kalnins was inducted into both the Vasa Order by the King of Sweden and the Three Star Order by the State of Latvia, and received a New Brunswick Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1984, among others. Kalnins died in Fredericton in 2000.

[ttle]

Janis Kalnins: Piano Concerto

(Ozdina?- Soloist)
Latvian Youth Orchestra
(Karika?) Conductor

The conductor must be Edgars Kariks. As for the pianist, my guess would be Artūrs Ozoliņš, who is not only a major pianist in Canada but has performed many works by Latvian composers.

[fr8nks]

The above information is correct. The Piano Concerto was composed in 1987 and performed in 1990.

[Dundonnell]

Oh My Goodness Gracious

I have finally got round to listening to Imants Kalnins Symphony No.6. (I had previously been locked-in to listening to his superbly uplifting 5th).

The choral finale contains just some of the most utterly, spellbindingly beautiful music I know

Marits (Latvian) has written (for Musicweb) that he found this movement "devastating" and that when it finished he sat silently "overwhelmed". I can only echo these sentiments. I cannot remember being so moved for a long time by music.

Anyone who adheres to the preposterous notion that a living composer cannot create music of ineffable beauty should just spend 18 minutes listening to this

[ttle]

Oh dear. I just realized that I actually had the recording of the J. Kalnins concerto, but did not find the time to listen to it in ages. So, here are the references in Latvian:

Jānis Kalniņš (1904-2000)
Koncerts klavierēm ar orķestri (1984) 18:22
Arturs Ozoliņš (klavieres)
Pasaules latviešu jaunatnes simfoniskais orķestris / Edgars Kariks

It was broadcast by Latvian Radio LR3 in December 2008.

[Dundonnell]

Many thanks to britishcomposer for adding three lovely recent works by Peteris Vasks.

[eschiss1]

The Kenins sonata has also been recorded by David Hetherington and William Aide in 1997 and released on a CMC Centrediscs CD ; from my copy I see that the movements are
*Allegro con moto ma non troppo
*Scherzo presto assai
*Andante molto sostenuto
*Allegro molto e con brio

(Ah, sorry (sleepy, 5 a.m. here... ) - I see Elroel listed those in his post- differing slightly in the finale. Haven't seen the score so not sure the why of that part.)

[gpdlt2010]

Thanks to A.S. for the beautiful Peteris Barisons Symphony no. 2.
It does more than justice to its name (Romantic).
Could we have more Barisons, please!

[lechner1110]

  gpdlt2010, You are welcome.  I will upload his Cantata soon

[Dundonnell]

Atsushi,

Thank you so much for the beautiful Barisons "The Island of Death"

[Christopher]

I just returned from a very pleasant trip to Latvia, and while in Riga I stumbled upon a music shop called Patafons (on 26 Valnu Street, should you be there!) and they had a large section of classical music, including a huge series of the Song cycles that are a hallmark of Latvian music.  More interesting to me, I found a recording of Kalnins's opera Banuta - for the price of 9 pounds, as opposed to the 92 pounds being asked for on Amazon!

Also a CD called Highlights of Latvian Classics, with orchestral music by composers from the 19th and early 20 centuries, including Jurjanu Andrejs (1856-1922), Emils Darzins (1875-1910), Janis Medins (1890-1966), Alfreds Kalnins (1879-1951), Janis Medins (1890-1966), Janis Ivanovs (1906-1983), Jekabs Medins (1885-1971), Imants Kalnins (1941-), Peteris Vasks (1946-) and Romualds Kalsons (1936-).    The CD looks like this - http://www.upe.lv/english/classic03.asp
(UPE is another classical music shop in Riga, on Richard Vagner Street.) .